Lilith's Brood is a story about the end of the world, and the capture of humans by aliens for genetic breeding. Lilith is speaking with one of these aliens about destiny and humans, it makes the argument that humans have two characteristics diametrically opposed that inevitably led to their destruction.
'Then I suppose it would eventually have killed me.'(speaking about lilith's cancer)
'Yes, it would have. And your people were in a similar position. If they had been able to perceive and solve their problem, they might have been able to avoid destruction. Of course, they too would have to remember to reexamine themselves periodically'
'But what was the problem? You said we had two incompatible characteristics. What were they?'
Jdahya made a rustling noise that could have been a sigh, but that did not seem to come from his mouth or throat. 'You are intelligent,' he said. 'That's the newer of the two characteristics, and the one you might have put to work to save yourselves. You are potentially one of the most intelligent species we've found, though your focus is different from ours. Still, you had a good start in the life sciences, and even in genetics.'
'What is the second characteristic?'
'You are hierarchical. That's the older and more entrenched characteristic. We saw it in your closest animal relatives and in your most distant ones. It's a terrestrial characteristic. When human intelligence served it instead of guiding it, when human intelligence did not even acknowledge it as a problem, but took pride in it or did not notice it at all . . .' The rattling sounded again. 'That was like ignoring cancer. I think your people did not realize what a dangerous thing they were doing.'
'I don't think most of us thought of it as a genetic problem. I didn't. I'm not sure I do now'. Her feet had begun to hurt from walking so long on the uneven ground. She wanted to end both the walk and the conversation. The conversation made her uncomfortable. Jdahya sounded . . . almost plausible.
'Yes,' he said, 'intelligence does enable you to deny facts you dislike. But your denial doesn't matter. A cancer growing in someone's body will go on growing in spite of denial. And a complex combination of genes that work together to make you intelligent as well as hierarchical will still handicap you whether you acknowledge it or not.'
I think this passage is beautiful and profoundly deep. Behaviors in present debates are often essentialized to biology. The question can men and women be friends and the question of whether war will ever end (the inspiration for the new baboon piece). Are questions that grapple with equality, respect, and difference. They grapple with a lived reality that has been deliberately created through choices, not a past that has been enslaved to biology.
What Octavia Butler grapples with is this debate on a macro scale. She removes it from action and behavior and places the core essence, belief, or as she states here gene that often creates and promotes inequality, disrespect and difference as the main culprit. Although I do not believe hierarchy is genetic- many peoples throughout history have not been hierarchical. I do believe that when examining situations, we often narrow our scope rather than expand it.
The question about whether or not men and women can be friends, is not a question of evolution. It is rather a question about, how have men and women been taught to interact? What role does patriarchy and hetero privilege play on male and female relationships? These are the questions surrounding hetero male and female relationships, not the primal desire to fuck.
Which brings me to the baboons. A massive change in culture is experienced by these Baboons in Africa. Its an interesting and fascinating report but it leaves me with a lot of questions. Did the baboons stay at the dump after the tb outbreak? Staying at the dump after the outbreak, means the removing of aggressive males, while maintaing adequate access and abundance of resources, in times of plenty it is much easier to change and maintain changes of culture- we can look to our own human history for proof of this. What mechanisms of community accountability where in place when alpha males no longer took community policing into their individual hands, how did distributions of power change, etc, etc. Even in the case of the bamboons, the question to me is about resources, power, and control.
How can we remove ourselves from such intense investigations on particular experiences, that deny systemic or overall realities? Once we are able to use our intelligence to be not only self reflective, but community-reflective, is the day we may be able to overcome the cancerous cells that are killing us.
