Lilith's Brood

Octavia Butler’s novel Lilith’s Brood was the most intriguing work to me thus far in terms of the human condition. In short, it redefines what we accept in our current society as normal, and poses questions regarding the value of gender, possession, and isolation. As is the case with other science fiction works, the reader is placed into an alternate existence, and must make their own judgments of right, wrong, and everything in between.

One of the main alterations in Lilith’s Brood is the ambiguity of gender. There exists female, male, and “ooloi.” The ooloi members are able to manipulate the other two genders in order to create more effective connection between male and female. This becomes an ethical issue: it strikes us as alarming, and we immediately assume that this is bad because we—as a group of humans—tend to be protective of our particular way of doing things. However, we see that the collective population of the book may be benefitted from the manipulative abilities of the third gender, and openness to its effects reveal another option for a functioning society.

The concept of aliens is also central to Lilith’s Brood. Another tendency of humans is to consider us the ultimate power in living organisms. However, Lilith experiences the opposite as she is thrown into a situation where she becomes the minority, and must see her own kind as alien.  In short it becomes incredibly multifaceted as we are unsure of how human well-being fits into the motives of the Oankali. I think that the conflict of Lilith vs. humans vs. Oankali adds great interest to the plot, and addresses the issue of the definition of alien. It is a possibility that the human race may have to face similar questions in the near future, which adds to our interest in such conflict of ideas and desires.