Week 13 - Oryx and Crake

        Oryx and Crake definitely hit me a lot harder than I had expected it to. It’s Margaret Atwood, so one can expect the deft characterizations, innovative narrative structure, and social criticism. What I wasn’t prepared for was the powerful emotional impact it had behind it, and the thoughts it made me ponder over. In essence, Atwood asks a simple question: “What type of world are we creating, and does it deserve to exist?  Do we deserve to exist if we stay on the path we are continuously pursuing?” This is not a new question. Plenty of dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels have asked it in a variety of forms. Oryx and Crake is one of the most eloquent and harsh condemnations of the world we have created, whether intentionally or not, that I’ve read in the last few years.  The story is also about the online world we have created for ourselves, and with just the slightest bit of exaggerations, shows us the childhood of Snowman and Crake, growing up on a steady diet of online public executions, 24/7 webcams, Noodie News, assisted suicide, frog squashing, and snuff videos. It’s all just standard stuff for kids in the future. Looking at all the content that the Internet offers without any restrictions to anyone with a smartphone, including kids of all ages, I think any parent out there is uncomfortable and fears about what this unrestricted flow of information can do to young minds not prepared to know the difference between what we still attempt to categorize as “good” and “bad.” Definitely a read that makes you ponder long after reading it.