Notes on Hybrid World: Genetic Engineering in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake
Introduction
Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" explores the potential future impacts of biotechnology through the story of Jimmy, also known as Snowman, who survives a catastrophic event caused by uncontrolled biotechnology experimentation. The novel combines Jimmy's pre- and post-disaster memories, portraying a world where genetic engineering has led to hybrid animal workers and, ultimately, a genetically altered human, Crake, who creates a virus to wipe out humanity and replace it with the Crakers, a genetically modified species of humans. Atwood describes the novel as speculative fiction rooted in ongoing discussions about genetic advancements, cautioning about the possible catastrophic consequences of these advancements. The novel draws on the literary theme of hybrid creatures, exemplified by H.G. Wells' "The Island of Doctor Moreau", and presents a dystopian narrative where biotechnology corporations control the world until its destruction.
Hybrid Creatures and Posthumanism
"Oryx and Crake" features various hybrid creatures, like rakunks, wolvogs, pigoons and Crakers, that challenge the divisions between natural and artificial, and between animals and humans. The emergence of technologies like surrogacy and in vitro fertilization blurs the lines between artificial and natural birth, raising questions about human identity. Biotechnology allows humans to integrate artificial organs and mechanical support, ushering in a posthuman era where the distinction between humans and machines becomes increasingly blurred. As Francis Fukuyama notes, biotechnology poses a threat to human nature by potentially moving us into a ‘posthuman’ stage of history.
As Donna J. Haraway writes: Late twentieth-century machines have made thoroughly ambiguous the difference between natural and artificial, mind and body, self- developing and externally designed, and many other distinctions that used to apply to organisms and machines. Our machines are disturbingly lively, and we ourselves frighteningly inert.
The development of the oncomouse in the early 1980s marked the beginning of genetic engineering. Scientists have since created genetically modified animals with advantageous traits, like goats that produce anti-clotting protein, fish with accelerated growth, and environmentally friendly pigs. Genetic engineering is driven by the potential benefits in organ transplants, disease research, pharmaceutical production, and pet creation. The paper will explore the role of hybrid animals in labor, the influence of biotechnology on society, the capitalist agenda, the commercialization of these animals, and the absence of effective policies to regulate them.
Genetically Engineered Animal Labour
Throughout history, animals have been used for sustenance and labor and have often been seen as passive beings exploited for human gain. In today's world, animals still play a prominent role in the workforce, used for farming and food consumption. They are also subjected to experiments and used to develop human organs, tissues, and cells. Steven Best and Douglas Kellner draw attention to the transformative power of biotechnology:
…a surreal zoo of mutations that includes tobacco plants with firefly genes, mice and pigs with human genes, potatoes with chicken genes, fish and tomatoes with antifreeze genes, and dozens of different genetically modified foods spliced with bacteria, viruses, antibiotic-resistant marker genes, and insect genes.
Experimentation has transitioned animal labor and situated into the periphery of human intervention. "Oryx and Crake" examines hybrid creatures, such as pigoons, pigs engineered to grow human-tissue organs for transplantation. There is a scientific interest in growing and preserving multiple kidneys at once, customized for individual patients. Pigoons are designed to grow quickly and are bred to be larger and more robust to accommodate the extra organs. Pigoons produce human organs, which are later sold as commodities for consumption by buyers.
The project under Nooskins design Pigoons to replace the older epidermis with a newer one, "a genuine start-over thing that would be wrinkle and blemish-free” . This leads to feeling of insufficiency and apprehension, which subsequently have bolstered the expansion of this sector. Wolvogs, a hybrid of canine and lupine traits, are engineered to protect and secure business goods. As Crake says that:
They aren’t dogs, they just look like dogs. They’re wolvogs- they’re bred to deceive. Reach out to pat them, they’ll take your hand off. There’s a large pit-bull component….Yeah better than an alarm system-no way of disarming them, not like real dogs.
When humans went extinct, they were set free and started attacking Jimmy compelling him to seek safety in a tree. Genetically changing animals has been influenced by technology.
Conception of Meat
The flesh has undergone a transformation in the universe of Oryx and Crake. Chickienobs, a genetically modified breed of chicken, is specifically bred and cultivated for human consumption has been created for industrial and therapeutic purposes. As Crake says “animal welfare freaks won’t be able to say a word, because this thing feels no pain”. This is achieved through neurological alteration, by limiting animal options to match human preferences through neurological and physical alterations. Describing them:
There’s a mouth opening at the top, they (workers) dump the nutrients in there. No eyes or bleak or anything, they don’t need those….they’d removed all the brain function that had nothing to do with digestion, assimilation and growth….You get chicken breast in two weeks.
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