Lilith’s Brood –A Thought-Provoking Alien-Intervention Story

“Intelligence is relatively new to life on Earth, but your hierarchical tendencies are ancient.”

Lilith’s Brood (earlier referred to as ‘Xenogenesis’) was the trilogy of science fiction novels written by Octavia E. Butler, one of the very few African-American female writers of sci-fi. The books (published between 1987 and 1989) is set in a world ravaged by nuclear holocaust and the survivors of human species are abducted by the grotesque, tentacled, and slightly humanoid alien higher beings known as Oankali. The first book Dawn unfolds from the perspective of a young black woman named Lilith Iyapo. She is awakened 250 years after the nuclear holocaust on an enormous ship orbiting earth. Over the years, in brief sessions (that lasts over few days to few months), Lilith’s behavioral patterns were scrutinized by her captors and now she is deemed fit for the ‘task’ at hand.

Lilith is initially revolted by the English-speaking Oankalis’ visage and bizarre physicality, but she gets used to them during her stay with the alien family. Dawn is obviously the most intense book in the trilogy, since we stumble upon this strange new world populated with mysterious sentient beings. The Oankali possesses natural-born talent for genetic engineering. They had already genetically modified Lilith to free her body from the cancer cells (furthermore, her ageing is lessened and healing powers are stepped-up). Another unique aspect of Oankali is their family unit, which consists of a male, female, and a third gender called as ‘Ooloi’. Oolois are sexless, whose job is to accept genetic materials from the parents, add its own, and then impregnate the female. Oankali receive sexual pleasure only through their Ooloi whose sensory tentacles serve this purpose (among other complex fuctions). While the Oankali on the whole are a race of natural healers and gene modifiers, the oolois are specifically trained for these things and are pivotal to search the cosmos for continuing their tradition of making successful ‘trades’.

Lilith Iyapo is told that she has been chosen, trained and genetically modified in order to awaken other humans (first batch of 40 English-speaking members) so that they all can return to earth. Yes, the Oankali promises to restore earth, but there’s a catch (to make it sound less threatening, the aliens call it ‘a trade’): the new Earth will only be home to the Oankali-Human hybrid race (the oolois would replace the touch-based sexual proclivities of human race with their own ways). The new children, born to five parents (male-female Oankalis, male-female humans, and a ooloi) will inherit the earth until the time the hybrid species makes their own voyage into space to forge fresh ‘trades’. There’s an added benefit to this the Oankali says, i.e., the humans’ destructive impulses and hierarchical tendencies would be ‘cured’ (“We will moderate your hierarchical problems and you will lessen our physical limitations”, says a ooloi to Lilith). And let's not forget that the new humans and their offsprings will live for a long period (without any fear of terminal diseases).

Although Lilith makes friends with a young ooloi named Nikanj and her adoptive Oankali family, she is conflicted by what she sees as a betrayal to humanity. She feels the only possible way to free themselves from the Oankali is to break away from them, the instance they are set on earth to colonize. As she fears, Lilith is considered the ‘Judas’ by surviving human race and she’s never able to distance herself from oankali and ooloi mates. The humans who get away from the aliens live in different small to medium-sized colonies and are known as ‘resisters’. Since all of these ‘resisters’ come from the space ship, the Oankali has genetically modified them for a prolonged life. However, they have also seen to it that the humans are sterilized, making the complex three-way genetic exchange(via an ooloi) the only choice of reproduction.

The 2^nd book in the trilogy, Adulthood Rites, tells the story of Lilith’s first-born male ‘construct’ – the term for Oankali-Human hybrids. He is named Akin, who is mostly human. Akin is kidnapped and sold to a ‘resister’ village. He grows up understanding his human side and speaks for human-rights which the Oankali has so far dismissed dispassionately. The third book, Imago follows Jodahs, also Lilith’s child who becomes the first ‘construct’ Ooloi. Adulthood Rites and Imago certainly lacks the complexity (and feels boringly repetitive). Moreover, the 2^nd& 3^rd book offers us characters that are so distant and uninteresting when compared with Lilith (and her deeply conflicted stance).

Octavia Butler

Lilith’s Brood chiefly excels in the characterizations of oankali and human race. The oankali has perfectly understood the fundamental flaw in humanity: its predisposition to hierarchy. Despite intelligence, this tendency leads humans to create divisions and set up limits for ‘normalcy’ amongst themselves. Anyone, who falls outside the limits or obscure the divisions receives punishment and gets ostracized. The oankali puts forth inter-breeding as the only way to eradicate this human ‘problem’. On the outset, oankalis are benevolent, they never believe in violence, and are also environmentally responsible. So the aliens might change humanity for better, right? Nevertheless, like Lilith we feel conflicted in seeing these higher intelligent beings as saviors. For one, oankalis’ violation of human race reflects the worst of human behaviors in history: internment camps, colonialism, slavery, etc. Despite calling their society egalitarian, a form of hierarchy exists between the three genders within the family unit. Oankalis certainly don’t lie, but they withhold significant information from humans (that are as devastating as lies). Eventually, the most distressing aspect of oankali is their forced interbreeding techniques (the coercion and manipulation of Lilith is particularly fury-inducing). Of course, the humans of post-apocalyptic world don’t prove wrong the alien species’ discourse. The resisters live in small, scattered groups, and continue to threaten each other with violence and rape. Within few decades, they make guns and men trade materials to gain female sex-slaves. Autonomy seems limited within both species although the oankali promises transformation for better (which human race can’t).

Apart from avoiding simple characterizations (of both human and alien race), Lilith’s Brood is fascinating to read because of its spellbinding meditations on race, sexuality and gendered identity. A lot of analysis has seen oankali as the allegorical representation of the 'benevolent' masters of new world who owned slaves without remorse (some have compared the extra-terrestrial interference with cultural appropriation that’s rampant in the era of globalization). The fear over genetic manipulation is yet another significant theme that permeates the story. Octavia Butler’s writing is definitely adequate and engaging even if readers are less inclined to make allegorical readings. Dawn pretty much comes across as a body horror with Lilith slowly coming to terms with the oankalis’ gift for gene trading and particularly oolois’ role in reproduction. Interestingly, Butler cleverly leaves out feelings of titillation in her descriptions of inter-species sex. The idea of human-oankali interbreeding perhaps remains the most grimly fascinating aspect of Lilith’s brood, which thankfully doesn’t leave us with images of sleazy, uninventive images of tentacle-sex. The novels may also sound pessimistic and misanthropic, but you can surely find rays of hope. Even though Butler doesn’t provide a clear-cut resolution, she does hint at the possibility of affirmative transformation in humans. And the supreme gene-traders are also changed by their contact with humans. Overall, Lilith’s Brood talks of a new humanity in the future, which as Butler posits doesn’t need to have ‘alien’ origins, but can naturally arise from our predilection to examine and metamorphose the human genome.