middle men

"Once referred to as the Xenogenesis Trilogy, the three novels constituting Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood imagine a new race of "constructs" that are fundamentally different from their creators, both the alien and the human. For your second blog post (BP2), discuss what strikes you most (or least or both) about this new hybrid race."

I'm a bit over a day late on this one, but for completeness' sake, and because I like the question...

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The construct race Butler describes has a number of characteristics that I find interesting, but which don't necessarily have much to do with each other, and which aren't necessarily emphasized in the book. The first concerns a shift in the perception of humans as both emotional and logical entities. Usually, on the spectrum of emotion vs logic, humans are placed roughly in the middle, between purely instinctual animals and soulless, calculating computers. In Lilith's Brood, humans, at least those without significant interaction with the Oankali, tend more towards the emotional side, with the Oankali more or less representing the logical end (this pervades through the first portion of Dawn, but changes as Lilith grows closer to Nikanj). In the middle, where the humans normally are, are the constructs. Despite the fact that the ooloi can empathize on an unimaginably deep level, the Oankali as a whole seem to miss the importance of the resisters, beyond their genetics. In a conversation with Tino, Dichaan reveals that the resisters are thought of as simply violent:

"Then learn from him! Let him alone and learn!"
"Learn what? That he enjoys the company of resisters? That he enjoys fighting?" (AR, 423)

And later, I'm sorry. The resisters don't seem very complex - except biologically. However, Akin, after living with the resisters, comes to realize how the resisters are being disrespected. This is just one suggestion that the constructs are middle-men for the resisters and the Oankali.

Without the constructs to act as go-betweens, the resisters and the Oankali can't communicate effectively with each other. At the heart of the resister "cause" is their desire to continue like pre-war humans, without the interference of the Oankali. On the other hand, the Oankali are willing only to take the resisters in and make them part of a construct-bearing unit. Having seen the human contradiction between intelligence and hierarchy, the Oankali assume that the humans brought themselves to a pre-programmed end. There is no allowance for a human Akjai group. However, Akin, the human-Oankali construct who has seen what both species are capable of, what their flaws are, believes in a human future. There should be a Human Akjai! There should be Humans who don't change or die - Humans to go on if the Dinso and Toaht unions fail. (AR, 378) This is the first indicator that failure is even a possibility, and that humans should be allowed to continue unchanged. Both critical points were raised by Akin, a construct.

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Blech. I'm not particularly content with this post, but I'm having trouble getting thoughts into coherent chunks of text. Will try again later.

Thought: the Oankali are introduced as "traders". In the traditional sense, a trader takes goods from one group and sells them to another. However, the Oankali seem much less like traders than the constructs; the Oankali engage in trade, but the constructs are the ones who take bits and pieces from either group for the benefit of the other.