Monday, August 15, 2011

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

This was another well liked and not liked book. There was a general good feeling about Oryx and Crake, with most of us preferring either the Jimmy or the Snowman story line, and kind of skimming the other bit a little. To be honest the Jimmy bit reminded me of the homo-erotic Frodo and Sam scenes from The Two Towers a little. Actually quite a bit. Everyone else, however, liked the Jimmy part, and especially wanted to know more about Oryx. There was a general consensus that she was very easy to read and had a good style that we all liked.

As usual, I didn't write down everything we talked about. While we really didn't come up with any profound revelations, we did come up with some ripper questions:

  • Why did Crake do it?
  • Did Crake base all the BlyssPluss effects on his jealousy of Jimmy?
  • Is it really Oryx in Jimmy's picture? Or does he just wish it was her?
  • What makes humans human? Especially giving reference to the Crakers, even though they had genes from cats, baboons, birds, were they still human? They don't love/hate/lust/envy/crave/pride/greed/sloth/wrath/gluttony, so how can they be human?
There was one thing we all agreed on (nearly all *cough* PIA! *cough*): The ending was stupid. 
Reminiscent of a wave of pretentious try-hard movies in the late 90's, it just... ends.

I should probably point out that the ending is apparently vindicated by the sequel. That's right, SEQUEL. Personally I think that's no excuse, but it does make me desperate to read The Year of the Flood.

Next month: we are reading Their Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger. As Nat and I are probably going to the UK shortly after the next scheduled meeting (which is scheduled for the 1st of September, but that's only 3 weeks), we thought we should try to have dinner somewhere sometime. We'll sort it out over email though.

AND, EXTRA FOR EXPERTS! EXTRA FOR EXPERTS!
Read and or watch My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult (see below for your teams).

Also, because y'all don't know what Rule 34 is, try this.

They Might Be Giants - Istanbul (Not Constantinople) from They Might Be Giants on Vimeo.

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6 comments:

  1. TimAugust 15, 2011 at 1:39 AM

    And comments should be turned on now so go crazy∫                                                                            æ÷•~

    Like Luno just did with that one.

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  2. PiaAugust 15, 2011 at 3:44 PM

    Just where was the homo-eroticism?! I seem to have missed that. Quote please!

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  3. TimAugust 15, 2011 at 10:54 PM

    Getting excited? thought you missed something?

    Well technically there was no homo-eroticism in Lord of the Rings either. Whatever, explicit or not, two teenage boys testing Rule 34 in a bedroom together is a teeny bit gay.

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  4. JessAugust 23, 2011 at 1:01 AM

    There was no ring, so it couldn't really be Lord of the Ring-esque could it? I finished the book a few days after book club, and I too thought the ending was simply lame! But I shall keep and open mind for the sequel. Am liking Her Fearful Symmetry, so hopefully everyone else is too.

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  5. PiaAugust 28, 2011 at 2:46 PM

    Lol ok - I'd say LOTR was definately homo-something! The bits I was awake for anyway. As for the scenes from Oryx and Crake, having never been a teenage boy I can't really comment... ;-p

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  6. PiaOctober 18, 2011 at 11:21 PM

    Hello Nat and Tim! We missed you when we had our first Nat&Tim-less meeting! Tim, can we post real posts to the real book club or should we send them to you...? If you two still want to read along our next book is Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons - we chose it off the BBC list because it promised to be very funny and we felt like we needed that after Her Fearful Symmetry ;-) I've since seen it described as “very probably the funniest book ever written” (The Sunday Times) so here's hoping...

    ReplyDelete

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