Many critics read the Oankali as benevolent saviors and Butler certainly does not make them outright villains, but the first book renders clearly their manipulation. The Oankali arrive after the war, abduct and resuscitate war-ravaged humans and plan to send us back to Earth - at the cost of merging our biochemistry with theirs.ĭAWN is the core of the series, setting the stage for the Oankali’s protracted and perverse colonization. The story is set hundreds of years after the Cold War turns hot and obliterates the superpowers and most of humanity. Lilith’s Brood, a trilogy first published as Xenogenesis, details the long and seedy seduction of humanity by the Oankali, sluglike aliens that delight in genetic trade with other species.
The Silks fear the genetic “marriage” of human and Ina DNA, which is the basis of Shori’s existence.I want nuclear annihilation and alien sex. Although America’s anti-miscegenation laws were struck down in 1967, widespread fear of interracial relationships and the “tainting” of the white race still exist today. This alludes to the historical fear of miscegenation, which led to the criminalization of interracial marriage. In a racist twist on the “slippery slope” fallacy, the Silks also believe that Shori’s Blackness will somehow lead to harmful genetic modifications of their species. Although Shori’s dark skin allows her to stay awake during the day and withstand the sun longer than pale Ina, the Silks denounce the genetic experiments that made her possible. They consider humans-even symbionts who are needed for Ina survival-to be beneath Ina and no better than animals. The Silk family, Katharine Dahlman, and their sympathizers believe that Shori Matthews’s (Black) human DNA goes against the very fabric of the “superior” Ina species. Butler uses the Ina, a vampiric species closely related to humans, to show how racism is so systemic that it can even transcend species. Fledgling is primarily an allegory meant to illustrate the deadly power of white supremacy in our society.
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