Introduction: Naturalism and Science Fiction (2013)

IntroductionNaturalism and Science Fiction Eric Carl Link (bio) In 1987, Octavia Butler published one of her finest short stories, “The Evening and the Morning and the Night.” In this story, a cure for cancer—a wonderdrug—turns out to have unintended genetic consequences, for those who take the drug—and any children born to parents who have taken the drug—are afflicted with a genetic disorder called Duryea-Gode Disease (dgd). The genes responsible for dgd are dominant, not recessive. If one or both of your parents has the disorder, you have the disorder. Duryea-Gode Disease has no cure; it lies dormant generally until adulthood, when those afflicted with the condition begin to drift in a violent, grotesque manner. The afflicted come to believe that they—and their loved ones—are somehow trapped in their own flesh, and in order to free themselves and their loved ones they will engage in profound acts of mutilation, tearing out their eyes, flaying themselves alive, ripping at their skin till organs and bone are exposed. It is a horrific disorder, with the horrific outcome seemingly inevitable, its inevitability only delayed slightly in those who stick to an extraordinarily strict diet and lifestyle. As a genetic disorder, one following strict laws of inheritance, dgd could be eradicated, but it would require a program of forced mass sterilization of those carrying the gene, or the willed and voluntary decision of those afflicted to self-sterilize or otherwise forego having children. So simple a solution, but so unlikely to transpire, for, as one character in the story notes, the “damned disease could be wiped out in one generation . . . but people are still animals when it comes to breeding. Still following mindless urges, like dogs and cats” (42). As one might expect, those afflicted with dgd are institutionalized upon first exhibiting signs of the disease, and the wards where the afflicted are warehoused are reminiscent of early nineteenth-century Bedlam. [End Page 1] There are exceptions to this rule, however. There are a few private, foundation-funded wards where chaos doesn’t rule and the afflicted are able to withstand the urges to self-mutilate and to engage in creative endeavors and other intellectual pursuits. What is revealed in the story is that these private facilities are governed by women—afflicted with dgd themselves—who, as a result of their condition, emit a pheromone that causes the patients in the ward to become compliant and subject to the gentle influence of the women in charge. Although this brief summary doesn’t do justice to the actual story, it should be evident that “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” raises questions about human agency, genetic determinism, and the complicated relationship between biological predisposition and social responsibility. Butler was aware of this. In commenting on the story, Butler wrote that the tale grew from her “ongoing fascinations with biology, medicine, and personal responsibility” (69). In particular, Butler “began the story wondering how much of what we do is encouraged, discouraged, or otherwise guided by what we are genetically” (69). If, asks Butler, one single gene among tens of thousands “can so greatly change our lives—what we can do, what we can become—then what are we?” (70) Science fiction writers throughout the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries have asked this and similar questions in their speculative narratives. Whatever else they may be interested in—war, politics, economics—science fiction authors have used their writing to explore what it means to be human. Philip K. Dick rather famously said that his entire body of work was the relentless pursuit of answers to two questions: what is real and what is human? (260). Not easy questions to answer, as it turns out, for as science opens up the universe to human perception—both at the macro and micro levels—our ability to understand the nature of reality and the nature of humanity is challenged by the endless complexities of nature revealed to us by scientific pursuit. In Butler’s story, those who suffer with dgd are driven by biological and psychological urges that resist logic and reason—they are urges encoded in one’s genes...