I cannot get over the fact that there are two love triangles: Zeb/Katrina Woo Woo/Adam One and Jimmy/Oryx/Crake. This is disappointing in so many ways. Where to begin? The fact that Adam One and Crake both had such huge egos that they created their own cults based on their worldviews; Zeb/Jimmy are the same annoyingly misogynistic trope of man that becomes our narrator; Katrina Woo Woo and Oryx are mysterious (read: racialized) tropes and plot devices and used both as the object of devotion and also for their sexual prowess. Oh, Margaret Atwood! This is a transgression that just seems, frankly, overtly racist in a way that I didn’t want Asian Fusion to be. There better be an explanation for this! I wish to call upon the Crakers’ flying deity!
I’ve been doing a little bit of research on East Asian American (“Oriental”) film tropes, and I wanted to share some thoughts with a side of rant. There are two basic types of film tropes: Lotus Blossom Baby and the Dragon Lady. The Lotus Blossom Baby is submissive, “utterly feminine, delicate, and welcome respites from their often loud, independent American counterparts…often spoils from the last three wars fought in Asia.” [1] The Dragon Lady is often overtly sexual, using her appearance to seduce and manipulate to aid evil men. Is this familiar yet? These tropes are often tied to other gendered stereotypes, such as the mail order bride, or the evil seductress. These controlling images shape the way that the general public imagines the Asian American (often imagined and constructed to mean East Asian American) women. One of the most common reasons why scriptwriters would make these sexist, racialized characters is so that they are expendable. As in, thank you Oryx for becoming a vector for this deadly disease, and now I will use you to manipulate my friend into killing me so that I do not have to live this horrible nightmare that I created. And while we’re at it, thank you Katrina Woo Woo, you were great with the hideouts, and it would’ve been cool if you were Eve One but for my inability to prevent your death even though I (Adam One) has all of these seemingly powerful connections.
What is particularly interesting is that the “Lotus Blossom,” Oryx, is aiding Crake in spreading a deadly vector while Katrina, the Dragon Lady, is helping Adam One spread pacifist resistance. I wonder if we are supposed to read Crake or Adam One as an imperialist technocrat, mirroring the U.S. military forces and their paternalistic treatment of indigenous people while invading a country like Vietnam or imagining “Oriental” mail order brides. I would love to know what other people make of these tropes. It seems too perfect (dragon lady, lotus blossom) to be a coincidence. What I want to know if whether Atwood unconsciously internalized these tropes to give her main guys more texture and love interests at the expense of the objectification and fetishization of Asian American women, or whether there is another plan here.
Is this another use of a variable (still not okay if it is) to show nuanced contrast between Crake (technocratic, controlled development) and Adam One (pacifist, spontaneous development)? For example, Katrina Woo Woo opened her own business and freely (it seems) used her power to help Adam One. On the other hand, it seemed like Crake specifically employed Oryx under him, and her economic independence comes from doing his work. The other variable that I reflected on was gaming and how Maddaddam/Crake and God’s Gardeners used games to make up the rules/learn the game. Also, I am reading on world development theory as it formed in China under Sun Yat-Sen (autocratic, nationalist). The Maddaddam and God’s Gardeners eerily mirror the factions in development theory, although in this case there are no countries or imagined race wars. This would be great to chat about!
[1] Tajima, Renee E. “Lotus Blossoms Don’t Bleed: Images of Asian Women,” pub. Making Waves: An anthology of Writings By and About Asian American Women. [http://www.samfeder.com/PDF/Making Waves_ Renee E. Tajima.pdf] 26 February 2010.
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