By Josie Hastings
Consent is taught as a basic right, and of course it should be, but do you ask your dog if it is ok with getting a haircut? Or do you get consent from your cat before trimming its nails? Usually not. We rationalize this by saying that these actions are taken for the benefit of the animal, and thus we do not need its agreeance to follow-through. In Octavia Butler’s Dawn, the line of consent is debated through the addition of cultures and physical attributes that are not our own. What made me unsettled while reading, was Butler’s ability to convince me to disregard my own taught rules outlining consent, in favor of agreeing with the Oankali, the aliens that took over the human race. She did this by presenting a series of situations all of which seemed to lead to a symbiotic relationship between the Oankali and the humans, the extracting of the humans from a dying earth and the mind-reading the Oankali are able to perform. In these situations, the Oanklali either did not ask the humans for consent or ignore their pleas entirely and act anyway. The disturbing part is that the rationality behind why the Oankali do this convinced me as a reader to agree with them.
Lilith, Butler’s main character, describes her early time on the ship as repeatedly being Awakened, and put to sleep, without her consent or knowledge. This is coupled with the idea that she was taken off of earth without her knowledge and brought to a glorified prison cell, where she spent weeks of “Awakened” time. She learns that the Oankali have a use for her, and she has no choice but to do what they need done. “You’ll Awaken a small group of humans, all English-speaking, and help them learn to deal with us” (34). My immediate reaction as a reader is to be horrified that this is happening to her and accuse her captors of not doing the morally right thing, even though they continuously say that this is for the good of her people. After she begins to get more comfortable around the Oankali through being forced to share a space with them, Lilith, and the readers, learn more about the situation and the Oankali’s abilities. We find out that several hundred humans were found on earth, still alive, the Oankali found them and took them into their care to look after them, so they can “mate”, exchanging genes between the humans and Oankali, and allowing for better survival of both. Butler’s explanation of the Oankali’s abilities, especially what was necessary to keep them alive, and their motivations behind saving and sustaining the humans, fully convinced me that they made the right decision and that the humans should be grateful for them. This is concerning when I took a step back and looked at my own views of the situation because how could I accept this? The lack of independence and decision-making that the Oankali left for Lilith could be considered a complete dictatorship in which no one gets to make a decision for themselves. However, Butler’s ability to show that the Oankali are creatures with different abilities and considerations and truly are just working for the benefit of both themselves and the humans, had me fully convinced that they made the right decision in taking Lilith off of her planet and into their ship.
Another debate that I encountered when discussing this novel was triggered by a scene that occurred in the book, after other humans have been Awakened where Lilith and her boyfriend, Joseph, interacted with Nikanj, Lilith’s mate Oankali. We had already found out that the Oankali have polygamous relationships, especially with humans, and are able to initiate deep feelings of pleasure with their human partners. Nikanj came to Lilith and Joseph’s room and initiated a sexual encounter between all three of them. Lilith was already very accustomed to this situation because she had been awake and living with the Oankali for years at this point, and her relationship with Nikanj had grown to place where she felt comfortable doing this. Joseph, had just met Nikanj and was very unsure of the Oankali, leading him to directly tell it no. Nikanj ignores Joseph’s words and continues on, using its abilities to manipulate Joseph into place and to perform the sexual act, “When he would have backed away, it held him. It managed to lie down on the bed with him without seeming to force him down. “You see. Your body has made a different choice””(214). I immediately saw this as a direct non-consensual act and thus vilified Nikanj in this situation, but Butler had explained that Oolai, the type of Oankali Nikanj is, can read human minds and emotions, and although it had ignored Joseph’s verbal pleas, it had listened to his emotional and physical reactions of “yes” and so it had carried on. My agreement with the acceptability of this situation is nerve-wracking because it opens up the possibility of many other situations where this ‘emotional reading’ would not be as welcome. Verbal consent allows for people to make their own decisions, and taking this away means there is even more lack of choice in this universe. While considering all the things mind-reading would change, lying was one I got stuck on. One of the goals Lilith had in the past was to try and catch an Oankali in a lie, because they never seemed to be anything but honest and if they did not want to tell her something, they just would not answer. The Oankali’s mental abilities have completely erased the possibly to successfully lie in their society. Again, I found myself thinking that this would be great to have in our world. Lying is already viewed as something not acceptable to do, and isn’t denying yourself pleasure for moral reasons or fear just another act of lying to yourself? A scary train of thought when considering that the privacy of your own thoughts would be threatened at any given moment.
The disturbing question that defined my mental struggle caused by the situations in Butler’s novel was, “is it acceptable to take away a person’s choice for the idea of knowing what is best for them?”. Where is the line between forcibly taking care of someone or letting them make poor decisions for themselves? I do not have an answer, but I am sure Butler will have me continuing to ponder this throughout her series.