Another Post on Lilith’s Brood

Last updated on: November 3, 2017 at 3:00 pm by Coyle Neal

Another Post on Lilith’s Brood 2017-11-03T11:27:27-06:00 Coyle Neal

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

As promised, this is another reflection on Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy collected in the volume Lilith’s Brood. (The previous post is available here.) If you’ve still not read the book (you know, since the previous review was published a week ago), you really should do so–it is excellent.

Source: Tumblr

In the book, Butler introduces a species known as the Oankali, which she holds up as an intelligent but non-hierarchical race of beings. In my previous post I noted that Butler argues that the human ‘contradiction,’ the source of our woes as a species, is the result of the combination of our intelligence with our hierarchical nature. This leads to all manner of oppression and destruction, even the nuclear war that had devastated the world when the book opens. As I said last time, Butler has her aliens say that hierarchy is not necessarily an inherent evil (look at the bees, for example), unless mixed with intelligence.

With that said, the Oankali live in a utopia that claims to be non-hierarchical. Everything is done through discussion and consensus, rather than through power structures and authority. Or so the book argues. The point of this post is to push back against both the implication that hierarchy is automatically bad (which of course no Christian should believe anyway, but also which I think no human regardless of faith should believe) and against her idea of a society that exists without hierarchy.

In terms of the former, Butler clearly implies that hierarchy is somehow wicked. As I said in my last post, there’s no doubt that hierarchical relationships can be abused. Political leaders abuse the citizen body or individual citizens; aristocrats abuse commoners; bosses abuse employees; parents abuse children; and so on. And also as noted in the last post, these relationships are abused not because there’s something inherently wrong with the relationship itself, but because of the sin of the individuals who make up the relationship. Obviously as Christians we understand that there is at least one hierarchy that is without sin on one side–the relationship between God and humanity. Though we are still sinners, this is an authoritarian relationship in which the Authority figure fills his role perfectly. Any problems we have are problems not because both sides of the relationship are intelligent (as Butler would have it), but rather because of our sin.

And yet, even beyond the Christian relationship with God, as a human being we should be able to see that authority is necessary in the world. At the most basic level, authority is necessary to get practical tasks done. If we want to build a house and don’t plan to do all the work ourselves, some level of authority is necessary in order to get the house built. A house that is built without authority is bound to fail. The principle at work in minor construction is true is the wider society as well. There are some people who are more fit to lead than others. And though we have processes in place that should work to filter the less able out and push the more able forward, at the end of the day society needs leadership and, well, hierarchy. We could argue about how much hierarchy is necessary (I tend towards ‘less than we’ve got now’), and we could argue about the quality of the people currently in leadership (particularly those put forward by both parties in the 2016 election); but in neither case do we negate the basic need for some kind of authority. And if you want to think more about that, let me point you to David Koyzis’s excellent book We Answer to Another.

So much for the broad point. What about Butler’s more specific claim that in the Oankali, there exists a utopian society that lacks hierarchy? Butler makes much of the point that human beings cannot understand the Oankali, and insist on seeing ‘leadership’ in their ranks (in the form of the ‘neuter’ gender that handles their reproduction and is most responsible for the genetic trade the species engages in). Instead of authoritarian leadership, where a few give instructions to the many, the Oankali exercise ‘consensus.’ Through some abstruse means (telepathy, maybe?) the Oankali race as a whole consults and discusses contentious issues and then implements the decisions of the whole. Once consensus is reached, dissenters are ignored unless they do damage to others, in which case they are placed in non-retributive/non-painful suspended animation for life. Despite the repeated claims of the book, this sounds like ‘authority’ to me. Sure, its a democratic authority, involving a large number (maybe even 99.9% in most circumstances), but authority is still being exercised. Whether a decision is being made by one person or one million persons, so long as there is dissent there must be authority and hierarchy to compel the dissenters to comply, or to brush them aside. I think that at the end of the day Butler’s attempt to build an hierarchy-less society just ends up showing how ingrained hierarchy is in human (in this case, Oankali) existence. Dilute it how we may, we cannot escape the necessity of leadership.

What this too-long second-review should leave us with is not a desire for the removal of hierarchy and authority from our lives, but rather the desire for its restoration and purification in its proper place. That of course we as believers can look forward to when the earth and heavens are made new. Then we all will be where we ought to be relative to God and each other (and I make no claims as to what that latter looks like–I simply don’t know), and all our relationships will exist as they were intended to from the beginning before our sin took the good gift of hierarchy and used it for wicked purposes.

Until then, we’ve got to do the best we can where we are, and read good books like Lilith’s Brood to encourage us to reflect on the world God has made and the relationships we live in with each other.

Dr. Coyle Neal is co-host of the City of Man Podcast and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO. He has more authority than he needs and probably not as much as he wants.

Previous Post

October 31, 2017

D'Aubigne on the Reformation

Next Post

November 6, 2017 Christopher Nolan and the Revenge of Analog

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Action AFI Top 100 Animation Best Picture Winner BFI Top 250 Biography Biopic Books Childrens Christian Classics Classics Comedy Crime Documentary Drama Editor's Choice Family Fantasy Fantasy Films Foreign Historical Historical Fiction History Horror Horror IMDB Top 250 Indie Memoir Modern Novel Musical Mystery Non-Fiction Oscars Philosophy Poetry Popular Literature Reading and Writing Reality Romance Science Fiction Science Fiction Silent Sports Thriller TV Show Uncategorized Western Westerns Young Adult

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does "Marah" mean in Hebrew?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Strength Healing Blessed Bitter