Science In Oryx And Crake

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The Importance of Humanities and Science: Oryx and Crake Can a society survive without the equal balance of science and art? In Margaret Atwood’s novel, Oryx and Crake, a post-apocalyptic world of Snowman and the Crakers and the disparate communities of the Compounds and the Pleeblands are oscillated. Atwood’s pre-apocalyptic setting is an extreme marriage of science and capitalism. The dystopian narrative addresses the consequences that occur when a community’s fixations on science and control over nature displace an engagement in a cultural memory and history. In todays society, we see the constant obsession with gaining control over nature through the advance in science technology. In an effort, the importance of humanities is lost making …show more content…
Crake’s emotional detachment correlates to his scientifically driven disposition, for he reduces Jimmy’s comment about their attractive teacher (“you think he’s got his hand on her ass?”) to a “geometrical problem” involving steps and calculations (89). Crake’s investment in technology and science alters his perception of reality. When Jimmy and Crake are playing chess “back to back” on computers (93), Jimmy asks to play “on a real set,” but Crake replies with: “this is a real set” (93). Jimmy judges the iconic game to be less authentic if it is digitalized, but for Crake, its digitization is utterly normal.
The Compounds are science-driven, which is exemplified in Crake; as well, they are disconnected from a cultural memory, canon, and history. This idea is most evident that Jimmy is an outlier, or as Crake’s “neurotypical” friend. The world of the Compounds/Pleeblands has lost this horizon of cultural memory, because, although Jimmy may engage daily in a cultural memory, there is no “objectivized culture” or backdrop for him to situate his
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