I had no idea what Dawn was about when I first opened it. Perhaps it’s just me, but I when I started, I kept trying to find things that proved that Lilith herself was not human. From the very start, I was suspicious of her. When she first “Awakened” I assumed that she was some sort of vampire or zombie like creature and that it was the humans who were imprisoning her in the room. It was only when we were introduced to Jdahya that I finally decided that Lilith was what she appeared to be.
Aside from my initial misperception, the most alien concept in the book for me was the idea of everything being alive. This seems to be drastically different from how most sci-fi presents itself. When people think of sci-fi, they think new technology and cool gadgets, and occasionally genetic manipulation. Most classic sci-fi seems to focus more on the natural thrust of where current technology is going, but Butler seems to take it in a different direction entirely. Butler takes us out of our familiar, overused sci-fi settings and imagines where technology is not headed with living organic materials.
While this is interesting to me, my question is, what’s the difference? Where does inorganic technology clash and meld with biological tools? Our current research seems to show little difference between how nano-bots work (or hope they will one day work) and how more organic treatments work for diseases. To me there is a clear difference between using a living tool versus a dead tool, but Butler seems to bend and blur that once distinctive line. This alien concept of living spaces seems to challenge our present idea of intellect and emotion determining what is alive versus what isn’t.
So. Where do you draw the ling between living and dead materials? Is this purely a hypothetical question, or are there places in our current world where this question comes up?