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Oct. 14th, 2003 03:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eskaThe difference between Atwood and Bradbury (as well as John of Patmos) is that Atwood is conscious of this dynamic and uses Oryx and Crake to comment upon it. Her pallid book is not itself wish fulfillment -- as is the incandescently-written Fahrenheit 451 -- but rather the portrait of a wish fulfilled, with all its dreadful consequences.
There is no room in Atwood's imagination for a God who on some Day of Judgment will punish the wicked and reward the good. Her apocalypse does not save anyone. Instead of God there is only Crake, the mad scientist, a pathetic, immature figure but also one of immense honesty, will, and intelligence. "Had he been a lunatic," Jimmy asks himself, "or an intellectually honourable man who'd thought things through to their logical conclusion?"
The Failure of Fahrenheit 451
By Jeremy Smith
There is no room in Atwood's imagination for a God who on some Day of Judgment will punish the wicked and reward the good. Her apocalypse does not save anyone. Instead of God there is only Crake, the mad scientist, a pathetic, immature figure but also one of immense honesty, will, and intelligence. "Had he been a lunatic," Jimmy asks himself, "or an intellectually honourable man who'd thought things through to their logical conclusion?"
The Failure of Fahrenheit 451
By Jeremy Smith
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Date: 2011-01-18 10:48 am (UTC)