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“Lilith's brood” is a collection of three works by Octavia E. Butler. The three volumes of this science fiction series are Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago. The intersection of gender, race and class in this science fiction is that gender, race, poverty, and mental illness reinforce each other in "women on the edge of time", and they over determine the negative results. Oankali has three genders: male, female and ooloi. Oankali believes that human species inevitably have a self destructive "contradiction" between their high intelligence and their hierarchical nature. This contradiction is the reason why humanity war has almost ended, which is why Oankali can't let human beings live alone. Lilith and the Oankali-human hybrids are consistently battling with this inner conflict.

The intersection and conflict of gender, race and class in the Trilogy are like the story of African slaves in the United States and the conflict experienced by later African Americans when they integrate into American society. Oankali-human hybrids feel that by integrating into Oankali society, they somehow betray their human side. At the same time, due to the huge power imbalance, they have never really had other viable options. In addition to the allegory of slavery, “Lilith's brood” is more commonly written as "in the context of colonization", which has triggered a wide range of coercion and agency problems. Oankali's relationship with mankind involves a series of imperialist relations, from slavery to detention camps to eugenics. “Lilith's brood” also reveals Mattapoisett's sexism, working-class oppression, and white supremacy.

In addition to the social intersection, Oankali's mastery of genes also shows the possible intersection of the development of genetic science and biotechnology. Biological determinism is another continuous theme intersection in “Lilith's brood”. Because Oankali people first believe in the innate biological tendency of a species, roles must constantly cross exchange between their assumed biological abilities and the limits of their personal will.

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Liz Ziemska explains "The Mushroom Queen"

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Liz Ziemska explains "The Mushroom Queen"

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This YouTube video features Ziemska speaking about how she developed an interest in mushrooms, her dream that instigated the storyline,  and also has a great reading of the story.

The slow decay of relationships is mirrored in Ziemska's nameless characters. Our woman, the original woman, unhappy in her unremarkable marriage, is replaced by a doppelganger, a fungus Mushroom Queen, happy to take human form and usurp the original woman's place. The husband, portrayed as lazy and seemingly stupid, only notices the new musky sensuality of his wife, happy to find the woman "more pliable than the other, more eager." She also speaks less, an opportunity for him to fill in the void with his own words.

Meanwhile, our woman is vanquished to the ground, slowly but definitively moving through the soil, noticing the new-found freeness of no limbs to manipulate, to slow her down. However, the couple's dogs, the white furry one and the small brown one, notice her absence. The bond between human and animal proves stronger and more sensitive than man to woman. The dogs provide humor and a rallying point for the reader as the story devolves into the quiet horror of the Mushroom Queen maintaining her fungal-ness, plotting to kill the dogs with the challenge of winning the man's heart, "using nothing but the clumsy human heart. Or its fungal facsimile." This theme is reminiscent of the partnership between Lillith and Nikanj in Lillith's Brood. She finds far more humanity with Nikanj than Paul Titus. Meanwhile our woman leaches her way back home.

Understanding that her husband does not miss her, our woman pivots to reuniting with her dogs. At least, if she can "transform them, just as she had been transformed...they can all be together again." It's hard to read about the dogs being starved by the Mushroom Queen, and for myself, that was the final indignity I could tolerate. After that, I wanted her taken back to the complex network of fungus. Ziemska makes a point that love is not the same as knowing someone. The dogs know our woman, they see her. To be seen is as powerful of love because it humanizes.

This is an amazing short story, and I'm sure there is much I missed in the first reading. It's hard to think of mushrooms in the same way after reading this!

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"The Mushroom Queen" by Liz Ziemska, read by Kelly Ogden

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I was so excited to see that we were going to be reading a text by Toni Morrison. I have read several of her novels, but have only had the opportunity to read a small amount of her smaller texts and articles. Every one that I have read, however (including this one), has been enlightening.

Morrison's chapter, "Playing in the Dark," takes a critical look at the American Literary Canon. Morrison critiques the voices that are elevated in this canon and fights for the voices that are silenced.

A few pages in to the chapter, Morrison discusses the effects (or perceived lack there of?) of these voices not being heard:

"Like thousands of avid but nonacademic readers, some powerful literary critics in the United States have never read, and are proud to say so, any African-American text. It seems to have done them no harm, presented them with no discernible limitations in the scope of their work or influence. I suspect, with much evidence to support the suspicion, that they will continue to flourish without any knowledge whatsoever of African-American literature... What is surprising is that their refusal to read black texts- a refusal that makes no disturbance in their intellectual life- repeats itself when they reread the traditional, established works of literature worthy of their attention" (1167).

There are two ideas that are discussed in this quote that I want to talk a look at: complacency and effects.

First of all, I had never thought about the fact that readers actually refuse to read African-American texts. Sure, I knew that there were people practicing explicit racism (and more hidden forms as well) that would not read these texts. But I did not realize that it was such a common practice even in the realm of literary critics. Honestly, I thought that people not reading African-American texts was a result of lack of exposure- not a direct refusal. Morrison's attention to this detail made the issue even more pressing.

Secondly, I was surprised to hear Morrison argue that these peoples' lives would most likely continue on just fine if they do not read African-American texts. Honestly, I was more expecting her to argue that they are missing a rich and enlightening experience through the literature, which is what I would argue.

There are topics, values, and ideals that you cannot learn through our standard Literary canon. We must branch outside of it, or completely redo it, in order to be a more holistic literary community.

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Lorde references the Pearl River often in "Afterimages," and it's clear that it holds powerful imagery in the poem. Described as a flood that leaves mud in its aftermath, the river holds the body of Emmett Till, both as a grave and a sanctuary for him after his malicious beating and murder.

Jackson is located on the Pearl River's upper tributary. In reality, Till's body was thrown into the Tallahatchie River, so it made me wonder why Lorde referenced Pearl River instead. From the little digging I did on the internet, his murder was mistakenly listed as occurring in the Pearl River, but in actuality it was the Tallahatchie. I'm not sure if this was well-known at the time Lorde wrote the poem. We know the Tallahatchie through Bobbie Gentries' "Ode to Billie Joe," which has implications of its own, as the song's title character jumps off a bridge after a homosexual encounter.

The imagery of a white pearl, resplendent in its purity and innocence makes a marked juxtaposition to the heinous murder of Till. A black teenage boy is executed along the river's edge for the crime of flirting to a white woman, although even that account is questionable. The murder occurred in "the name of white womanhood," and after was celebrated with prostitutes, "the double ritual of white manhood / confirmed." Again, the pearl/white imagery is used as a contrast to the ugly and dehumanizing treatment of Emmett. As the rain brings flooding to the Pearl River, it unearths images and emotions in the collective memories of black Americans, especially so for Emmett's mother, who lost her only child in murder.

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When I first saw the title of this story, I was strangely excited. I was born and raised in Kennett Square, PA, which is the Mushroom Capital of the World. I know a weird amount of mushrooms and conversation about mushrooms while eating mushrooms around the dinner table is simply a common practice. So, I felt comfortable with the story… until I read the story.

Liz Ziemska’s “The Mushroom Queen” follows an un-named woman whose life is taken over by The Mushroom Queen while the woman is forced underground. It is a strange concept when you take a step back to think about what you are reading, but while reading, it is written in such every day language that you almost forget how insane of a story it is.

This story was so insane yet every day, that by the time I got to the end of it, it took me some time to think about a theme.

The biggest theme that came to my mind was the concept of instant gratification. We see this played out through two characters- the original woman and the husband.

Firstly, we see instant gratification played out through the original woman. Even though the woman had a seemingly wonderful life, she wanted something else- something better. "What she wants now, more than anything, is a placeholder, someone to keep her life intact while she goes on a little reconnaissance trip,” our narrator explains. Despite her peacefully sleeping husband, cuddled-up dogs, and beautiful yard, the woman was not happy (this is not to discount her emotions, but to discuss that she was not content, for whatever reason). With these emotions going on, she decided to momentarily escape into her yard, a decision which ended up taking away her life forever.

Secondly, we see instant gratification played out through the husband. When his wife was switched, he did not even notice. Or, if he did notice, he didn’t care. "The man thinks this woman is an improvement over the other. Not that he knows there’s been a switch, only a sudden unexplainable change in personality. He doesn’t question it, as he’s unaccustomed to questioning good fortune when it rains down on his head. This woman is more pliable than the other, more eager. The other one never wanted to make love in the morning. And as he sinks his fingers into her flesh and buries his face in her dark curls, he falls in love with her all over again.” The narrator even explains how the Mushroom Queen doesn’t speak much, doesn’t take care of anything, but he does not care, because he gets what he wants from her. In the end, he will end up being destroyed by his desire.

Both of these examples show how the characters are so focused on what they want in the moment that they don’t even notice what they are putting at risk.

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Wow… I must admit, after reading this poem, I had to take a step back for a bit. The poem “Afterimages” is about the way that Lorde cannot unsee some of the trauma that she has witnessed. Specifically, this poem focuses on the murder of Emmett Till.

The following lines from the poem sum up the incredible power that she is communicating:

“Within my eyes

the flickering afterimages of a nightmare rain”

First of all, I want to discuss the event of Emmett Till’s murder. Since the time that I first learned about this event, I assumed that all modern-day people would be on the same side. I thought that this was the ONE event that we could all agree was murder. Several years ago, however, while on Facebook (which I have since completely deleted and am eternally grateful for that decision), I witnessed a conversation about brutality towards black bodies. In the conversation, a man that I went to high school with actually justified the murder of Emmett Till. I do not remember his exact words or reasoning, but I still remember the utter shock that I felt towards his words. I did not know that train of thought even existed. Furthermore, that man felt comfortable enough enough in his thinking to publicly post it.

Anyways, that was besides the point of the poem, but I thought that it pertained to the topic. The same way that the actual murder is impossible to forget, so is the thought that some people justify that murder.

Lorde’s poem had me thinking about the concept of communal trauma. Perhaps that is because society is currently going through a collective trauma with the pandemic. Although Lorde was not physically present for the murder, she is still impacted by it. She discusses what she witnessed on the television and the murmurs that she heard through the community.

Just because we were not there, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t care.

Just because we didn’t know Emmett Till doesn’t mean that he was not a human deserving of life.

Just because we do not know doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t learn.

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"Afterimages" is a juxtaposition of nature, violence, and loss

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"Afterimages" is a juxtaposition of nature, violence, and loss

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Lorde’s “Afterimages” is a poem expressing the cruelest events in the civil rights struggle. The historical background of this poem is in Mississippi Delta in 1955, a 14-year-old black boy was brutally beaten and killed because he whistled to white woman Bryant. The killer tied a 74-pound cotton gin fan around his neck and dumped the boy's body into the Tallahatchie River. The whole terrorist incident shocked Americans. Through the description of poetry, Lorde integrates and symbolizes this historical event, and expresses the juxtaposition of nature, violence, and loss.

We deeply realize that the pain of poetry is primitive, that the unfair treatment of black children and women continues, and that our earth is also internally real.

The child's mother wept for the child's twisted face in the open coffin, witness the death and destruction of black life.

In "Afterimages", Lord talked about the photos of Emmett till's body she saw at the public coffin funeral.

She couldn't stop thinking about the murder:

“However the image enters

its force remains within

my eyes”

Lorde said it was to make her realize that after seeing Emmett till's picture, she would never see it. She continued to think about "the hidden fusion image under her pain."

“A white woman stands bereft and empty

a black boy hacked into a murderous lesson

……

fused images beneath my pain.”

At first, she tried to escape the tragedy:

“my eyes averted

from each corner's photographies”

But the ghost of "the incomplete body of the black child" haunted her: "

“his grieving mother's lamentation

the severed lips, how many burns

his gouged out eyes

sewed shut upon the screaming covers

louder than life”

In this poem, Lorde is troubled by these images. She refers to "nightmare rain"; She came to Emmett's mother, began to feel pain, and "had the right to mourn for all black mothers who lost their children"

“Within my eyes

the flickering afterimages of a nightmare rain

a woman wrings her hands

beneath the weight of agonies remembered

I wade through summer ghosts

betrayed by vision

hers and my own

becoming dragonfish to survive

the horrors we are living

with tortured lungs

adapting to breathe blood.”

"After images" is a juxtaposition of nature, violence, and loss. This juxtaposition clearly expresses Lorde’s upset, not only about what happened to Emmett Till, but also about the whole society. Citing another direct way of racial inequality and people's attitude, the poet expressed the strongest disgust and protest the juxtaposition of nature, violence, and loss. The main purpose of this poem is to do everything we can to ensure that these atrocities will not continue, because the destruction of one person will soon lead to the destruction of another.

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In Toni Morrison's essay, she makes an argument for a study of not solely slavery's effects on the enslaved, but rather "the impact of racism on those who perpetuate it" (p. 1167). Scholarship, both literary and historical, have focused on the subjects of racism, the African Americans, yet the American white culture that structured a duality of existence is too often overlooked and unexamined. Morrison coins "African Americanism" to describe the process of how a "nonwhite, Africanlike...presence" was embedded into the U.S. (o, 1165).

This idea, African Americanism, draws some parallels with the Oankali's role in humans' lives. It is not a perfect match, as the Oankali are both captors and rescuers. However, historically, slavery was elevated by so-called civilized and cultured white people to an inspired effort in the redemption of African Americans. As we read about Lilith's experiences in understanding her captors, we do not have as much insight into the Oankali's perspectives. There is some dialogue, sure, but we do not have the full sense of their interior minds. Morrison reminds us, "But equally valuable is a serious intellectual effort to see what racial ideology does to the mind, imagination, and behavior of masters" (p. 1167). As a disclaimer, I haven't yet finished the trilogy, so maybe this idea is too early or presumptuous to make. Yet, Morrison's push to investigate the impact of slavery on white people, particularly the silence and evasiveness on its effects, is interesting to pursue.

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The concept of companionship was on my mind as I was reading this novel this week. Yes- there was a lot going on. We were introduced to new characters, new beings, new locations, and much more. But what we did not see was the familiar.

Perhaps I am thinking about this because of what we have been through over the past few years. Where we used to sit around a table, we were seeing each other on a screen. Family holidays were now spent outdoors. We all felt the reality of loneliness in our lack of companionship.

As I was reading the beginning part of the novel, I found the following quotes that caught my attention and got me thinking about the importance of companionship:

"She hugged herself tightly, arms across her chest. More isolation" (37).

"It became irrationally important to her to do two things: First, to talk to another human being.. Any human would do" (59).

"Only a human could reassure her- or at least understand her fear" (60).

It is not until page 85 of the novel- many, many years- until Lillith is finally able to interact with another human. When they meet, it is clear that he feels the same immediate reaction as Lillith does."You don't know how welcome you are," he says to her (86).

I don't know about anyone else, but I cannot imagine living in a completely unfamiliar place with nothing or no one that is familiar to me. Who do I trust? What is truth?

Perhaps this could be too much of a stretch, but this had me connect to a concept that I've been talking about a lot lately: windows and mirrors. Perhaps this book could be teaching us the importance of being around people (or beings in this case) that are different from us. Being comfortable in the uncomfortable.

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“Black literature” and “”white literature”, the place of African Americans in American Literature

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“Black literature” and “”white literature”, the place of African Americans in American Literature

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The article "playing in the dark" by Toni Morrison, the Nobel Laureate in literature, mainly discusses the theme of "the place of African Americans in American Literature". On this major issue of literary criticism, of course, it is inseparable from "black literature" and "white literature." "Black literature" refers to African American literature, "white literature" refers to white literature in today's mainstream American society.

Morrison wrote: “traditional, canonical American literature is free of, uninformed, and unshaped by the four‐hundred‐year‐old presence of, first, Africans and then African‐Americans in the United States. It assumes that this presence – which shaped the body politic, the Constitution, and the entire history of the culture …… Moreover, such knowledge assumes that the characteristics of our national literature emanate from a particular “Americanness” that is separate from and unaccountable to this presence. There seems to be a more or less tacit agreement among literary scholars that, because American literature has been clearly the preserve of white male views, genius, and power, those views, genius, and power are without relationship to and removed from the overwhelming presence of black people in the United States. ”

Morrison clearly explains in this passage that the patent view of American literature is white male literature, that is "White literature," not "black literature". American literature actually takes a new white arch as its focus. Some powerful American literary critics have never read any African American text. They refuse to read black text because ignoring "black literature" does not seem to hurt them and make them have no obvious restrictions on their scope of work or influence.

The United States is a multi-ethnic young country, and American literature must be a diversified literature. African American literature is a literary body created by African American writers in the United States. It occupies a very important position in the whole history of American literature. "Black literature" explores the greater role of African Americans in American society, African American culture, racism, slavery and social equality. " The writing of "black literature" tends to combine oral forms, such as spirit, sermon, gospel music, blues or rap. Today, African American literature has become a recognized part of American literature.

Morrison believes that writers are one of the most sensitive, rational anarchy, representative and exploratory artists. Throughout American history, African Americans have been discriminated against and influenced by racist attitudes. It would be ridiculous and dishonest to place blacks on the pages and scenes of books such as some government quotas. Therefore, an almost completely buried topic will be raised again: the interdependence of power, race, race, and the consistency struggle of sex among white women.

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I was only able to read the first novel, Dawn, which was more than enough for me personally. After a nuclear war mostly destroys the habitancy of Earth, an alien race called the Oankali, pick a few of the last remaining humans to survive the Earth without human technology and later look to interbreed in exchange. Lillith is a human, and black female, who awakens on the alien ship orbiting the Earth many centuries after the war after being left in a suspended animation and confinement. Although awakened several times, she is initially repulsed by the aliens who have tentacles all over their body and a lack of common humanistic characters who travel through space evolving by adopting traits from other species, which is what they must do for their alien race to survive.

The aliens have three genders, male, female, and the Ooloi who can change their genetics as they choose. I think it was interesting, there was a connection to Left Hand of Darkness and how race, hierarchy, sexism, gender, homophobia, and the need to reproduce was a huge portion of the story. Lilith is told that she will be a leader on the new Earth and have alien children, which she initially doesn’t want to agree to but later comes to teach the first group of humans trained to recolonize the Earth in exchange for her freedom from the animated suspension. When waking others from their animated suspension many do not believe her stories of aliens and her genetic changes make others uncomfortable and later attempt to run away. Lillith runs away with them at one point, once caught, Lillith finds out about her ‘friends’ being killed and finds out she is pregnant with a mixed human and alien child.

Through close relationship she comes to greatly appreciate the alien beings called the Oankali. They even go so far as to alter her genetics to better understand the alien ways and make her stronger and heal quicker. Sexism is shown through the male genders when they defy and beat Lillith because they are threatened by the fact that she is a woman, strong and confident. A war between the humans and aliens begins and Lillith is held captive for a great deal of time having to interbreed and live in solitary until she negotiates herself into becoming a mediator between the humans and aliens. The book ends with the reader knowing something big is about to, or should, happen as she hopes to find fertile humans that can reestablish the human race without alien intervention.

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Gender transformation is the theme of our course "Gender and literature". Ziemska’s "The Mushroom Queen" brilliantly describes the transformation between wife and fungi, that is, the distorted gender transformation between women and biological fungi, which may be the main purpose of this work in this course design for us to learn.

In Liz Ziemska's fantasy "The Mushroom Queen" , a humanoid mushroom changes places with a human woman, intending to take over her life and live among humans. The author condemns the victim's cruel way, throwing her into a root system and dissolving her until she becomes one with the fungi growing on her back lawn.

"One's discontent arouses another's desire." A restless wife always wants more than she has and wants to be a better person than her. Ziemska wrote: “What is wrong with her marriage anyway? Nothing that can be pointed to, no crimes, no infidelities. Some petty cruelties in times of stress……For months now she’s been fantasizing about being more than she is. What if she could step into the fast, fast world without being missed? What she wants now, more than anything, is a placeholder, someone to keep her life intact while she goes on a little reconnaissance trip.”(3) The wife realized her wish in the form of fungi. A mysterious mushroom queen became a part of the woman and stole her life. The original woman melted into a fungal community. When the mushroom queen shaped her new human life according to her wishes, the original woman "ran her mycelium in Cabbage and Hami melon fields" and sadly tried to find her way home.

Ziemska's description of the mushroom queen is very beautiful, “The Mushroom Queen was tired of living underground. She can assume any form. Her skin is nicer than human skin. Firm and white, it has no pores, only spores, because mushrooms are self-propagating, which can get lonely. So, she deposed herself and came to the woman’s house from the east, traveling west along the shore of a wide green river, over the Appalachians, beneath the Great Lakes, flowing across the midwestern plains. She was born over a century ago in the unkempt garden of a red-brick house that was once a home, then a nursery, then a nunnery, and is now again a home.

That is where our woman arrives now, sucked across the country, and extruded from the ground beneath a trellis of tangled vines that sprout purple flowers in the summer. They have switched places, our woman and the Mushroom Queen, the discontent of one calling to the desire of the other. Nature abhors a vacuum.” （5）

Mushroom queen, her double, now lives her old life as a human woman and has her own problems. She would rather eat compost than the delicious Bree her husband put on the table. She found it difficult to speak. Bathing in the water made her feel very dirty, so she rolled around in the mud and cleaned up afterwards. In the life she took over, she felt more and more decadent, because green mucus grew on the wall and the dog was no longer walked.

"The Mushroom Queen" is a terrible reversal. Biology is sometimes completely indistinguishable from terror. Nature provides us with terrible diet and greedy breeding insects, as well as many other disturbing miracles. Fungi are the most disturbing natural phenomenon. Sometimes mushrooms take over an animal's entire nervous system, eat the brain that unknowingly ingests its life form, and do anything to reproduce. Contemporary science fiction writers have put themselves on the bet and created a series of terrible works.

The gender transition between mushrooms and women is strange. Men and dogs play different roles. The husband pretended not to notice the difference between his wife and later applied the change to extramarital affairs. He did not know that the mushroom queen was working for a long time to solve his mold poisoning problem. In his passive satisfaction with no serious quarrel, he committed himself to his destruction. The smallest brown dog in the family is completely different from men for sudden changes. The dog's nose immediately noticed something wrong. Of course, the dog knew that the creature he slept with was not his beloved mistress, but he also realized that it was dangerous to know it. This "woman" copied his woman too much. Obviously, it took a lot of effort to get rid of stunts. The dog knows that nothing in the world is more dangerous than desire. He also knew that warning the fake was risking the life of his real mistress, who was obviously imprisoned somewhere. The dog knows the danger of desire - but it can't resist it.

"The Mushroom Queen" is a convulsive story of gender transformation. A woman living in the suburbs, eager for too much, exchanged with the ruler of fungi, which turned into a terrible reversal. The novel also describes how the mushroom queen tries to act like humans. When they approach, her body "surrounds" the victim's husband, breathes through her gills, and coats the bedroom wall with green mucus. It's disgusting and chilling. Ziemska uses the beauty of her genius to describe people through things and express feelings through scenery. She wonderfully tells us a science fiction story about how a human woman began to want to disappear and slowly merged with the root. Ziemska uses deformation to illuminate our female protagonists and the original places in their world. Our women escape, devour, and create life. They finally painfully discover their true self by peeling off their known skin.

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Masculinity in Lilith's Brood- Threats, Hopes, and Realities of Human Men 

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Masculinity in Lilith's Brood- Threats, Hopes, and Realities of Human Men 

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It was the line slung by Gabe to Lilith as they were tromping through the jungle on the island, "I didn't invite you along to tell us what to do...We're not in the prison room now. We don't take orders from you," that woke me up to the toxic masculinity culture that presents in book one, Dawn, (p. 217).

To Awaken men or let them remain in suspended animation. Such was Lilith's question; much rode on the order and personalities of the women and men she woke. Kahguyaht admits, "I believed that because of the way human genetics were expressed in culture, a human male should be chosen to parent the first group. I think now that I was wrong" (p. 111). Lilith begrudgingly assumes the role as parent. As she deliberates on who to Awaken, we see her conflicting thoughts on the risk versus benefit of human men's addition to the group. For example, when contemplating Victor's merits, she likes his intelligence and self-control, yet she also is scared of him. He could try bringing her down, eliminating her. Better to Awaken more women first (119).

A bit further into book one, Gabe tries to explain alpha-male Curt's behavior to Lilith.  Gabe explains, "Look at things from Curt's point of view. He's taken like a woman" (203). This phrase sums up the human culture's sexual norms, with women possessing little control while men wield their control; if men lose their dominance, it is a blow to their ego. When the Oankali refuse to allow humans to procreate without the influx of alien genes, it is a direct response to the dangerous and damaging culture on Earth before the war destroyed it.

At the same time, men's contributions are desired by humans. They are looked upon as leaders and builders, watching over their mates and protecting the group. The rare male child will eventually be a desired life form, once the new Constructs are ready for their addition. This time, there will be no mistakes in creating men with dangerous impulses.