Q&A with Margaret Atwood discussion

Dear Margaret Atwood, I am really excited to see you here since I've read and loved your prose and poetry, and I always enjoy your interviews and even your crazy ideas such as the clip with your hocky-goalie- instructions...
However, I have lately read Oryx and Crake, and I'd like to ask you about Oryx. Who is she to you? How real do you want her to be in the reader's mind?
I don't mean to take too much of your time, but I'd like to tell you what thoughts I had about her.
Snowman tells us about a mysterious woman who accepts her destiny as an abused girl and woman and the cruel nature of men -- but even though he claims to see her despair in her eyes, it's unclear if her hardship ever existed.
I had an impression you let us feel the deftness of what he considers to be compassion. He found or invented a victim-one who prefers being used to being helped so that he is a tragic savior.
Her (theoretical) suffering gives her both an erotic and a godly power over him. But with such a total passivity he is denied the opportunity he wants to save her, to save a woman.
So in the end, I suspect that nothing of Oryx's nature and life exists anywhere outside Snowman's mind. He composes a tragedy for a beautiful woman who'd be perfect right under his wings.
Or--if this is not the truth--Does she choose her role in life?

How do you see it?

Many thanks, and I hope to read more very soon.
All best wishes,
Avital Gad-Cykman

Oryx has got to be one of my favourite characters. I just love how elusive she is. I read in one of the other topics about the upcoming third novel MaddAdam, which is so exciting, I can't wait... but I'm still most curious about Oryx.

Suffering doesn't seem a concept Oryx often applies to herself.. she's seeming caring all warm and soft and yet something very alien, outside the men world.

Hello All: Yes, she is elusive, but remember we see her only through the eyes of Jimmy, who is a guilty romantic. He does take an undue interest in the suffering of her past life ... and she herself -- so far as we can tell --does not co-operate, because she wants to keep something of herself for herself, or that's what I think. But consider the way we turn people into idols, saints, etc... it's been going on for a while.Maybe it's a human thing to do?

Thank you for the interesting reply. I didn't see him as a romantic man, but as a man who felt repulsed by but also attracted to the suffering, who ached to feel needed.
And her choice to keep herself to herself, keeps her at a distance.
I also find your remark about turning people into idols and saints fascinating.

Did you ever imagine that many of the creations in Oryx and Crake would come true? Whenever my students discuss GMO foods, I direct them to Oryx and Crake!

I don't think Jimmy is a romantic in the candle-lit dinners sort of way, but rather he romanticises his view of Oryx as a broken, needy soul. Sometimes I like to read their relationship as Oryx going along with this idea Jimmy has of her, just to humour him. Other times I prefer the notion that she really is at peace with her past.

I know she is elusive to the reader because of the way the story is told, but that only makes her all the more interesting. I just think you've done such a wonderful job with her - enough information to sustain an engaging character, but not quite enough to satisfy the want to understand everything that surrounds her. And because of that, I find myself becoming Jimmy - I want to learn everything I can, to understand her, - or maybe it goes further - almost to own her. And perhaps that's why she isn't always so willing to divulge herself to Jimmy completely.

I guess that's the compelling nature of mystery!

Melissa wrote: "Did you ever imagine that many of the creations in Oryx and Crake would come true? Whenever my students discuss GMO foods, I direct them to Oryx and Crake!"

I agree, Melissa. When I watched the documentary, "Food Inc" and saw the part with the chickens all I could think of were ChickieNobs!