1 |Victoria Lozano

SEWSA Conference Paper:

Displacing the Absent Referent: Margaret Atwoods Oryx and Crake and

The Year of the Flood

In Carol Adam s book The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-

Vegetarian Critical Theory, she explains that in meat culture there is an

absence of the reality of the meats existence as a sentient entity e.g. pig for

bacon or deer for veal. Adams definition of the absent referent is that which

separates the meat eater form the animal and animal from the end product

to keep something from being seen as having been someone (14). For

Adams, the existence of animal and human are equal with no hierarchal

value or stature. Adams further explains the negative reality of this absent

referent by stating that Once the existence of meat is disconnected from

the existence of an animal who was killed to become that meat, meat

becomes unanchored by its original referent (the animal), becoming instead

a free-floating image, used often to reflect womens status as well as

animals (13). For example, the image of a naked woman with dotted lines

signifying the different cuts of meat such as the ribs, rump, or thigh as

depicted on the front of Adams book. This is her biggest argument in

deconstructing the subordination of women through association of animal. It

is precisely the way we eat meat absent minded of how or whom the meat is

produced that allows society to perpetuate hierarchal value to animals and

by association gender.
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In Margaret Atwoods Oryx and Crake and companion novel Year of the

Flood we see examples of the characters struggling with the concept of

Adams absent referent. In doing so affirms my argument that continuing to

ignore the absent referent promotes hierarchal establishment and thus

instigates cultural apathy and violence. I will show these situations through

the relationship of the two protagonists Jimmy and Glenn (Crake) from Oryx

and Crake and the situations surrounding the characters of Toby and Blanco

in the companion novel Year of the Flood. Jimmy and Glenns relationship

extends the definition of the absent referent beyond the realms of animal

and gender. Instead, the absent referent represents the absence of emotion

and care. Toby and Blancos depiction of the absent referent is more of an

exploratory view of how the absent referent perpetuates patriarchal

assumptions that animals are less than human, therefore, whomever is

equated as lesser than human can be treated like an animal, and since we

kill animals we can kill other humans. Thus, by perpetuating the absent

referent as a social norm, our cultural is able to perpetuate acts of violence

and domination against each other.

The society within each novel is separated between two main

communities: the Word People and Numbers people. Those that are crafty

with numbers are sent to elite privatized and privileged colleges located in

secure compounds. The Word people are sent to other, lesser, colleges that

are located in places such as the pleeblands. That word is rooted in the

word plebeians which is carries a derogatory connotation to describe lower

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class working people without power. As understood the numbers people are

of a higher intellect and have the potential to create the next big

technological breakthrough focusing on such procedures as gene splicing- via

animal or human- and anti-aging cosmetology. The heavy influence on

science and math derails and often punishes those that seek to question the

ethical practices of the mathematicians and scientists living in these

separated and heavily guarded compounds. Through this society Atwood

speculates the social implication of genetically altered material and the

consequence of scientific practices undermining empathy which in turn

creates an apathetic public unaware of the scientific practices.

When introduced to Jimmy in Atwoods first novel, Oryx and Crake, he

feels empathetic toward animals. He feels like they need to be protected

because he was their friend, he thought. Because [he sings] to them(Oryx

and Crake 26). When reading about his childhood, before he became a

teenager, Jimmy was sensitive to what people said about food especially

distasteful jokes about what animals they were eating because he was

confused about who should be allowed to eat what. He didnt want to eat a

pigoon, because he thought of the pigoons as creatures much like himself.

Neither he nor they had a lot of say in what was going on (Oryx and Crake

24). This scene is important to understanding the character of Jimmy

because it shows that somewhere inside of him is a caring body. Not just a

caring individual for himself, but extending to other creatures, even pigoons,

which were transgenic pig[s], bred to grow replacement organs for humans
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(Pigoon by Margaret Atwood from Oryx and Crake). For Jimmy the absent

referent was very much present until he matured into a teenager and was

able to consciously decide to detach from that mentality.

It is during Jimmys cognitive choice to detach that he meets Glenn

also known as Crake. The relationship of Crake and Jimmy defines, in part,

each characters development. The interaction between them reveals much

about their individual characteristics. Glenn (Crake) and Jimmy first begin to

hang out during their lunch breaka small increment of time each day. They

then expand their hang out time to after school where they play

tennis( Oryx and Crake 77). It is described in the book that Jimmy was

impetuous and lacked finesse, which did not complement Crakes

combined method and lateral thinking and hated to lose (Oryx and Crake

77). The clash of personalities on the court motivates them to relocate inside

to play on computers. On their computers they sit back to back so as not to

see each others computer screen when playing competitive games. Sitting

back to back creates a voided space between them and inability to see the

other persons face. There is no natural space, only impersonal space

occupied by technology; in this case, a computer screen. When playing chess

online with each other, Jimmy inquires to Glenn why they do not use a real

chess set. Glenn does not understand the question because to him they are

playing something real. For Glenn the real set is in your head (Oryx and

Crake 77), existentially speaking. For Glenn, The real set is only a perception

of reality which one commits to envisioning. Therefore, anything can or

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cannot be real, but it is not limited to impossibility. Jimmy responds comically

with bogus, which becomes a common code word for when Glenn is getting

too philosophical, or pompous (Oryx and Crake 77). Their seating position

does not allow Glenn and Jimmy to engage in emotional experiences

together because they are too busy consuming whatever is on their screen.

This means that emotional reaction has become the absent referent through

the function of the computer screen. Since they cannot see each others

reaction there is no intimacy or shared experience. Instead, what they watch

becomes an isolated experience devoid of shared emotionone that is

appreciated only be one spectator at a time.

Jimmy, being a Word person, is portrayed as more emotionally affected

by the games and shows which gave him severe nightmares (Oryx and

Crake 81). Glenn may have suffered the same nightmares, but because he is

considered to be a Numbers person, his emotions are missing from the text.

Glenn is described as exceedingly good at games, and always wanting to

make Grandmaster, not because it meant anything, but just because it was

there (81). This obsession to conquer the technological world directly

positions that the natural world as an absent referent for Glenn. He is heavily

interested in a game called Extinctathon, monitored by MaddAddam. Adam

named the living animals, Maddaddam names the dead ones. Do you want

to play? (Oryx and Crake 80). Playing fervently, Glenn nicknames himself

Crake and Jimmy, Thickney. The two boys names become an inside

joke. However, when Glenn realized that Jimmy was not wholeheartedly

participating and theyd stopped playing Extinctathon, Thickney as a name

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had faded away. But Crake had stuck (Oryx and Crake 81). It is at this

critical moment of naming that Glenns future is removed, and Crakes future

is forewarned. Glenn makes a conscious choice to devalue the natural world

by replacing his natural world name with this technology-fueled name.

Therefore, the absent referent has been displaced twice: once through the

gaze of the computer screen and second by renaming his identity. The choice

to rename him through this anonymous computer avatar allows Crake

movement throughout both worlds, natural and technological. He is still

participating in the natural world through his physical placement; however,

intellectually, he has abandoned all hope and instead finds relationship in the

technological realm which foreshadows his desire to erase humanity.

This relationship with technology isnt particular to Crake; it is a

prevalent characteristic of Number people. In the private compounds it is

understood that the walls and bars are there for a reasonNot to keep us

out, but keep them in. Mankind needs barriers in both cases ( Oryx and

Crake 206). When Crake speaks of them he is referring to Nature and

God (Oryx and Crake 206). This confuses Jimmy because he thought that

Crake didnt believe in God. Crake responds, I dont believe in Nature

eitherOr not with a capital N ( Oryx and Crake 206). This further proves

the direct detachment from nature in these compounds and defends

scientists right to manipulate that which is natural because they do not

believe in nature being an entity. This philosophically and realistically allows

them to play like God without consequence. It is within the confines of these

compounds that Crake, as expanded in Year of the Flood, works on

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immortalitysomething about changing your cells so theyd never die;

people would pay a lot for immortality (305). When Crake chooses his

identity to be represented as an Australian Red-necked bird, he reveals his

yearning for immortality too. Immortality, though, would be nothing without

its counter-definition mortality.

***

In conjunction with Adams definition of the absent referent that feeds

into the perpetuation of society with hierarchal values focusing on the

subjugation of animals and by association women. Traci Warkentin and

Josephine Donovan help share and expand this subjugation beyond animals

to othered people more specifically women of any class or race. Together

they deduce that if humans are capable of committing such an atrocious

execution on animals then we are certainly able to commit that same act on

each other. An example of this enactment is portrayed in Atwoods character

Blanco.
Atwood develops a tension between the character of Toby alongside

her SecretBurger manager Blanco who is an ex-convict and misogynist. Toby

worked at SecretBurger for financial survival and soon was subjected to

Blancos physical and sexual abuse. Before Blanco was managing and

torturing the women at Secretburger, he was in jail. In order to get out of jail

he participated in a popular reality TV fighting game show entitled Pianball.

In this game two teams of criminals are set against each other. Often times

the killers will hang their kill on a treecut off the head, tear out the heart

and kidneyseat part of it, if food was running low or just to show how mean
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you were (Year of the Flood 99). This horrific depiction of how they kill each

other is synonymous to the way animals are slaughtered as depicted in Sue

Coes book Dead Meat. Looking at a drawing of Sue Coes cows hanging

helplessly from a hook is comparable to this execution style. The eerie

parallel of behavior is a direct evidence of what Adams, Warkentin, and

Donovan suggest as a parallel between the subjugation of animals to human

Reigning victors of the game like Blanco are often found celebrating at

Scales, a sex club much like a strip club where women dance and are subject

to prostitution. The women wear biofilm suits to prevent sexually transmitted

diseases when they are approached for sex. Theres a hierarchy in this

establishment that is especially prominent when the Painballers visit the bar.

The expensive good looking women worth monetary value are never given to

the Painballers:
for the basic bristle work they brought in the temporariessmuggled

Eurotrash or Tex-Mexicans or Asian Fusion and Redfish minors scooped

off the street because Painball guys wanted membrane, and after they

were finished youd be judged contaminated until proved otherwise,

and Scales didnt want to spend Sticky Zone money either testing

these girls or fixing them up (Year of the Flood 130).

These temporaries scooped off the street have no agency in this

hierarchy, and they are socially negatively judged for their forced sex work.

These women are devalued and degraded even within their own oppressed

group. The hierarchy is reflective of the oppressive patriarchal hierarchy that

controls the reason these women are working there in the first place.
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The women who work at Scales walk around in costumes that are

referential to animals like birds or fish. These costumes hide their identity,

but also provide a fantasy for the consumer. This masquerade is meant for

whom to feel safe? If the consumers enjoy this masquerade they feel safe to

act on sexual impulse. Women dressed in costume, veiled and disguised,

displace their identity so that they can be consumed without thought of them

as women. Their female identities become absent referents. The costumes

remove their identity as woman and replace it with animal identities. This

replacement, however, is an increasing danger to the lives of women, since

this society is still dependent on hierarchy that devalues animal life. By

replacing the body natural with animal costumes depicts women as object

of pursuita future trophy or pelt (Dunayer 15). The owner of the club

makes this sentiment clear to the working women:

Scales customers didnt care about your life history, they just wanted

epidermis and fantasy. They wanted to be carried way to Never-Never

Land, where they could have sinful experiences theyd never, never be

able to have at home. Dragon ladies winding around them, snake

women slithering over them. (Year of the Flood 307)

Encouraging these fantasies is to suggest two things: women as natural

beings cannot satiate the pleasure of men and women are expected to dress

themselves according to mens definition of sexy by participating in the

consumers reality and desire to hunt for flesh therefore discarding their

identities. This denial of identity and natural body positions women as a sex

object worth possessing (Dunayer 15). Since these men are seeking such
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pleasures in a sex bar, what stops these men from pursuing the same

voyeuristic mentality outside of Scales? Nothing because the hierarchal

structure is dependent on these subjugated thoughts.

Identity displacement between woman and animal creates an animal

fetish in the novel that is, in fact, later acted upon outside of the club and in

public in the novel. For example, in Tobys early teen years, before the

Secretburger job and the Gardener community, she worked as a furzooter:

cheap day labour, no identity required (Year of the Flood 31). It is important

to understand the double entendre in no identity required. The phrase

foregrounds the exploitation of people who need jobs and cannot use their

real identity. It can also be viewed as a pun on animals who lack identity in

order to be easily objectified, consumed, and conquered. In Atwoods society,

animals devaluation to humans means they cannot have identity; therefore,

by placing people as a furzooterno identity required enables an absent

referent of a sentient identity. Tobys job entails walking around in an animal

costume with various advertising signs. On more than one occasion Toby

suffers
attacks by fetishists who knocked [her] over, twisted the big head around

so she was blinded, and rubbed their pelvises against her fur, making

strange noises, of which the meows were the most recognizable. It wasnt

rapeno part of her body was touchedbut it was creepy. (Year of the

Flood 31)
If you read these scenes in conjunction with identity displacement of the

Scales girls, it is easy to identify the synonymous relationship between

animal and woman as a subjugated piece to the patriarchal puzzle. This is

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not to say that everyone in the book has an animal fetish, however, the idea

that displacement of identity facilitates abuse is, in fact, present. The

fetishists who raped Toby in the costume are no different than the men

that choose to participate in sexual activities with girls dressed up as fish or

birds.

In conclusion, the role of technology, animals, and women are critical

components of Atwoods dystopian society. Animals in these texts are at

times mysterious because you do not know when, where, or at what point

one natural animal begins or man-made creature ends. After the plague hits

in in Year of the Flood Toby is visited by a bee. Superstition states a bee in

the house means a visitor (Year of the Flood 319). As Toby inspects the bee,

she talks with it and it comforts her, but she cant help but question its

identity. She wonders if it is one of those transgenetics they let loose after

the virus wiped out the natural bees; or it may even be a cyborg spy,

wandering around with no one left to control it (Year of the Flood 319).

Addressing this identity crisis, Toby presents a critical question: How can the

characters, post-virus, re-establish identities without creating a hierarchy?

We as humans have defined ourselves by what animals are not, and in

doing so we have marginalized the animals. This has then prompted our

behavior to establish their hierarchal identity as lower than ours. When the

animals are not truly natural like the pigoons how do you know what is

anything anymore? Should these animals be treated with respect or is there

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now an even playing ground for each species to reclaim its hierarchal spot

perhaps with humans being the ones of subjugated identity? What, in

particular, will this mean for women? Since women are in Atwoods novels,

through language and costume, objectified and consumed as much as

animals where are the women to be placed if at all?

By analyzing and connecting these theoretical conditions, we are able

to theorize how we are to reconstruct our meat-eating selves as socially

responsible and caring beings. Adams theory of the absent referent is

important when considering the questions suggested above. By identifying

the absence and reclaiming its important coupled with scholarly activists

who plea for more empathetic human civility, we can begin to restructure our

hierarchal value and begin to think critically of the behavior and psychology

that is attached to it.

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Works Cited

Adams, Carol. Sexual Politics of Meat. New York: Continuum, 2000.

Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday,

2003. Book.

---. Year of the Flood. New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2009. Book.

Coe, Sue. Dead Meat. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995. Book.

Donovan, Josephine. Caring for Animals: A Feminist Approach. Tikkun 24.1

(2009): n.p..

Web. 12 March 2011.

Dunayer, Joan. Sexist Words, Speciest Roots. Animals and Women:

Feminist Theoretical

Explorations. Ed. Carol Adams and Josephine Donovan. Duke: Duke

Press, 1999. 11-

31. Book.

Pigoon by Margaret Atwood from Oryx and Crake. Technovelgy.

Technovelgy, LLC, n.d. 12

March, 2011.

Warkentin, Traci. Dis/integrating animals: ethical dimensions of the genetic

engineering of

animals for human consumption. AI &Society 20.1 (2006): 82-102.

Web. 12 March

2011.