Clay's Ark

Butler’s main theme in this book is material determinism: the body determining behavior. It’s a theme that recurs in some of her other stories as well. It isn’t a question of nature, nurture or genes in Clay’s Ark however, and that adds to the novel’s strength. The microscopic aliens serve as the perfect metaphor for molecules influencing human behavior, and Butler doesn’t get stuck in the quagmire of trying to categorize causal chains and drawing moral conclusions from that.

Instead, we get a handful of characters who try to retain parts of their humanity – another bodily drive. Butler shows the emotional struggles that we all experience if we try to decide between conflicting desires – yes or no to that extra glass of wine, yes or no to lacing up and going for a run, yes or no to forgiving a loved one – but she ups the ante as the aliens install some bodily desires most humans consider immoral, leading to some interesting ethical conundrums, all anchored to emotions of the characters. Butler shows that context matters, and absolutes seem myopic. “You think you can choose your realities. You can’t.” To prevent worse, sometimes harm needs to be done – yet another iteration of the trolley problem.

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Full review on Weighing A Pig.