Essay Questions

How does the author exploit real-world social dynamics to explain the creation of her near-future dystopic setting?

This dystopic fiction is about political change which results in the formation of a totalitarian government. The dystopic vision of Toronto in this novel completely subverts that trope by presenting a functioning democratic provincial government still in place in Ottawa. The conflict arises from the fact that the government’s power is severely limited within the inner city of Toronto. The dystopic nightmare which Toronto has become results from its transformation into a “doughnut hole city” in which white flight to the suburbs took all the investment money and tax revenue with it. This population shift left behind little more than a desperate underclass ripe for a well-organized and psychopathic criminal gang to terrorize into submission. The story that is told in the novel is an extreme scenario based on a reality that many big cities across North America had been experiencing with the rise of suburbia.

Why did the author argue upon publication of the book in 1998 that her novel represented a subversion of a foundational element of science fiction?

If it is stipulated that Black authors represent a small minority of science fiction writers today, then it can be assumed that in 1998 this was even more so. Science fiction had since its inception been a genre of literature dominated by white male writers. Despite monopolizing both the creative end of science fiction writing and the business end of choosing what stories got published, the great irony of this situation was, as Hopkinson pointed out, that the bulk of science fiction focused on “the experience of being alienated” by writers who had never truly experienced systemic social alienation. The author set herself to the task of a crafting a novel about this existential component of science fiction written by someone who had actually experienced alienation. In Hopkinson’s case, as both a Black person and a woman, she experienced a combined experience of alienation from a white patriarchal mainstream. The result is a novel that can be summarized according to its subversive intent. It is a tale of strong-willed but economically deprived women trapped in a brutally patriarchal society empowering themselves through ancient magic to overcome the Black male gangster isolating them. Along the way to achieving this goal, they also happen to transform the white political power structure which had been ignoring them.

How is the entire plot of the novel connected to one single act of political calculation?

The story opens with a dramatic sequence in which the Toronto’s criminal de facto ruler Rudy Sheldon learns that the political head of Ottawa, Premier Catherine Uttley, has requested a human heart to fulfill her imminent need for a transplant. Intricately related to the process of Toronto becoming a doughnut hole city is the issue of organ farms creating a constant supply of pig organs for human transplant. The Premier’s decision to pursue procurement of a human heart rather than relying upon the ample and immediately available supply of pig hearts is engendered by a recent viral outbreak among the pig population showing a capacity to make the leap to humans. Uttley’s bid for re-election looks destined for failure until she is shown data revealing an enormous spike in her poll numbers occasioned by simply flipping her current position against reinstating voluntary human organ donation. Her own heart transplant surgery thus becomes a campaign gimmick aimed at underlining the full extent of her support for reversing her previous stand. This reversal has the potential to change the outcome of the election in her favor. The mission for procuring the human heart has been handed to Rudy Sheldon. His position as the criminal head of Toronto makes this decision the catalyst that develops the multiple conflicts in the story.