Webbready

Do NOT read this unless you have read all of Octavia Butler’s Patternist series of novels. There are spoilers below that are not meant for untarnished eyes.

“This town will think I am finally dead,” [Anyanwu] said, staring at the figurines.

-Wild Seed (Seed to Harvest complilation) p. 25

Emma died. The day Rachel told her about Doro, she decided to die. It was just as well.

-Mind of My Mind (Seed to Harvest compiaition)

I don’t believe Anyanwu, once known as Emma, is dead.

Mary says that Emma is dead, but it is clear from the narrative that she has not witnessed Emma’s death, but merely recalls it as a stranger who does not know of Anyanwu, the oracle who can change herself into any species or gender of vertebrate. Indeed, Mary would not be the first of Anyanwu’s descendants who has is only vaguely aware of the power this woman holds. The oldest son Anyanwu left behind at the beginning of Wild Seed also did not know the full extent of his mother’s power.

Similalrly, the idea that Anyanwu lives is in line with the beginning of Wild Seed as well. Anyanwu, upon leaving her village, presumes that her disappearance will cause people to believe in her demise. It is possible that history has repeated itself. Furthermore, there is evidence Doro could not track her when she was in animal form. Given that Mary is not only Doro’s daughter but is his successor, she may suffer from some of the same limitations that Doro had. It is not difficult to speculate that Mary’s ignorance of Anyanwu’s abilities may have led her to believe that Anyanwu had died when she merely disappeared from the Pattern. Given that the death of a Patternist also results in their strand disappearing, it would be easy to confuse the two events, especially for an indivdual who is unaware of Anyanwu’s ability.

The main problem with this theory, though is not method or opportunity, but motivation. Emma as in Mind of My Mind, is no longer the vibrant, strong character who defies Doro. She appears to be an extension of Doro who puts up mild protest at his plans, rather than the equal, opposing force that Anyanwu is in Wild Seed. Although Anyanwu cettainly wouldn’t die that easily as Mary has indicated, Emma on the other hand, would. What would cause Anyanwu to reclaim herself over the “Emma” identity and let others believe her to be dead.

I argue that the death of Doro would make her leave. She knows that she cannot fight the Patternists. Although her previous experience with Lale resulted in his death, she is keenly aware that fighting a Patternist would be like physically fighting Doro, impossible and counterproductive. Furthermore, in Wild Seed, Anya runs away from Doro after Isaac’s funeral, taking a variety of animal forms before descending into the sea. I believe she does the same, for yet Doro is another husband she has outlived. Anyanwu is not one to abandon her children, and she may actually prefer the company of her dolphin kin to that of her descendants on land who betrayed her.

Does this mean that Anyanwu exists, but merely reunited with her dolphin offspring? Although I believe this is a possiblity, it is clear that this character prefers being human, and is not one to run away from confrontation permanently. However, Anyanwu’s resumption of human form would immediately put her back onto the Patternist “map,” alterting the Patternmaster and causing her mind to be linked to the web of telepaths. She has no mental defenses and would too easily fall under the mental control of even the weakest telepath. This would result in a quick death at best, or at worst, a tool for Patternists to fight for. Given that Anyanwu is clearly aware of her powerlessness well before the end of Mind of My Mind, I don’t believe she would be as foolish as to give up her mental freedom so simply.

I prefer to believe in an alternale possibility. It is not necessarily the best theory and is the stuff of terrible fan fiction, but I believe that she survives…as a Clayark.

This may seem to be impossible. No Patternist is able to survive the infection that all Clayarks carry. Even Rayal, the Patternmaster and (seemingly) most powerful Patternist, is only stave off death for roughly twenty years. But Anyanwu is not an ordinary Patternist; she has complete control over body, including the ability to integrate the DNA of other species into her own body. No healer has shown the ability to do this, and it is stressed repeatedly that Anyanwu is unique. Although I believe the disease that carries the mutation could kill her, I don’t believe that she would let it kill her. She has far too much experience with isolating foreign matter in her body, then expelling it.

Furthermore, the Clayark disease itself has a degree of sentience, and does not kill as indiscriminately as the Patternists believe. The very legacy of the Pattern is of people who were tempermentally incompatible and were forced to breed. Perhaps, like the Oankali, this need for hierarchy was too much for the Clayark disease to control. The “stable” individuals — mutes, wielders of psychokinesis, etc, tend to be the ones who are used the most in Patternist society. Perhaps the disease recognizes Anyanwu as something other than an adversary. I’d like to think that the disease itself could be a successor to Doro of sort — an entity that exists in the bodies of all that are infected and forcing humanity to change through its own method of “breeding.”

There is, of course, the issue of how she would be introduced to the Clayark disease if she had taken refuge in the sea as a dolphin. However, given that Clayarks have overrun Earth, a secenario is not as far-fetched as it may appear. Perhaps Anyanwu misses land, and takes the form of a terristrial creature, perhaps even the familiar black dog, to explore it. Alternatively, it may be possible that Clayarks may begin to target Anyanwu’s dolphin children as a food source, and Anyanwu comes onto land to stop the killing. She may come across Clayarks or even Clayark weaponry. I can easily imagine her being infected deliberately or accidentlally as a result. She feels the disease and struggles with it inside of her body, perhaps negotiating with it. She emerges victorious (or perhaps brokers a “deal” with the disease, the immortal essence that can provide companionship), however, and may find herself in the shape of a Clayark.

Why then, even if she were to able to survive the infection, would Anyanwu remain in the Clayark form? I would presume curiosity at first. Anyanwu was curious about the dolphin in Wild Seed after tasting it, and that curiosity led her to live with dolphins for a time. She also took the shark form upon immediately tasting its blood when it attacked her. It’s likely that as exploring her new form that she may encounter more Clayarks. Perhaps they would tell her of what happened since she has been underwater and she would use the information to evaluate her situation. Patternists cannot read or control Clayark minds, even though Patternists can attack their bodies. A Clayark form would enable her the ability to communicate and interact with the “new” humanity while at the same time letting her remain undetected by the Patternists, whereas an animal form would make her vulnerable to Patternist mind control. Perhaps Anyanwu chooses to stay in this form. Perhaps that as before, she realizes that there are people that slip between the cracks of the order maintained by Patternist and Clayark society. Wild humans such as Alanna may still exist, although if they did, their numbers would be far fewer than in Alanna’s time. It is also possible that there are Clayarks who do not merely exist to breed and fight. Rane and Stephen in Clay’s Ark, despite being infected by the virus, did not completely succumb to the mindset it imposed. Would there not be others who although passing the mutation onto their children, would also pass on their resistance? Given that there are many tribes of Clayarks alluded to in Patternmaster, and that the only views of Clayarks given after Clay’s Ark are from an outsider perspective, I believe that Clayarks vary as much as humans. The Pattern is more Doro’s legacy than Anyanwu’s. It would not surprise me in the least if she were to offer a place of sanctuary again for those who did not fit into the society at large to balance the cruelty of Patternist society.

Yet this is just my theory on what happened to Anyanwu. It is possible that I am in denial over the fact that a character whom I fell in love with in Wild Seed, met such an unsatisfactory end after being stripped of all of the forcefulness that made her a lovable character. Perhaps, as Anyanwu says, I “see shadows and branches blowing in the wind” instead of the truth that she is gone.

Or perhaps it’s just…

…April Fools’ Day!

Editor’s note: I thought I included enough hints that this was a joke, since, contrary to what is described above, Anyanwu is not a Patternist at all and the Clayark organism is not intelligent — although of course, influences its carriers and may carry a greater range of self-awareness than the characters who encounter it realize.