Here is some somewhat relevant listening (those who are musically faint of heart, beware).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7bxjDGbrLI
(Doro and Anyanwu discussing her post-escape husband Mgbada)
“And he survived a crossing on a slave ship?”
“Only part of him survived. He was mad most of the time, but he was docile. He was like a child. The slavers pretended that it was because he had not yet learned English that he seemed strange. They showed me how strong his muscles were – I had the form of a white man, you see.”
“I know.”
“They showed me his teeth and his hands and his penis and they said what a good breeder he would be. They would have pleased you, Doro. They thought very much as you do.”
“I doubt it,” he said amiably. He was being surprisingly amiable. He was at his first stage – seeking to seduce her as he had when he took her from her people. No doubt by his own reasoning he was being extremely generous. She had run from him, done what no one else could do, kept out of his hands for more than a lifetime; yet instead of her killing her at once, he seemed to be beginning again with her – giving her a chance to accept him as thought nothing had happened. That meant he wanted her alive, if she would submit.
Her own sense of relief at this realization startled her. She had come down the stairs to him expecting to die, ready to die, and here he was courting her again. And here she was responding…. (Butler, 191)
This passage is another key interaction between Doro and Anyanwu in their highly controlled but super hostile stand offs. Throughout the story of Wild Seed we have come to know Doro as a sophisticated and manipulative body snatcher and breeder of witch-like humans. Of course, at the very beginning he convinced Anyanwu to become his wife and travel to America with him for this purpose of breeding. This story, taking place in the 1800s and surrounded by the issue of slavery, makes a very powerful opposition between love or relationships and slavery. With Doro’s power of stealing bodies and killing simultaneously, presumably even involuntarily if it comes to his body being mortally wounded, he is a killing force that can operate outside of any authority known to man. With this power he can bring Anyanwu to do anything he wishes while threatening death and enslavement to her children as long as she is in a human form. The comparison between slavery and human romantic relationships comes in during their negotiate interactions as exemplified above.
Anyanwu is cast in this story as an infinitely fertile mother and healer – she is the end-all maternal figure for many reasons. One of the most powerful reasons is her being from Africa – the continent widely considered to be the arc and origin of life on planet Earth. Being native of this place as well as being an immortal shape-shifter and giving birth to many offspring throughout the course of the story is essentially enough to make her the literal and metaphorical “mother nature” apart from the fact that she can’t control the elements. She's a pretty impressive woman, if I do say so myself.
Doro comes into this picture as the harnesser of her powers. Also, being a descendant of European ancestry, it is not too far a stretch to say that he is the ultimate representation of the inescapable white man slave holder. If he wasn’t evil enough based simply on his actions, his mannerisms and capabilities as well make him almost a devil-like figure. He molds his personality to suit whatever he needs to accomplish in any given scenario - changes his face both figuratively and literally. This is exemplified by his casual questioning about Anyanwu’s prior husband. In any real life scenario, an ex-husband questioning his ex-wife about one of her latter husbands would probably be fuming with jealousy, rage, and/or bitterness. Doro’s ability to subdue his feelings to achieve his aims can only be described as uncanny or “inhuman.” The only thing consistently recognizable about him is an indescribable (no, seriously, it’s never actually articulated in words) tone in his voice that his subservients can recognize and an “inhuman” characteristic of his eyes.
When Anyanwu says, “They thought very much as you do” she is comparing Doro to a slave-trader. Considering how trapped she felt by Doro and his indifference to her feelings, this comparison has a lot of merit. More often than not, he shows little to no empathy for anyone who does not have some kind of immediate value to him as a “seed.”
Through Anyanwu and Doro’s interactions, Butler seems to be making some kind of a social critique on love and relationships. If not, she may be at least bringing them into a politically hyper-charged environment for an extra-contextualized analysis of some sort. Despite the fact that many births in this story are organized meticulously by Doro, Anyanwu seems to only conceive with partners that she has come to love in some way. Strangely, this is not the case with each and every conception in Wild Seed.
Does Butler seem to be conveying some kind of a message about whether or not romantic love is necessary for reproduction?
What sort of questions is Butler begging us to ask about loyalty and love?
With love,
-Cirque
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