X-men vs The Chrysalids, compare and contrast: a critical discussion (SPOILERS!!

[houndsofluv]

haha thanks for taking me back to ninth grade English. What an odd little book...champion of the genetic mutation and, somewhere in the second/third act, incest

[Veitha]

I think it cool your mom was a Sci-Fi fan.

Yeah hahaha then she tried to make me read The Eternaut but I was too young and the radioactive snow traumatized me.

[RachelGrey]

haha thanks for taking me back to ninth grade English. What an odd little book...champion of the genetic mutation and, somewhere in the second/third act, incest

Oh you mean David and Rosalind, I think they were either 2nd or 3rd cousins though. I think that was also supposed to show how insular and untrusting these communities were in this future time where religion dominated their every day lives. David and Rosalind were also the only two telepaths in their area, so they were pretty much destined to form a connection because they could connect thoughts right from early childhood and on. It drives people closer knowing you are the only two people different in a community of religious nut cases.

[AppleJ]

Oh, a Sci-Fi book I have somehow never heard of! I will definitely add to my reading list. Thanks Domino! Perhaps it will get me more hyped for where the Krakoa era is going.

[Domino_Dare-Doll]

Chrysalids is my favourite novel from my childhood, it introduced me to the fact that not all stories have happy endings.

I think there are two aspects that you can compare. The initial is the plight of the deformed mutants and the religious persecution and genocide that they experience at the hands of the humans. This is very similar to the escalating hatred of humans for mutants that has always existed in the X-Men for years. Even down to the extremes where humans start trying to purge and purify mutants.

On the other side you have the story of the new generation mutants that are telepathic, they are able to hide in society but they live under the constant fear of being discovered as mutants, because they know if they are ever discovered they will be purged along side the deformed mutants.

In point of fact the telepaths do get discovered and it causes a mass panic in the humans to root out every one of them and purge them.

I know that some want to compare Sealand to Krakoa, but the land of telepaths is established, advanced, older, and well defended. In fact they are the most advanced society on Earth quite able to defend each other from the less advanced humans in the devastated Apocalyptic wasteland of that future Earth.

Sure if Krakoa was around for a few 100 years and had become jaded about their superiority I could then compare it to Sealand, but Krakoa is too new, and they are still under siege and struggling to survive against almost insurmountable forces of hatred and oppression.

Could Krakoa become Sealand, sure that could happen if they can survive the rise of the machines and even defeat them.

But even Sealand was non-expansionist, they were content to live on their island and only venture out to rescue any powerful telepaths they detect. Other than that they just avoid humans, they don't oppress them, they don't try to rule them, they just don't value them either way, they see humans as an evolutionary dead end that will die out on their own with little or no effort by the Sealanders.

Do they disdain humans, sure!
But they don't hunt humans or deliberately try to hurt humans.
In the story the Sealanders rescue the telepaths from being killed and they treat everyone who is a non-telepath as an expendable enemy because they see no value in saving those non-telepaths. This is where their jaded nature has come in, they have had so long as a society seeing the hatred of the humans that they no longer value the humans who hate them, they see the humans as a group of people who will never overcome their base hatreds and will die out, so they only care about saving telepaths and helping telepaths.

I actually think Claremont borrowed elements of Chrysalids for X-Men when he took over. God Loves Man Kills is an excellent comparison because it represented religious hatred directed at mutants and that is the underlying theme of the Chrysalids book, the unreasoning religious hatred directed at mutants lacks compassion, lacks empathy, lacks kindness. The humans only know to direct their faith as hate at mutants and have little to know compassion for mutants. There are a small number of humans that help the characters, but they are very few compared to the overwhelming hateful majority!

You pretty much just summed up the point I was trying to make about what Krakoa's more insular nature puts it at risk of becoming. Trade relations are one thing, but it isn't true co-existence; it's just that, trade relations. Things go to places without the people necessarily having to interact, which can potentially lead to the attitudes displayed in the Chrysalids between the three 'nations' we see and what happens when ideologies and dogmas aren't challenged. While the Sealanders aren't antagonistic, sure, their jaded attitudes aren't a far cry from the behaviour the X-Men are exhibiting right now, more extreme actually if you take into account just how unphased they seemed at the idea of the 'lesser' life dying by their own intervention.

There in becomes a point; who is anyone to put 'value' on someone? Regardless of their stage of advancement? The humans had no right to do it to the mutants regardless of their religious scripture, that's for sure, but then the Chrysalids had no more right to take the lives they did 'accidental' or not--they were just as dis-compassionate and, to be frank, rather hypocritical.

[Domino_Dare-Doll]

Oh, a Sci-Fi book I have somehow never heard of! I will definitely add to my reading list. Thanks Domino! Perhaps it will get me more hyped for where the Krakoa era is going.

Ehh...depends to be honest?

[pandafarmer]

Always looking for more books to read. This year my goal is 35 read (not counting comics/graphic novels). I'm on my 6th already but most of my picks tend to be relating to people with extra-ordinary abilities or supernatural/weird type events.

Makes me think we should have a Krakoan Book Club thread. Would that be against the rules? Maybe if they are only books that might appeal to X-Fans and we can connect the dots on certain things?

[Domino_Dare-Doll]

Always looking for more books to read. This year my goal is 35 read (not counting comics/graphic novels). I'm on my 6th already but most of my picks tend to be relating to people with extra-ordinary abilities or supernatural/weird type events.

Makes me think we should have a Krakoan Book Club thread. Would that be against the rules? Maybe if they are only books that might appeal to X-Fans and we can connect the dots on certain things?

I'd be totally game! We should ask the mods!