Capitalism and Fabrication of Hyper-Reality: A Baudrillardian Reading of Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake

The outset of Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" (2004) presents the global annihilation of the whole human race, with the survival of only one human and some "dehumanized" humans created by a young scientist. Then the preapocalyptic world of the novel is depicted through recollections of that survived human - a globalized community dominated by multinational corporations whose thirst for profit seems inexhaustible, thus employ several scientists to invent new technological products to bring in more returns for them. These scientists manipulate reality by engendering lab-made creatures that are produced via bioengineering. Besides their fabrication of "hyper-reality," the mass media perpetually provoke various desires in people by advertizing the products of those scientists, so that more revenue could be obtained for those corporations and their power could be upheld. Everything seems to be available by the means of technology in this illusive, consuming world manipulated by scientists and mass media. The writers of this article present a Baudrillardian reading of Atwood's speculative fiction to illustrate how the "simulation" of reality by scientists and media at the service of capitalists might bring about the extinction of humankind - presented by Atwood as the probable end of a world ruled by capitalism.