Power

What is The Power symbolically? It may refer to women’s inner energy and will to fight, both from a political perspective (feminist movements) and an evolutionary or historical perspective. The power in the book will also end up making us think of power in a broader sense (“they do it because they can”). The will to impose one’s will unto others, control more territory (physically or ideologically), increase one’s influence and reach, and have the tools or weapons to intimidate and hurt others. The power is a potential, and as such is a threat, but it also ends up being a structure, the social reality through which we live our lives. Women’s electrical power in the book causes a huge imbalance that threatens to throw off the sociopolitical status quo. The power is revolution, or the idea of a revolution, but then the often terrifying results of a large-scale revolution are also part of that power, because power engenders power, it transfers and branches like a tree.

Power also engenders desire. The will to acquire it, master it and wield it. This desire is not distributed equally among people, or among women. Some will try to take more advantage of it than others, as it usually happens. The desire for power also drives the search for pleasure, sexual or psychological, the quest for wealth and a stronger public perception. Power is appealing because it can give us what we don’t have or change our fortunes. Sexual power or dominance is also explored in the book. How do men react to women having the power from a sexual perspective? Would most men find the mixture of fear and thrill of hooking up with a woman who knows how to use the power more exhilarating than terrifying? Is the desire to be dominated as part of sexual fantasies and fetishes also a part of most men’s sexual psychology or is it awoken by the emergence of the power?

There is a clear reversal in the book in terms of the sexual violence we see today in our world. By the end of the story, men in third-world countries are not safe without the protection of women, afraid to walk at night on their own, and in some places brutally harassed, raped and killed by women who (at least conceptually) are getting revenge on centuries of abuse by men. To me this clearly indicates that the core message of the book is that no gender is morally superior, and that in a context of constant violence and brutality, those who are physically stronger will likely end up imposing their will. If men are still considered physically stronger in today’s world, the electrical power that women develop in the book would be off the charts in terms of a physical advantage.

The rape scenes are very effective because they capture not only the aspects of force and physical domination involved in such an attack but also the humiliation and shame that rape victims experience. The fact that the rapists in the book are able to force a man whenever they want and play with how his genitals respond (due to their electrical abilities) denies all possibility of men “enjoying being raped” or that “they are asking for it”. The only exception to this may be when men are part of some crazy religious cult in which their sacred duty would be to offer themselves as a sacrifice to women. Not saying that sexuality wouldn’t be a part of those rituals, because there is certainly an appealing side to the darkest drives of human nature which include things considered taboo, irrational, self-destructing or immoral. Tunde’s sudden desire to be used in the ritual, or at least playing with that idea in his mind, may also be a commentary on how religion encapsulates human desire and power into one complete whole that might make us want to become part of it. But at least generally speaking, when it comes to most other sexual encounters, I think the author manages quite successfully to depict an act of rape of men by women which creates a parallel to our reality. Reading the rape scenes as a man is horrifying because the reality of women who are rape victims in our world is nothing but horrifying. I’m not forgetting that people other than women are also raped in our world, but I think the author was trying to draw a parallel between the morality of men and women in general, and in that sense I think the reversal is complete, shocking, and intellectually fascinating.

What is the relationship between religion and power? In the book, and in the real world, religion is a means to make sense of the world that creates the potential for power the more followers and adherents it musters. When one truly believes there is no going back, only sideways maybe, but never back. To be a believer implies to be blind to alternative or competing truths, not evil or ill-natured, but undoubtedly blind. In the book, some people are attracted to a religious or spiritual interpretation of the power, and what it might mean for women, because it helps them make sense of it all. What the author does highlighting female religious figures of the major world religions is a stroke of genius. In the story however, that stroke of genius by Mother Eve, is also a method of ensuring control over the masses, something religion is very good at.

Allie’s voice seems to be, symbolically, a reference to the drive that humans show toward the divine, toward a higher and more just dimension which must supersede the world we live in, because it came first, it’s perfect and should be the model according to which we live our own lives. People following an inner voice, or claiming to do so, is generally something associated with immoral acts like murder or genocide. Allie’s inner voice is reassuring and comforting at first. It conveys confidence and encouragement, but to what end? Does the voice have its own purpose or is it just a creation of the human psyche? Did humanity create the gods to help it cope with the anxieties and uncertainties of living, or should we open the door to believing that forces in the universe are at play other than ourselves and the consequences of what we do?

In a sense, the power in the book is divine, as it is power in our world through history. Humans have used the appearance of divinity to build and maintain their power. Divine rulers were supposed to be there because their right to rule with an iron fist was God-given. Questioning the divine was heresy. The electrical power is divine because it comes from outside our known history and nature. At least at first, it completely supersedes it. It changes everything, and therefore humans must try to understand it and end up grossly misunderstanding it, worshiping or hating it depending on which side they are. The power is dazzling and leaves us with no answers so we must surrender to it. Especially at an individual level, humans are no match for such a force.