Biting The Sun is a 1977 science fiction novel by Tanith Lee that explores themes of purpose and identity through an unnamed narrator. My attempts to define the book mirrored the narrator’s attempts to define her life and so her struggle became mine. The artwork I created are seven illustrations based on characters, events and ideas in the novel. The paper I wrote is a meta-pastiche in which I narrate my struggle to find purpose just as the protagonist of the novel does.
The City of Four-BEE is covered by a dome to protect the citizens from the elements of the post-apocalyptic desert surrounding it.
Ooma is exiled from her domed city for causing trouble, and she ends up creating a commune in the desert. She grows plants and reluctantly welcomes other defectors from the city.
After Ooma's pet dies, she decides to have a change of sex as well as body, and becomes a male for a time. She decides on an old fashioned, sort of romantic archetype of an artistic man from the past.
Esten is an old friend from the city, who loves Ooma. He wears a copy of her old body in an attempt to appeal to her taste in men. When he is injured on the commune he says he's going to go back to the city and have a personality/mind wipe so he won't rem
The robotic overlords of the City of Four-BEE are able to swoop in whenever a citizen dies, and collect their soul (or consciousness, or Lifespark) and bring it safely to Limbo where the soul is allowed to design whatever kind of new body they wish for,
The Pet is a mutant desert creature that loves to cause trouble and bite people. It is the only creature that Ooma truly relates to.
Ooma is Jang, which means she's an immortal teenager tasked with having fun, running wild, taking drugs and partying. She's tired of it.
