Although Frank Herbert has been consistently concerned with ecology on its various levels, The Green Brain is the novel which focuses most directly and most single-mindedly on the theme of ecological destruction. It is also the novel which makes the most apparent demands on the reader’s credulity, with its living brain tended by insects and its clusters of insects which can link themselves together in such a way as to form a passable imitation of a man; however, these two assumptions are plot devices rather than central assumptions that must be accepted for the novel to make sense. Once they are provisionally accepted, they facilitate matters considerably without really changing the basic situation. Although they do tend to get in the way at times, the novel is nevertheless pertinent and worth the time spent in reading it.
The novel is set in South America, in Brazil. Under the auspices of the International Ecological Organization (IEO), a massive effort is being made to eliminate all forms of insect life, section by section, apparently until the entire continent is “clean”; the plan is then to introduce mutated bees to serve the necessary functions, such as cross fertilization. The regional director of IEO is Dr. Travis Huntington Chen-Lhu; he has been assigned to this effort because China has completed its realignment of insects. Some very interesting points are brought up in the first part of the book. First, it is shown that the insects are rapidly and radically mutating to meet the severe threat to their survival; one of these survival mutations is the clustering of insects to imitate a man, another is increase in size by some of the insects, and a third is immunity to the poisons which the bandeirantes (the Brazilian insect exterminators) use against them. The basis of this point is, of course, quite well established: We have already seen the need to continue to develop new poisons in fairly rapid succession to keep up with the adaptations of insects to poisons which once were successful against them; with their short life-spans and the overwhelming tendency for survival mutations to breed true, it does not take the insect world long to meet any particular threat to its survival. However, although mutation is a well-known phenomenon, the particular mutations suggested here seem more for the purpose of dramatizing an extreme situation rather than aiming toward full realism.
A second point that has some interest is the fact that a number of countries, including the United States and Canada, are holding out against this elimination of insects; that this is so makes China’s dual attitude all the more significant: On the one hand, they are leading the fight against the insects, but on the other hand, they will allow no one to visit their country to see their results, achieved over a twenty-year period. Their excuse for keeping others out is the years they spent dominated by foreign imperialists; however, we later come to learn that the real reason for both aspects of their dual position is the failure of their program, the fact that the land has gone sterile and that the mutated bees have been insufficient. Thus, they do not want the world to know of their failure, and there will be an element of saving face if others also fail. Throughout the novel, Dr. Chen-Lhu seeks to set up Johnny Martinho, one of the more important leaders of a bandeirante group, as a scapegoat if the program of realignment fails in either way; he will be a scapegoat particularly if there is a failure in eliminating the insects, but Chen-Lhu is also setting up someone to take the blame if the Brazilian result is the same as China’s.
A third point of interest is the fact that Johnny Martinho, who has been a leader from the first in this realignment of insects, is also one of the leaders in questioning the wisdom of continuing this course of action. He and other bandeirantes have seen much more of the mutated forms of insects than they care to; those that are seen in the city early in the novel are only one example. However, it is particularly convenient for Chen-Lhu and others to foster rumors that the bandeirantes are responsible for these mutations, developing them in secret laboratories; in fact, Chen-Lhu openly repeats the accusation to Johnny Martinho and others when the mutated insect is seen at the plaza, suggesting either that they have created such mutations or that they have arranged for some kind of masquerade to fool the people. Clearly, the climate of opinion is carefully prepared, for when the mutated insects have appeared, the people become a mob directed at the bandeirantes.
Thus, the lines of conflict are drawn early in the novel. The overlying conflict is between humans and insects; this is a two-way conflict, with humanity trying to destroy the insects, and the insects trying in a variety of ways to survive and to make some kind of contact with humans so that the destruction might be stopped. It is at this later point that the brain in the cave in the forest becomes important, for it is this brain that coordinates the activities of the insects and gives a conscious direction to their survival patterns. Furthermore, the brain seeks to find some mutual accommodation with humans, to find a few humans who can be made to see the mistake of destroying the insects and then return to civilization to persuade others; throughout the musings of the brain and the activities of the insects directed by it, the emphasis is on survival and defense, with only enough offensive power displayed to bring about the necessary results of bringing humans to the brain. Thematically, there is a strong suggestion that the best course is to listen to the insects and that their whole approach to the situation is far more sensible than the human approach; while the insects’ instincts and approach are geared toward survival, both theirs’ and humanity’s, the human approach will lead toward destruction, not only of the insects but also of themselves.
The second level of conflict, which provides the specific focus of much of the action and discussion in the novel, might be viewed as a political conflict that has several facets. One of these facets is the implicit conflict between those countries who have accepted the aims of the IEO and those countries which have rejected them; this conflict also includes the memory of past political conflicts, focused in the Chinese reaction to the years of exploitation by white imperialists. This is closely related to another facet, the manipulation of other countries through ideology and through the export of a set of techniques; this conflict is not particularly obvious, but it underlies many of the activities undertaken by Chen-Lhu. This, in turn, is also closely related to a third facet of the political conflict, the conflict between Chen-Lhu and Johnny Martinho, with Rhin Kelly in the center. In a sense, this facet is a personalization of the political relationship between China and Brazil; just as his government would use Brazil to further its aims and to lessen the impact of its failure in the realignment of insects, so too would Chen-Lhu use Johnny to further his own goals and to provide a scapegoat for the failure that is seen to be more and more inevitable as the novel progresses. Of course, these two levels of conflict are inseparable, for the primary political goals focused on in the novel are ecological ones, with all the manipulations focused on the way that the realignment process is going.
These conflicts begin working themselves out when insects linked into human form and function come to take Johnny and his father, an important political figure, to the brain so that it might have direct contact, data, and a chance to convince them to try to change the course of events. His father has a heart attack, and Johnny is ordered by the insect-men to follow their directions. He panics when he sees the insects swarming over his father and tries to get away, though they are deep in the jungle and in a place where the insects are strong. The only thing that saves him is the fact that they have ended up near the camp of Chen-Lhu, Rhin Kelly, and Johnny’s group of bandeirantes; they use a protective foam to enable him to reach them. After a period of illness, which had struck the others earlier, Johnny, Chen-Lhu, and Rhin Kelly (she had been brought in by the IEO to seduce Johnny and set him up as the scapegoat) are chosen to take the pod, a self-enclosed, self-powered part of the bandeirante truck, down the river to find help. Just before they leave the camp, Chen-Lhu makes a remarkably candid (for him) statement of his purpose in the entire affair; in large measure, the journey which the three take down the river is a “fencing match” between the three that results from this confession. After they have left, the insects swarm over the camp, and orders have been given to keep watch over the three, to prevent others from finding them, and if at all possible to capture them alive. In the end, the insects do halt their progress, but before anything else can happen, Rhin kills Chen-Lhu, and, at her request, Johnny kills her and then himself rather than face the insects. However, the techniques which the insects have used to imitate, in a sense to become, humans can also be applied to specific parts of the body; just as his father’s heart had been replaced by a symbiotic pump, so too are the damaged parts of Johnny and Rhin replaced. Although his father is extremely pleased by what the insects have done for him and has been completely brought over to their cause, Johnny has severe doubts; he feels that he is no longer completely human and that the course of action proposed will leave humanity the slave of the insects. The brain, however, ends the novel by suggesting that Johnny consider whether or not the sun is the slave of humanity—or of insect—simply because it supplies a life-necessity.
Thematically, then, the major thrust of the novel is pointing out the foolishness of ecological blindness. While it is true, for example, that many insects do eat food that humans might otherwise eat and do make things sometimes uncomfortable for humans, it is also true that without insects the land will become barren, unable to support any life at all. This point is made through Chen-Lhu’s confession of what happened in China and through his suggestion that the same thing is happening in Brazil; it is explained in a brief lecture by the brain on the variety of functions served by insects, near the end of the novel. The novel also suggests that some kind of accommodation must be reached and that cooperation between insects and humanity is the only possible course, especially for human survival. Also included in these arguments is a persistent questioning of human motivations and assumptions; for the insects, survival is paramount, almost the only goal, while humans concern themselves with many other things, some of which, such as the realignment of insects and the power struggle between nations, tend very definitely in the direction of non-survival. Although in human affairs, ecological considerations must work through political institutions, the novel warns against letting the political aspects become overriding, become more important than survival. Thus, human survival is the central concern of The Green Brain; one aspect of humanity’s current activities in relation to the world around us is projected, examined, and found wanting.