<P> "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" is a science fiction novelette by American writer Octavia Butler . It was first published in Omni in May 1987, and subsequently republished in The Year's Best Science Fiction (fifth edition); in Best New SF 2; in Omni Visions One; in The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy By Women; in Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora; in Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century; in Crucified Dreams; in Butler's collection Bloodchild and Other Stories, and as a chapbook from Pulphouse Publishing . </P> <P> In "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" the introduction of a cancer cure causes the children of its users to develop "Duryea - Gode Disease" (DGD), a genetic disease whose symptoms include dissociative states, obsessive self - mutilation, and violent psychosis . DGD patients can delay the onset of symptoms by means of rigid dietary restrictions . However, the intense social isolation they face, as well as the knowledge that the eventual onset of symptoms is inevitable, makes some of the second - generation patients wonder whether these efforts are worth it . </P> <P> Lynn, the female protagonist, is a double DGD (she has the disease from both her parents) learns how to deal with the disease and the oppression that she felt since she was growing up . She witnesses what DGDs are more capable of, when she visits the Dilg, a type of retreat center where the out of control DGDs are placed . At the Dilg they are not restrained, but instead are improving themselves by being creative artistically . </P>

The evening and the morning and the night questions