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Octavia Butler, the Outsider Who Changed Science Fiction
Here is my Slate.com piece from today. Excerpt:
...her work went far beyond simply mourning the victim. She showed us why repulsion cannot be avoided, why we often resemble what we hate, and why it is sometimes our best qualities that prevent us from accepting the differences of others. Her ability to both understand the outsider perspective better than others and then to invert it, places Butler above her science-fiction-writing peers. She is a disturbing and important writer who transcends the usual genre categories.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on March 2, 2006 at 11:22 AM in Books | Permalink
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Comments
Dear Sir,
I knew Octavia, she entered the sf field a year be a year or so before I did. Although she may have thought of herself as an outsider, like most such individuals, she wasn't as nearly as much an outsider as she believed. She was always respected and beloved in the field. I worked at two sf bookstores during her life (my wife and I owned one) and even during the "bleakest" portions of her career, her signings were always well-attended. I picked her up at her house to drive her to a few signings (we got stuck in traffic together a couple of times) and she was always gregarious and personable. She wrote great books but she didn't change science fiction. She was part of an evolutionary trend. Don't get me wrong; I miss her.
Posted by: Arthur Byron Cover at Mar 2, 2006 3:39:37 PM
I have always admired Octavia Butler and have read most of her books. I am sorry to hear of her death. She was a wonderful writer who could really challenge readers to think about issues of identity, consciousness, species, and ethics.
Posted by: Kathryn Bellman at Mar 2, 2006 5:44:16 PM
Great analysis of a scandalously overlooked author. I turned to
Butler in desperation after thinking I had run out of good science
fiction and couldn't believe what I had missed. Now I judge outlets
by the number of her titles they carry and/or display - still
looking for another Patternmaster book:). In a way, her work is
science fiction at its best - it puts us inside real people living
in a time (or even a form) more advanced than our own. But her
stories also have a great habit of looking back, at us.
Posted by: ari at Mar 2, 2006 6:21:33 PM
The desire to be "socially relevant" is death to a good fiction writer. That's why sometimes an author's earlier work, before they get a reputation to protect, is better--more balls to the wall out there. When an author becomes "somebody" and joins the inner clique, they often lose the unique vision that made them special.
Posted by: Ruffun at Mar 2, 2006 10:01:09 PM
I listened to an audio book of "Parable of the Sower" and it made a big impression on me. Quite disturbing. I think of it when I think of ways our society might start going down the tubes. I wish the same narrator had done "Parable of the Talents".
Also read (not listened to!) "Wild Seed" which I thought was excellent. I'll have to look out for others.
Posted by: Jim Bim at Mar 3, 2006 8:05:33 AM
Octavia Butler was a great SF writer. But the need to put her above her peers and imply that SF was especially closed to minority writers seems unfair. The larger literary world seemed always eager to make Butler an exception to the rule of SF, so that they can continue to ignore the genre, while congratulating themselves for having read Butler. I heard her in interviews, pushing gently back against just such assumptions. I suspect that she was just as much an insider as many other introverted writers, considering her early championing by central figure Harlan Ellison and her attendance at Clarion, the genre's central training ground! That's not to discount the extra burdens she carried from poverty, racism, sexism; it just seems unfair to shift the weight of these societal flaws over to SF and focus on how she was an outsider to SF.
Posted by: Damian Kilby at Mar 3, 2006 2:25:19 PM
I just had to tell you how much I admired your skill and sensitivity demonstrated in your eulogy of Octavia Butler. I so enjoyed your skillful blending of subtle and non-standard insights together with sensitivity to the complexity of the authoress. As I had not heard of Octavia Butler until I saw your piece, I have an advantage and a protection that other commentators do not have: She was not known to me, but now she will be.
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