Science F(r)iction: Octavia Butler

OCTAVIA BUTLER (1947-2006) IS PROBABLY MY FAVORITE AUTHOR OF ALL-TIME.

Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction writer, one of very few African-American women in the field. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, she became the first (and as of 2007, the only) science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant.

“Genius,” grant indeed. When I first picked up a copy of “Kindred,” I wasn’t too sure what to expect. As a mixed race API male, this was my first ever look into Black, feminist, science-fiction literature and I had my mind rocked in ways I didn’t know it could be rocked. Think Jimi Hendrix/Kurt Vonnegut having a baby with Arundhati Roy/Maya Angelou. SERIOUSLY.

“Kindred,” is the story of Dana, a Black Amerikan woman living a seemingly normal life in the 1970’s, when some crazyass (to put it HELLA LIGHTLY) sh*t goes down…

The novel tells the story of Dana, an African American woman living in 1976 who is repeatedly thrown back in time to the antebellum South. She is unconsciously summoned (through means that are never explained) by her ancestor, Rufus, from the time he is a child through to adulthood. Rufus is white and from a slave-owning family. She also meets Alice, another ancestor, who is forced to become Rufus’s mistress. Dana is placed in the difficult position of making certain that Rufus and Alice have a child, Hagar, who is Dana’s direct ancestor (thus ensuring Dana’s own survival). Dana is also forced to cope with an environment which forces her into slavery every time she enters it.

Each time she travels back in time, she stays longer (Although time in antebellum south is “shorter” than real time. She only goes back in time when Rufus would have killed himself otherwise. Dana only returns to the present when she is extremely scared.

This book was the most imaginative yet vivid look at what affects slavery had on the Black AND White Amerikan psyche. The story goes from an edge-of-your-seat, terrifyingly horrific thriller, to a poignant, introspective story of love and determination. Butler never once eases up and describes in the greatest depths, the horror experienced by her characters and the devastating pains Dana confronts in discovering her bloodlines and ancestry.

While “Kindred,” made me an immediate fan of her work, my personal favorite collection of Butler’s is without a doubt “Lilith’s Brood” (aka “The Xenogenesis Trilogy”). This story is a trilogy comprised of “Dawn,” “Adulthood Rites,” and “Imago.”

The central characters are Lilith and her genetically altered children. Lilith, along with the few other surviving humans, are abducted by extraterrestrials, the Oankali, after a “handful of people [a military group] tried to commit humanicide,” leading to a missile war that destroyed much of Earth. The Oankali have a third gender, the ooloi, who have the ability to manipulate genetics, plus the ability of sexually seductive neural-stimulating and consciousness-sharing powers. All of these abilities allow them to unify the other two genders in their species, as well as unifying their species with others that they encounter. The Oankali are biological traders, driven to share genes with other intelligent species, changing both parties.

So basically…human beings have destroyed themselves AND the planet earth. An Alien race of healers bring us back to life, but in order for Human Beings to survive, we must mate with this “Alien,” species and create a new race of beings. Some understand and submit willingly, others rebel and attempt to kill the creatures that gave us life again.

“Dawn,” is the story of Lilith and her introduction to a new life and a new “race,” of beings. She ends up creating a child with her rescuers (after a multitude of violence/craziness/internal & external struggle) named Akin. Akin is a Human/”Oankali” hybrid. Unlike human beings, the “Oankali,” have a 3rd gender group that is needed in order for these beings to mate/reproduce (bananas, I know).

“Adulthood Rites,” is my favorite in the series and tells Akin’s story. I identified with this story in myriad ways because so much of it calls upon the experience of mixed race people. He is able to move easily among both Human Beings AND the Oankali, but also never feels completely “at home,” in either group. This story also goes deeper than my feeble mind had ever been able to grasp previously, into issues of gender and the fact that it is a dynamic that moves in a circular motion and is not a “black/white” spectrum (bananas, I know).

“Imago,” is about Lilith’s other child Jodhas. Jodahs is born “Ooloi” (the 3rd gender in the Oankali race) and as a hybrid Human/Oankali, is able to change between male AND female depending on his/her/its’ surroundings. The English language does not have a word in its’ vocabulary that describes a sexless being (bananas, I know!).

Another dope piece of Butler’s thought-prose is the final book she put out before passing on to sit by God, entitled “Fledgling.”

The novel tells the story of Shori, who appears to be a 10 or 11 year old African-American girl, but is actually a 53 year old vampire, or “Ina.” The story opens as Shori awakens with no knowledge of who or where she is, in the wilderness, hungry and suffering from critical injuries. Although she is burned and apparently has major skull trauma, she kills and eats the first animal that approaches her. After she kills again and heals, it becomes clear that she has complete amnesia, no memory at all of her former life. After discovering a burned village that feels familiar but of which she has no memory, a construction worker named Wright picks her up on the side of the road, and they begin a symbiotic relationship in which he receives great pleasure from her biting him and drinking his blood. The novel follows her exploration to discover who she is, who the people are who were burned and killed in the village, and why the people who killed them want her dead as well.

This book is (you guessed it!) BANANAS. Shori is a V.O.C. (Vampire of Color) and because of her melanin/pigment, she is less vulnerable to sunlight(!) than her pale, European Vampire bretheren.

Octavia Butler is a testament to the sheer potential of power and brilliance of the human mind and is my SHERO to the fullest. I just began reading “Seed to Harvest,” another compilation that includes “Patternmaster,” Mind of My Mind,” “Survivor,” “Wild Seed,” and “Clay’s Ark.”

The Patternist series (also known as the Patternmaster series) is a group of science fiction novels by Octavia E. Butler that detail a secret history continuing into the future from the Ancient Egyptian period to the far future, involving telepathic mind control and an extraterrestrial plague. A profile of Butler in Black Women in America notes that the themes of the series include “racial and gender-based animosity, the ethical implications of biological engineering, the question of what it means to be human, ethical and unethical uses of power, and how the assumption of power changes people.

BANANAS, I KNOW!

Do ya’self a favor and buy them ALL.

Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006)
Thank you for always droppin’ Science (F[R]ICTION).

With deep love, respect and gratitude,
Colin Masashi Ehara

p.s. Drop that Science…

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler
• Good Stories From Strange Folklores
• All the World’s a Stage: The core layer
• Best Story Opening Of the Year?