"These are futures where we might turn from despair."
December 19, 2022 11:25 AM Subscribe
How to Survive in Broken Worlds (Jesmyn Ward on Octavia Butler)
I can't wait to read this! Thank you for sharing this.
I just listened the other day to her 1993 interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. Her voice was full of rigor and kindness, and she had a wonderful laugh.
I first encountered her in Omni magazine, which published her long short story, The Evening and the Morning and the Night in 1987. I was 16. The story blew my mind and the illustration has been seared into my brain ever since. (JSTOR)
posted by Caxton1476 at 12:03 PM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
I just listened the other day to her 1993 interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air. Her voice was full of rigor and kindness, and she had a wonderful laugh.
I first encountered her in Omni magazine, which published her long short story, The Evening and the Morning and the Night in 1987. I was 16. The story blew my mind and the illustration has been seared into my brain ever since. (JSTOR)
posted by Caxton1476 at 12:03 PM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
I was gobsmacked when I read Ward's saying that her partner had died in 2020. Then I realized it wasn't our Jessamyn West. This is a mistake I have made a few times before.
posted by neuron at 12:13 PM on December 19, 2022
posted by neuron at 12:13 PM on December 19, 2022
The Evening and the Morning and the Night is available at my library in 3 collections including Butler's Bloodchild and a collection of SF by African diaspora writers called Dark Matter. I'm gonna grab the latter.
posted by neuron at 12:22 PM on December 19, 2022
posted by neuron at 12:22 PM on December 19, 2022
I read Parables of the Sower around the same time as you, supermedusa, and had a similar reaction. Octavia Butler did indeed try to tell us.
The hope might be tenuous, and our lives might not be what we envisioned in these ruptured realities, but new ways of being are near.
I do appreciate that she offers paths forward though instead of just hitting us with her alarmingly plausible visions of the future.
posted by GalaxieFiveHundred at 12:24 PM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
The hope might be tenuous, and our lives might not be what we envisioned in these ruptured realities, but new ways of being are near.
I do appreciate that she offers paths forward though instead of just hitting us with her alarmingly plausible visions of the future.
posted by GalaxieFiveHundred at 12:24 PM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
This is lovely. I think it’s wonderful to see this huge surge in interest in Butler’s work, tragically too late for her to enjoy it. I just finished the Patternist series and was really struck by how much Wild Seed (which I loved) reminded me of N.K. Jemison’s Inheritance trilogy - I’d be really surprised if Butler wasn’t an influence.
I first read Kindred years ago, and then nothing else by her for a long time, probably not until the 2020 election when everyone was talking about Parable of the Sower, when I finally took it down off my shelf and read it (and then the Talents). That took me to the Xenogenesis books, which blew my mind. I find the violence in all her work incredibly hard to take, especially the sexual violence, but her writing and ideas are just so good, and her insights are remarkably true. I’ve only read the title story from Bloodchild - I’m not a big short story reader - but this essay is putting the collection on my list to go to next.
posted by Mchelly at 4:40 PM on December 19, 2022
I first read Kindred years ago, and then nothing else by her for a long time, probably not until the 2020 election when everyone was talking about Parable of the Sower, when I finally took it down off my shelf and read it (and then the Talents). That took me to the Xenogenesis books, which blew my mind. I find the violence in all her work incredibly hard to take, especially the sexual violence, but her writing and ideas are just so good, and her insights are remarkably true. I’ve only read the title story from Bloodchild - I’m not a big short story reader - but this essay is putting the collection on my list to go to next.
posted by Mchelly at 4:40 PM on December 19, 2022
If this is where we're sharing the first Octavia Butler we came across, Speech Sounds (referenced in the article) was mine.
It was in an oversized scifi anthology sometime in the early 90s. (The hardcover book was, sadly, too bulky to keep moving between houses and apartments and eventually cities, so I don't remember which specific one.) What I do remember are two stories that I kept coming back to over and over without ever consciously noting the authors' names.[0]
Somewhere along the line I got it in my head that Octavia Butler's work was the sort of Serious Literature favored by English teachers that could only be studied, not enjoyed. I have no idea how I came to that conclusion, only that I stuck her on a shelf in my head with Thomas Pynchon and Jane Austen to read one day after retirement when I had time to devote to the analysis required.
Decades later a friend bought me a copy of Lilith's Brood and out of a sense of obligation I decided I'd give it a try. It turned out that not only was I wrong about Butler being inaccessible, her writing style reminded me so much of that earlier story that I went to find a copy to send to my friend.
I'm pretty sure the facepalm I did when I saw who wrote Speech Sounds caused a slight but permanent dent in my skull.
I'm much better about paying attention to authors' names now.
_____
[0]: The other was Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers by Lawrence Watt-Evans.
posted by fader at 4:45 PM on December 19, 2022
It was in an oversized scifi anthology sometime in the early 90s. (The hardcover book was, sadly, too bulky to keep moving between houses and apartments and eventually cities, so I don't remember which specific one.) What I do remember are two stories that I kept coming back to over and over without ever consciously noting the authors' names.[0]
Somewhere along the line I got it in my head that Octavia Butler's work was the sort of Serious Literature favored by English teachers that could only be studied, not enjoyed. I have no idea how I came to that conclusion, only that I stuck her on a shelf in my head with Thomas Pynchon and Jane Austen to read one day after retirement when I had time to devote to the analysis required.
Decades later a friend bought me a copy of Lilith's Brood and out of a sense of obligation I decided I'd give it a try. It turned out that not only was I wrong about Butler being inaccessible, her writing style reminded me so much of that earlier story that I went to find a copy to send to my friend.
I'm pretty sure the facepalm I did when I saw who wrote Speech Sounds caused a slight but permanent dent in my skull.
I'm much better about paying attention to authors' names now.
_____
[0]: The other was Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers by Lawrence Watt-Evans.
posted by fader at 4:45 PM on December 19, 2022
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I first encountered Octavia Butler some years ago, and read the Lilith's Brood Trilogy (fantastic)
but for some reason I did not read Parables until the beginning of...2020!
that was pretty intense. that potential future of 2025 felt so plausible and near at that moment. (especially living in CA). I do highly recommend her works but she did not pull punches in exploring the worlds she created.
posted by supermedusa at 11:45 AM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]