
When Science Fiction Becomes Real: Octavia E. Butler's Legacy - Hooke
http://daily.jstor.org/when-science-fiction-becomes-real-octavia-e-butlers-legacy/
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SwellJoe
I was very late coming to Octavia Butler's writing, despite being a huge scifi
nerd from a very young age.

I wish I'd discovered her sooner...she's easily in my top five favorite scifi
authors, today. _Parable of the Sower_ (and its sequel) is beautiful and
thought-provoking; the Lilith's Brood series (starting with _Dawn_ ) was _way_
ahead of its time, tackling gender, race, sexuality, and xenophobia, in a
really thoughtful and nuanced way (in a genre that is not renowned for nuance
on any of these subjects). Even her early _Patternist_ series is awesome. It's
like she sprung up fully formed as one of the great scifi writers (though,
apparently, she had several years of rejection, so I guess she honed her craft
in relative obscurity).

I suspect I was slow to read her because her best known work, _Kindred_ , just
didn't sound like something I would like (I did end up reading it, and liking
it, though it's not my favorite of her work, and I don't really get excited
about alternate histories or time travel stories). But, most of her other
stuff is right up my alley. She's got dystopia covered with the Parable
series, she's got weird aliens in Lilith's Brood, and she's got creepy
evolutionary speculation in the Patternist series.

I really just can't say enough good things about Butler, and strongly
recommend every scifi fan check her out. I wish she'd written more, as I've
read most of her novels a couple of times, and loved nearly all of them. It's
disappointing to have discovered someone so good, and then run out of books by
them to read, knowing there will never be another. (Similarly, I never "got"
Asimov as a kid, but then read Foundation as a young adult and finally
understood it and _loved_ it, only to find he'd died a couple months
before...but, at least Asimov wrote enough books to keep one busy for years.)

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stcredzero
Octavia is one of the most astute literary observers of human nature, flat-
out. She even gives the reader actionable advice. She has a talent for talking
about the stuff that's been before your eyes all your life, that you never let
yourself be conscious of.

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robinsloan
Thanks for sharing this here.

FYI for those who haven't read it, Butler's "Parable of the Sower" is one of
the most crucial novels of the last century. It mixes a future so dark and
plausible it makes other dystopias look sweet and cartoonish with --
incredibly -- a cosmic optimism so deep and hopeful it makes you proud to be
human. It's really an amazing book.

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devindotcom
Thanks for the recommendation. I haven't read Butler at all and have been
wondering where to start - this, maybe? or something more well known?

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robinsloan
I vote for "Parable of the Sower", definitely. I've enjoyed some of her other
books, and I still have more to read, but this is the one that really left a
mark on me.

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tclancy
Thanks, I just discovered Octavia Butler last month via the "Imaginary Worlds"
podcast - [http://www.imaginaryworldspodcast.org/legacy-of-octavia-
butl...](http://www.imaginaryworldspodcast.org/legacy-of-octavia-butler.html)

