The Blue Ghost of Octavia E. Butler

[anagramofbrat]

I finished reading Seed to Harvest last night, which is the new omnibus edition of the Patternmaster series. I randomly ran across it in the library on my last trip down and thought what the hell, it's been long enough since I read these, and I need a break from the Giant Brick of Amber.

I've always loved Wild Seed. I still have my copy downstairs, signed by Ms. Butler herself in 2004 when she came to Smith to give a guest lecture on writing science fiction. I'm normally pretty meh about meeting famous people, but I remember going up to ask for her autograph that year and nearly peeing myself with frightened fangirl excitement. I think I blurted out not was she my hero, but that she was the second author ever to give me nightmares. (It's true. Kindred, which incidentally I can't find my ancient-ass copy of *RAGE* still scares the ever living crap out of me whenever I reread it.) She laughed. :)

I digress though. I loved the first half of the series (Wild Seed/Mind of my Mind) the first time around. I was less enthused about Clay's Ark and Patternmaster, I think because I couldn't relate to them the same way. They were both much better this go 'round. I probably had to grow up a bit more to appreciate them properly.

I was trying to explain to cell23 last night why I liked her writing so much, and I think my main argument was that her books are not comfortable reads. They are never happy fluffy tales of sunshine and roses; generally her main characters start at fucked and end up in oh shit!superfucked and what makes the story interesting is how they deal with their circumstances, either by fighting or accepting them. I can't think of a single story of hers that has a true happy ending beyond the protagonists finding some kind of inner peace, or victory or something, though the victories are often pyhrric. The other thing is when she writes about aliens interacting with humans (and a lot of her books do indeed deal with that) the aliens are ALIEN. They don't think like us, they are not driven by the same motivations, they are pretty much rational, talking monsters with their own agendas, and many of her novels end up exploring how humanity changes, adapts or stuggles to stay the same in the face of that. All pretty awesome things, I think.

I'm still upset that she died when she did. Aside from the weird irrational grief that happens when your idols die, it always felt like Fledgling was the start of something rather than a stand-alone story, and I was interested in seeing what further spins she'd put on the vampire genre. Of course, maybe that's a blessing in disguise, considering the ascension of the Sparklevampire.

Anyway. I'm still going through Amber, but I have also picked up Parable of the Sower to reread. It's another one I didn't particularly care for the first time around, I'm gonna see if my opinion has changed in the interim. And I need to make a mental note to pick up copies of the Xenogenesis series, which I don't have. Probably not the Lilith's Brood edition, as I liked having them in separate books. A perverse part of me wants to see if I can get my hands on the first editions of them with the horrible 1980s! Science! Fiction! typesetting and that insanely WTF cover for Dawn. Because there are so many white women with Farrah Fawcett hair named Lilith Iyapo. *giggle* Man. I would have loved to ask Ms. Butler what she thought of that after I read it. Alas I didn't get to that series until after she'd died. Oh, whitewashing.

But yeah... Butler's novels make me uncomfortable in another way that has nothing to do with her style or her stories. I get the same feeling of discomfort when I read Nalo Hopkinton or Tananarive Due, just this sense of "There aren't enough of us out there. Join Us. Write something. You can you know, you're just lazy." Seriously, it's sorta like Luke being constantly hounded by the blue ghost of Obi Wan Kenobi whenever he feels like whining about his life. Except I'm being haunted by the blue ghosts of black female science fiction/fantasy writers. No mean feat considering only one of the ones I've mentioned is actually dead, and the other two are on my twitter feed. Between that and Stanley basically telling me for the umpteenth time to get up off my proverbial ass and write stuff other than my constant "this is my life" drivel... yeah about that.



In other news, oh hey what's up snow. Also: Love me, love me, say that you love me.


Get your own valentinr

Comments

[rhipowered.livejournal.com]

I'm still upset that she died when she did. Aside from the weird irrational grief that happens when your idols die, it always felt like Fledgling was the start of something rather than a stand-alone story, and I was interested in seeing what further spins she'd put on the vampire genre. Of course, maybe that's a blessing in disguise, considering the ascension of the Sparklevampire.

THIS. I now want to go back to the Patternist books so bad...it looks like Seed to Harvest got a UK release, though, fortunately.

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

I am so sad that I didn't buy that copy of Dawn when I saw it at a used book store. SO SAD. Because even though I have a copy of Lilith's Brood, and that's an okay way to have the series, that cover is just so... so WRONG, in about the most hysterical way it could be.

We read Dawn in Spec Fic/Sci Fi. It was one of those books that made a lot of people uncomfortable, I think.

(...also it spawned the theory among SSFFS folks that I was an ooloi and the reason I wandered around massaging people's backs was to gather as many genetic samples as possible. Uh.)

I need to read more of her books. It is shameful of me to have enjoyed the Xenogenesis so much and never checked out any of her other books.

[bottledgoose.livejournal.com]

O_o

(...also it spawned the theory among SSFFS folks that I was an ooloi and the reason I wandered around massaging people's backs was to gather as many genetic samples as possible. Uh.)

okay, wtf, lol.

Also big ups SSFFS.

hold your tongue. ;)

[kuangning]

Octavia Butler, whatever else she would have come up with, would never ever ever have been responsible for sparklevampires or anything nearly that bad.

Re: hold your tongue. ;)

[bottledgoose.livejournal.com]

Good god no. If Stephanie Meyer dies, I imagine Octavia Butler and Bram Stoker are going to wait in line to give her an afterlife ass whupping.

My point was trying to write a vampire novel post twilight... yeah, it's not cool anymore, lol.

Re: hold your tongue. ;)

[kuangning]

I hear you. Which is a good reason for someone to come along and redeem the vampires, though. Meyer shouldn't get to be the last word on them.

[plexq.livejournal.com]

I've always heard mixed things about Octavia Butler, and so I've never cracked one of her books. I'm interested to see a bit more of a detailed break-down of what her writing deals with, and it makes we want to read one of her works. Where would be a good place to start do you think?

Plus, how often do you get to use the term pyrrhic victory online?

[bottledgoose.livejournal.com]

The three novels I would pick as starting points are Kindred, Wild Seed or Dawn. Kindred is a stand-alone, Wild Seed and Dawn start their own series. Really it's a matter of what you feel like you'd be into. Dawn is straight science fiction, Kindred is a historical novel with science fiction elements, Wild Seed is kind of in between the two.

My personal intro to her writing was Kindred, and like I said, it terrified the ever loving bejeeezus out of me. It's the story of a present day black woman who is suddenly yanked back in time with no warning or explanation to save a small white boy in 1830s Maryland. He turns out to be one of her ancestors (and also the owner of another of hers - you can imagine where THAT leads) and in order to ensure her own existence she has to ensure his survival.

...yeah. It's rough stuff. Excellent book though.

I am Koosh, hear me tangent.

[kshandra]

So what are your thoughts on Tananarive Due? Quite honestly, I filed her in my brain as Mrs. Steven Barnes, which I figure must be doing her a disservice, but it's sadly made it harder to seek out her books. (Which really makes no sense, because I love Sensei Steve, as a writer and as a human being - and OMG if you ever have the chance to take a tai chi class with him, DROP EVERYTHING AND GO.) So I'd love to hear about her stuff from someone who doesn't have the same biases I do.

Re: I am Koosh, hear me tangent.

[bottledgoose.livejournal.com]

Oh that's funny because I was introduced to her first and think of Steven Barnes as Tananarive Due's husband! XD I enjoy both their twitter feeds and need to read some of his stuff.

My cousin recommended her vampire series to me ages ago (also before the rise of Sparkly Abomination) and I love love love the first two books. I still have to pick up the third one... and I think there may be a fourth out there.