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Research Assignment #5 Bred to be Superhuman: Comic Books and Afrofuturism in Octavia Butler's Patternist Series

• Science Fiction was used a lot for politics. For example, during the Cold War to depict the Russians as evil
• Comic books were found to be junk food for the mind during Butler’s generation
• Different stages of comic books have been around since the 1940’s. There was the “silver Age” which is the era Butler was reading comic books, then the “Golden Age” both Butler was reading re imagining a postwar context
• Golden age began during world war II and ends because of the sales crash after world war II was over. Then in the 1950’s we see the Silver age with new characters like the Green Lantern. It was not until the end of the Silver Age and beginning of the Bronze Age were we start to see black superheroes.
• Butler’s Patternist series is linked to the Dark Ages of comic books because of its anti-Utopian presence and changing the world for good with force.
• Not only does Butler mash together beings with super human abilities, but she also combines Afrofuturist and feminism to the mix in her novels. We also see a good deal of slavery. The mutes in Butler’s novel are being constantly raped, abused and murdered by the superhuman Patternists.
• Superhuman telepaths who use their powers to fight one another and enslave the human race would be considered a Dark Age comic.
• We see a lot of hierarchy in comic books. But, this is also linked in Butler’s novels. For instance, in Patternmaster’s we have the super beings and then the mutes who are considered the bottom of the bucket.
• Every character in the Patternist series is a black superhero because Doro began his experiments and inbreeding in Africa.
• The whole series of X-men is isolation of mutants from “normal” society because of their abilities can be seen in the novels. For instance, Doro has no interest in liberal tolerance. He is seen more on the “brotherhood” team with Magneto whom just want control. As Anywanu can be seen as Professor X who wants to keep that power away from Magneto.

G Canavan quotes butler “she says elsewhere, was so attractive to her in part because of her sense that, as a “little ‘colored’ girl in that era of conformity and segregation. . . my future looked bleak”. Butler “fantasized living impossible, but interesting lives-magical lives in which I could fly like Superman, communicate with animals, control people’s minds”. Growing up in the time that Butler did she dreamt of big fictional dreams like these. She grew up during the Civil Rights movement and being a colored girl during those times were rough. She dreamed of a fictional world where she can have super powers to escape the life she had in front of her. She used her imagination to escape the reality of what her world was about. 

Research Assignment #4

L. Timmel Duchamp

• Delany (one of Butler’s instructors) speaks of difficult replicas in novels. Literary talent comes with constant repetition of reading but not experience.
• Science fiction writers try to create complex characters in their writing to have more to say in their novels than the usual mainstream male ruled world
• This author did not realize she was using character traits from other science fiction books she had read with the years. For instance, Anyanwu in Wild Seed
• Writers do not intend on writing down political views in their novels. They want the reader to read between the lines and comes up with their own views on what they are trying to grasp.
• Timmel goes on to show us the conflicts in Butler’s novel Wild Seed. Butler provides her readers with issues that occur in daily life and how decisions her characters make, positions that are taken, and how they are dealt with effect political issues
• Wild Seed provided a model structure to this young writer (Timmel) through feminist narrative and political conflict.
• Timmel takes certain examples from other of Butlers novels to point out her views on racism, slavery and feminism

L. Timmel Duchamp states “Her subtexts subtle evocations of grand philosophical narratives maker her stories about more than villains vs. their opponents and the particular evils of racism, sexism, and ethnic subjugation”. Butler does not put her own view of these issues out in the open in her novels. Instead, she wants the reader to read between the lines and come up with their own ideas. She preaches in every book about different social issues that affected the world whether it was the struggle for women’s rights or the color of one’s skin.

RebeccaJ. Holden

• Cyborgs represent diversity, and different ethnic identity
• Compares cyborgs to Anyanwu. Refers to Anyanwu as not being a "earth mother" since she exceeds the expectations.
• Erases the stereotypical boundaries of women in fiction
• Cease science, Don't feed into the stereotype of a "nurturing" woman
• Change the way science fiction was written by using cyborgs. Changed the way women are seen in their bodies.
• All of Butler's protagonist are strong female role models. Encourages readers to read between the lines

J.Holden states in an interview Butler had with Kenan "I thought it was just as important to have equal rights for women as it was to have equal rights for black people and so I felt myself to be very much a feminist". Butler stated this in and interview with Kenan in 1991. Butler felt women rights were just as important as black rights. Being a black woman she felt compelled to write about both identity issues in her novels to show the reader that both are equally as important.

Research Assignment #3

Article 1: Govan, S. Y. “Connections, Links, and Extended Networks: Patterns in Octavia Butler’s Science Fiction,”

• Govan centers all of Butler’s books around power and authority
• She placed her characters into situations which challenged their control in societies. For instance male and female are considered equal. Butler never uses hate due to race or religion
• Her novels surrounds the conflict of will and challenges of survival a protagonist must endure
• The author then goes on to discuss the power struggle between Doro and Anyanwu. Both are mutants that so different but so alike as well. Doro is gathering his bloodline people to keep them all together for his purpose. When they are no longer able to serve him he kills them. Anyanwu is not vicious like Doro. She resents him for using her to breed his children and fights for control.
• The presence of African Americans as protagonist in novels is a first in Science Fiction.
• She uses West African history culture (the slave trip to the New World from Africa).
• Creating a new genesis like Adam and Eve. Super Humans vs. Regular people
• Govan discusses the disappearance of racism comparing Doro and Anywanu to Adam and Eve
• Kinship that comes from the culture of Africa

Article 2: Govan, S. Y. “Homage to Tradition: Octavia Butler Renovates the Historical Novel,”

• Recreates African and Afro-American values
• Linked different topics together. Connects history and anthropology directly to slavery
• Ties together culture and heritage
• Legend of Ibo (a village protector in African mythology) is linked to be Anyanwu
• African tradition is to make sure children are well taking care of. Onitsha people believe children come first. This is a custom seen in Wild Seed by Anyanwu
• African kinship is a major structure in this novel
• Background of African Myth

Article 3 (feminist view point): Salvaggio, R. “Octavia Butler and the Science-Fiction Heroine,”

• Science fiction is a male genre. Up until recently more women began to emerge
• Their feminist perspectives give us a different kind of SF
• Not only is Anyanwu a female she is also African American
• All of Butler’s protagonists are women who face challenges due to sex. They are living in a male dominated world. However, her characters learn to adapt and compromise to survive.
• Anyanwu is the only protagonist who is born in Africa. This leads us to believe she is the ancestor of other characters in Butlers books (Amber, Mary, Alanna and other black women in Butler’s novels).
• Doro is a vampire like creature who kills individuals and consumes their bodies to live. As opposed to Anyanwu who is a healer, oracle, whom revives herself. She is very similar to the protagonist Amber in Patternmaster.
• Anyanwu learns more of her abilities and uses them to survive like another one of Butlers characters in Survivor Alanna.
• Like Amber and Mary, Anyanwu has a certain attitude about marriage. Like Alanna defiance leads to acceptance and she marries who she is told to marry
• Butler’s heroine characters are the very essence of her science fiction. She writes about survival and power that black women must face in common restrictions.
• Butler’s female characters are illustrations of different kinds of feminism. We see this through Butler’s books. The female protagonist are link together in similar feelings and roles

"Wild Seed, Chapters 11-Epilogue"

Doro was on his way to locate the escaped Anyanwu. His search led him to a plantation in Louisianan. He had heard myths about a black dog from neighbors and knew this had to be Anyanwu. Anyanwu had taken a new form of a white man, married with slaves and a plantation owner. Doro arrived to Anyanwu’s plantation and was greeted by a young man named Stephen whom was Anyanwu’s son and knew exactly who Doro was. Doro has arrived to a settlement of mutants and people that Anyanwu had created after she escaped from Doro. Doro and Anyanwu come to the agreement that he will bring Anyanwu’s children spouses to grow their blood line together. Doro brings bad mutants who attempt to rape Anyanwu’s daughter Helen, but her brother Stephen stops him and beats him to a pulp. Doro’s child then kills Stephen by manipulating his body and having Stephen jump off a ledge. He attempts the same with Helen, only Anyanwu catches him and kills him. Anyanwu comes back from a month away from the plantation to find out her beloved friend Luisa has passed due to old age. Anyanwu feels as though everyone is temporary and goes into depression. She sleeps with Doro and becomes pregnant. She confesses that once the baby was born she was planning to kill herself. Doro somehow gets her not to do this and her and him come to an agreement where he is not to treat her people like animals anymore and he is to only take over a new body when he needs to. The civil war is close to starting. The novel ends with Doro and Anyanwu parting ways. She moves to California with her people and changes her name to Emma.

Research Assignment #2

Lynn, E “Vampires Aliens, and Dodos,”

1. Novel explores what it actually means to be human. This is shown with two characters Butler portrays to be very different. However, they are meant for one another.
2. Elizabeth Lynn goes on the list the specific powers that are listed in Wild Seed.
3. To Doro’s people he is god. His existence is to breed special gifted individuals with various powers
4. Doro forces Anyanwu to join the gene pool so she can pass her abilities and change Doro’s people. He wants to control her.
5. Anyanwu is not comfortable with this and test Doro several times. He is forced to compromise with her in order to keep her from killing herself.

Elizabeth Lynn states “Its thematic core explores the question of what it means to be human, expressed through the experiences and emotions of Doro, a 4,000-year-old mutant whose sense of brotherhood in the human race has been changed and largely obliterated by his powers”. Lynn, tells us that although Doro is a ruthless mutant it is largely due to his power. Doro did not choose to be born a mutant and in order to survive he must submit to that power.

Pfeiffer, “Octavia Estelle Butler"

1. Her character’s struggles do not really have to do with black vs. white but more man vs. woman.
2. Pfeiffer goes on the discuss Doro’s long life and his ability as well as goes into detail of Anyanwu
3. Doro's for ever last life is a paradox that requires the death of others for him to stay alive.
4. Relationship conflicts between these two immortal characters are similar feelings in a world of mortals
5. Both characters seem to have a love/hate feeling for one another. Love between these two cannot flourish, they seem made for one another. They are very wise due to their immortality
6. Pfeiffer goes on to summarize Anyanwu’s life from the ship, to mother of Doro’s children, a plantation owner and then finally giving away the ending
7. Goes on to state the battle between man and woman not only in Wild Seed but in society.

Pfeiffer states “But Doro is a cannibal vampire: He must kill to survive and will die only when he loses a conflict with a superior creature,” Pfeiffer, tells us that Doro does not have a choice in whether to kill or not. He must be that “cannibal vampire” to survive as long as he has. Having this ability has removed any human remorse. No other person in Wild Seed is strong enough to win the battle over Doro.

Bishop. M. “Wild Seed,”

1. One of the oldest love stories around.
2. Goes through human conflicts of obligation and need. Also goes through longings of control, or for closeness to control and how we inevitably feel at its manipulation.
3. Humanity of two near immortals, whom are both from the Igbo mythology
4. Describes the different abilities of Doro and Anyanwu. Doro gives Anyanwu the nick name “Wild Seed” because of her bloodline
5. Bishops shows us how Doro is controlling and manipulating. Examples are he forces Anyanwu to marry his son Isaac and threatens her with the lives of her children if she does not obey and submit to him

Bishop states “A love story, then, but one in which love is annihilated by betrayal, threat, and active cruelty, only to reassert itself, tentatively, in Anyanwu’s melancholy acceptance of Doro’s inhuman nature.” Love is definitely a cruel game filled with all of the above. Bishop tells us all the feelings Doro puts Anyanwy through because of his abilities. His abilities have caused him not to feel human compassion anymore and that disgusts Anyanwu. Anyanwu does for a short time accept Doro’s inhuman nature but still feels bad about it. Anyanwu does not really have a choice in the matter like Doro has no choice but to kill to stay alive. All is all love is acceptance and compromise,

"Orson Scott Card on Butler's craft in "Wild Seed"

When reviewing Orson Scott Card’s article “How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy” he praises Butler in her work on Wild Seed. He compares other authors such as Robert Heinlein and Tom Maddox. He first begins with Butler being very clear when it comes to introducing characters. Butler gives us a name and no unnecessary tags to confuse the reader. Bad authors tend to add to much detail to their characters when referencing characters and not adding names. According to Orson this can quickly confuse a science fiction reader. According to Orson Butler piques our interest in the first sentence by carefully choosing the words “seed village”. It is a mysterious word since we all know what both words mean separately but, a lot of questions comes to mind when she uses these words.  He continues on to the rest of the paragraph where she describes bones, flesh and overall gore. We then begin to get a sense of time frame in the story from the first paragraph. Butler, references the New World colonies to hint to us the reader approximately what time frame we are looking at. We then get a sense of Doro being unemotional when he sees the gore. He is more concerned about his land and groups and not on the individuals. Orson refers to Butler being one of the best sci-fi writers during a time where so many good ones were around. However, into the first passage we get a feel on emotion that is swirled with elegance and authority. Orson, then references the meeting of Doro and the woman he discovered by accident, Anyanwu. He references the fact that Butler does not state it is Doro since Anyanwu does not know him yet. Again, Butler is not confusing the reader. Three pages into Butler’s novel and Orson believes she has conveyed a lot of information, all with just displaying two characters. 

"Wild Seed, Chapters 7-10"

In these chapters of Wild Seed we are introduced to a new character named Nweke. Nweke, has the ability to hear and feel other people’s emotions as well as pain and pleasure. She is eighteen years old and is said to be the daughter of Doro and Anyanwu. Doro comes back to town where he last left Isaac and Anyanwu to marry. A certain feeling was pulling him back to this town just as it did when he met Anyanwu years before. What was pulling him back was Nweke about to transition into her new stage. At the beginning of the chapter Nweke comes on to Doro and Doro takes Nweke’s virginity. Of course Doro knows that this cannot be told to Anyanwu who would consider this to be an “abomination”. Doro is actually not Nweke’s father as it was implied earlier in the chapter. Doro took Anyanwu to a man who had the ability to hear ones thoughts but not be able to control it. The main purpose was for children with strong abilities. Doro gets angry when he finds out Anyanwu made the best out of a bad situation when she started changing Thomas, thus having Doro kill him by taking over his body. Nweke’s transition begins. Many people are worried she may die rather than conquer her new powers. Doro’s plan is to have Nweke finish her transition and then eliminate Anyanwu. During transition Nweke loses herself and ends up almost killing Anyanwu which causes Isaac to hurt Nweke. All the power he used to hurt Nweke causes him to die and leaving Anyanwu with Doro.

"Wild Seed, Chapters 5-6"

The crew is now leaving Africa and headed to the Americas. Anyanwu meets a few of Doro’s sons. Isaac and Lale. Isaac is very gentle and fond of Anyanwu. Lale on the other hand had no good intentions. Lale attempted to control Anyanwu’s mind and she ends up killing him and eating his flesh. With the help of Isaac Anyanwu learns how to transform herself into a dolphin. Doro then realizes Anyanwu has too much power and contemplates killing her. However, he knew he needed her for breeding purposes. During the voyage to the Americas Isaac and Anyanwu become close and Doro sees that. He also sees that Isaac is captivated by her. He then decides he will marry them. Doro wanted children with strong abilities and knew if Anyanwau carried Issac’s and his own children this would happen. Once they arrived to the town of Wheatly he tells Isaac he will marry Anyanwu. Isaac knows Anyanwu will not be happy with this decision and knows this will cause a big debate. He asks his father Doro to please allow him the opportunity to speak to her before he decided to kill her once she refuses. As Isaac had predicted, Anyanwu is not happy with this plan and refuses to marry Isaac and calls Doro a liar. Isaac has a conversation with her and begs her to please obey. The chapter ends with Anyanwu saying yes. 

Research Journal Entries

Entry #2: Today in class we closely looked at what the difference between summarizing, paraphrasing and quoting is. We also read one another's research assignment 1 and helped one another see what is important importation to use for the research paper. We then split into groups of two to write a paragraph regarding interviews with Butler.

Entry#3: Today we went through a few things we did last week. We went though other classmates work and gave advice on their paragraph from last week. We split up into groups of two and wrote a new paragraph summarizing, paraphrasing or quoting a thesis paper written by Elycas Rae Helford.

Entry#4: Today we looked at the Kindred Wikipedia page and learned about style guide for Wikipedia. We then judged the the Wild Seed Wikipedia page and added our input. We then summarized Orson Card's article on Butler.

Entry# 5: Today we read two articles. The main point is to summarize them and put them into bullet points. The instructors taught us how to use the library database to retrieve the articles needed. We first used google and then JSTOR.

Entry#6: We went over the difficult readings from last weeks homework and summed them up in class. We then continued our work on research assignment 3. Afterwards, we choose what article we would read for research assignment 5.

Entry#7: I was not in class today. I however, finished assignment #5 and am working on the proposal.

Entry#8: We split into groups to work on Power Struggles in Wild Seed. We went through the articles we have read so far to link to the theme. We then reviewed our proposals.

Entry#10: We edited the Power Struggles part as the Professor requested. We then commented on the Characters part of the assignment and added it to the sandbox

"Wild Seed, Chapters 1-4"

The story begins with Doro searching through one of his seed villages. He arrived to chaos. His seed village were already ransacked by slavers. After he saw what was left of this village he left angrily, to his surprise he found himself being pulled towards a certain direction. There he encountered Anyanwu. Anyanwu an oracle, grew herbs and yams to make into medicine for healing. Anyanwu who was an oracle had been through a lot of misfortune. Doro proclaims to Anyanwu that they are one of the same. He asks her to come with him on a voyage and to no longer be alone. He proclaims himself to be long living and powerful just like her. Doro kills to keep his youth and strength, he was not born into the body she sees before her. As the conversation continues, Anyawu transforms in-front of him into a beautiful woman less than twenty years of age. Doro insists she comes with him on his voyage to gather all his people and keep them together in a new place where he can protect them. Anyanwu decides to go with him. The plan did not turn out the way Doro intended. The young man who was supposed to give him the canoe felt no obligation to do so since his father had passed. Doro takes the body of the young man who refused to give him the canoe. Here Anyanwu meets one of her relatives. Okoye is the youngest son of her youngest daughter. He had been captured by Daly. Doro did not allow this to happen and purchased Okoye. On the ship Anyanwu tells Okoye that she is his mother’s kinsman. He remembers the healing as a dream. She then tells Okoye that he will not be harmed with her nor with Doro. Doro has asked Anyanwu to be his wife. 

Research Assignment 1

Octavia E. Butler was an African American science fiction writer. She was born on June 22nd 1947. Butler was alive during a time where African Americans were still not treated fairly. She had many struggles during her time. Butler was born into a low income family where her mother was a maid and her father a shoeshine man. At the age of 7 she lost her father and her mother became her only care taker. Although, she grew up in Pasadena, California in a racially integrated community Butler began to feel the racial inequality when she accompanied her mother to work. She was often going through the back doors of white people’s homes and belittled. Butler from an early age was social awkward and shy, which made it difficult growing up. She had dyslexia which made it hard to focus on school and also received torment from children. She eventually grew to be six feet tall and was an easy target for torment. Due to her awkwardness she spent most of her time at the local library. During the times she lived in many individuals did not see potential in her because she was a negro. Even her aunt Hazel advised her that negro’s cannot write. Although the world was against her she used these obstacles to encourage her to continue writing. She attended many universities until she finally got her big break. In 1995 she became the first science fiction writer to be awarded the MacArthur Foundation Grant. Butler died in 2006 outside her home. After her death an award was established in her honor for students of color. Butler was a woman of her time whom did not let any obstacle bring her down. She grew up with very little and used it as motivation to pull through with her desires.