User:ConditionedChild/sandbox

Citation Practice

Octavia Butler was shy as a child.

Journal Entry 1

Today in Eng 103 I learned a bit about the background and going-ons of Wikipedia and the asset that it is to the general public. We were taught how to make an account and navigate some of the basic layouts of the site. The professors made it pretty clear how much of an aid to society Wikipedia is. Not as a brand or company, but as the concept of knowledge being broadcasted to the general human race. It is a database of curated information for just about any subject, topic or idea that is accessible to the public. "...For the free my nigga don't trip..." Jenkins Mick "Shipwrecked" The Water[s] 2014

Wild Seed (Ch1-4) Summary

Covenant (1690) starts off with a character named Doro trekking alone through unspecified parts of Africa. Doro was in search of a group of people, who had special qualities due to his doings and apparently belonged to him. They were stolen by slavers. But in his search he finds his attention diverted to something else. A sort of sixth sense draws him far from the scene where his people were taken. Important information is casually mentioned about Doro as he is approaching this unknown quarry.

“He was killed several times—by disease, by animals, by hostile people. This was a harsh land.”

So Doro can be killed, yet continue to live. This ability is further explained in the first chapter as explains to Anyanwu that he is a spirit that body jumps. Anyanwu, is the source of his attraction from his stolen people. She is revealed to be a woman of supernatural abilities as well though these abilities differ. While Doro has remained alive for thousands of years through his ability, she has been alive for a lesser amount of time because she had stopped aging. Doro convinces Anyanwu (by passively threatening her descendants) to come with him, for he collects people of her talent together in what he calls seed villages. She leaves, viewing herself as his wife.

They travel together heading towards a coast where slaves are being traded and sold. On the way a little more is learned about Anyanwu and Doro, to both each other and the reader. It seems as though one can consider them both the protagonists of the book. Anyanwu is a woman of great power, being able to shift her own and others’ body in a variety of ways, often which she uses to help. Much of her history consists of her being a mysterious medicine witch. Doro has questionable motives and is easy to identify as a villain, due to his blatant use of people to further his agendas. While at the same time, he leads a mysterious mission that drives the plot. Before they reach the coast, Doro kills a man and a boy jumping between both their bodies. It is the first time Anyanwu sees his ability and greatly disturbs her. They arrive at the trading coast, Doro in his new body. Doro commands great respect from the manager of the operations, regardless of the flesh he inhabits. Doro apparently uses this trading port to ship people he considers worthy to an American seed village. In the latest chapter they’re upon a boat in which a few more characters are introduced. Isaac, the son of Doro, and Okoye, who is a descendant of Anyanwu. Anyanwu, being completely unfamiliar with the sea and with sea vessels, is overwhelmed. She had never been away from her home land and at one point almost threw herself overboard. After being saved by Doro she expressed that she had little experience with such strong feelings that were not physical. Isaac and Doro have a brief conversation after the matter that confirms Isaac’s romantic interest in Anyanwu and reaffirms Doro’s view of her as an investment of utility.

Wild Seed is known to be a book of Science Fiction, though the way the supernatural is addressed and the unusual setting (for the general genre) give it a feel of Fantasy. But there are times where the abilities are addressed and explained thoroughly and it begins to feel sci-fi-ey.

Butler's Life

Octavia Estelle Butler was born in California in June of 1947. She was an only child, mostly raised by her mother due to her father dying before she was eight. She grew up around a fairly more diverse group of people than the many blacks of her time, butthat did not curb any race based ridicule. She seemed to have quite an introverted personality and her height made her a spectacle with other children. I would assume she didn’t have many friends. Which may have had much to do with her attention being elsewhere, mainly books, her favorite genre being science fiction. She also probably had many pent up feelings that she couldn’t express anywhere else but within her “big pink notebook”.

Eventually, her mother was kind enough to buy Octavia a typewriter.

Journal 2

Today we learned the excessive trimming of written work through the witchcraft of "paraphrasing"! And we learned to use the talk pages of Wikipedia to post information on similar topics. Did you know you could sign anyone's work on the talk pages? =)

Journal 3

Today the professor explained some of the basic structures of writing an essay. She spoke on the difference between a summary and an essay, a summary describing while an essay analyzes or argues. Later on we practiced more paraphrasing and read an article on Wild Seed by Elyce Rae Helford. Which spoiled much of the book -____-

Journal 4

Today, the prof.s introduced us to Wiki novels and Wikiprojects that pretty much state the rules and guidelines in which a Wiki article should present a written work of fiction.

Orson on Octavia

In Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy he explains how to carefully and skillfully reveal information in a story. He uses passages from the novel Wild Seed to show how the author, Octavia E Butler, exhibits such deftness. He begins by quoting the first sentence of the novel and expressing how much information Butler reveals in just that opener. And that it’s so seamless that he expects most readers to not even be aware of how much information they already know. He points out the naming of characters and the manner in which they’re addressed.

Journal 5

Today we read articles that review certain elements of Octavia Butler's Patternists series. The articles commented and explored the themes of racism and sexism in Butler's novel, which were barely if ever touched on before in Science Fiction. We found the articles using LaGuardia's Media Library.

Journal 6

Today we worked on the Research assignment 3 and read Govan's "Homage to Tradition: Octavia Butler Renovates the Historical Novel" in which she analyzed and described themes and ideas of Wild Seed.

Journal 8

Today we worked on our first drafts for the Wild Seed wikipedia article. We were introduced to the topics which are to be on the major categories of the article.