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Biography

Octavia E. Butler was born June 22, 1947 in Pasadena, California as the only child to a housemaid and a shoeshiner. At seven years old, Butlers father, Laurice James Butler, passed away leaving her to be raised by her strict Baptist mother and grandmother.

Butler experienced much diversity and racism growing up in Pasadena. She accompanied her mother, Octavia Margaret Guy to work where she witnessed acts of discrimination, including entering homes through the back doors and being spoken to in demeaning manners.

During her early adolescence, she displayed severe shyness which alienated her from her peers. Butler also suffered from slight dyslexia which made school work taunting. Eventually she grew up to stand nearly 6 ft. (1.8 m) tall, which again subjected her to the torment of bullies. Because of her detachment from her peers, Butler spent most of her time at libraries reading and writing. Here, she picked up an interest for science fiction from magazines. By the age of 10, Butler was gifted a typewriter from her mother where she, "pecked [her] stories two fingered". At the age of twelve after being inspired by a television show, Butler was convinced that she herself could write a better story, thus creating the base for her earliest novels. She was met with negative criticism from her family, including her aunt who told her, "Honey ... Negroes can't be writers." but Butler was relentless and did not allow her comment to discourage her. She received her first writing commission while attending community college from a college-wide short story contest. With this winning, she was awarded $15.

After working numerous unfulfilling jobs to please her mother, Butler then enrolled at California State University, Los Angeles, where she wrote stories directed towards a white-male audience. Her first big break was through the Screenwriters Guild of America, a program designated to assisting minority writers. A teacher was impressed with Butler's writing, and suggested that she attend a science fiction writing work shop in Pennsylvania. Here, she sold two stories, "Child Finder" and "Crossover". Over the next five years she worked on a set of works she called the "Patternist" series.

In 1984, Butler published "Speech Sounds", which won the Hugo Award for short story. A year later her writing, "Bloodchild" won three awards including the Hugo Award, and the Locust Award, and the Science Fiction Chronicle reader for best novelette. During this time, Butler traveled extensively, researching for her next works, in this case, the Xenogenesis trilogy.

In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to win the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship, which awarded her with $295,000.

After the death of her mother in 1999, Butler moved to Washington where she began writing a new series. This set of writings was later scratched due to it causing her some depression, so she decided to start writing lighter and more fun stories. Her last book titled, Fledgling, was published in 2005.

During her last years, she suffered from high blood pressure, the medication she was prescribed caused depression and writers block. In 2005 she was introduced to the Chicago State University's International Black Writers Hall of Fame. She died on February 24, 2006 in Washington.

Bloodchild

Bloodchild, published in 1999, is a dystopian short story about a human like species, the Terran, and a centipede like species, the Tlic. The Tlic are superior politically and physically to the Terran, who live on the home planet of the Tlic after escaping troubled Earth. The two groups have a system which involves the Terran sacrificing a sons to carry the eggs of their designated Tlic, in exchange for peace, shelter, and the addictive eggs that the Terran consume for vitality. Gan, the protagonist of Bloodchild, is a young man who has been selected to be the host of his families Tlic, T'Gatoi. In the beginning, Gan understands what he must do, he trust T'Gatoi, and believes that what she does is in his best interest.

However, another young man, an N'Tlic (carrying the young of another Tlic), comes running to Gan's home, the eggs are ready to hatch and he needs to have them removed from his abdomen. T'Gatoi tries to keep Gan from watching the procedure take place, but Gan insists on helping. Here, Gan is greatly disturbed by the procedure, which involves T'Gatoi cutting into the mans gut to remove the eggs before they hatch, releasing the small creatures that would otherwise eat their way out of the body of the host, killing them in the process. Gan is now worried about taking on the role of a host for T'Gatoi. He runs into his brother, Qui, who is older than Gan and much more apathetic about the position Terran play in the lives of the Tlic. Qui believes that Terran are only around to be used as hosts, and that the Tlic have no real interest in providing for them; he calls the Terran "cattle".

After hearing this from his brother, Gan is even more uneasy. Seeing T'Gatoi dig into the N'Tlic so easily made him feel more inferior and he began to question his role in choosing to be a part of the process. T'Gatoi later sees Gan and can tell that he is upset by something. Gan explains that he is concerned that he was never consulted on what he wanted to do, that his wants were not considered. T'Gatoi suggests that his sister could do it, Gan knows that his sister loves T'Gatoi, and she would love to host her children. However, Gan knew that his sister wanted to grow up and have her own Terran children, and he could not take that away from her.

Eventually, Gan agrees to host T'Gatoi's children. The love hate relationship endures through the impregnation, as Gan questions sacrificing himself to maintain his families well-being.

Quotes

• "Back when the Tlic saw us as not much more than convenient, big, warm-blooded animals, they would pen several of us together, male and female, and feed us only eggs. That way they could be sure .of getting another generation of us no matter how we tried to hold out."
• "She rolled up his shirt and gave it to him to bite down on. And she opened him. His body convulsed with the first cut. He almost tore himself away from me. The sound he made . . . I had never heard such sounds come from anything human. T'Gatoi seemed to pay no attention as she lengthened and deepened the cut, now and then pausing to lick away blood."
• ""We use almost no host animals these days," she said. "You know that." "You use us.""

The Evening the Morning and the Night

This dystopian short story follows the life of a young woman, Lynn, who is infected with a disease called Duryea-Gode Disease (GDG). A viral disease caused by a cancer treatment which causes the infected to become so violent that they gravely harm others and severely self mutilate. It is not known when the side effects will kick in, but the newer generation, those born to people who used the cancer treatment, are living in constant fear of losing themselves to the disease. Lynn's father snapped and brutally murdered her mother and then himself when she was finishing high school.

Their self inflicted death is seemingly inevitable, which leads to depression desperation for the DGD. Lynn and others like her are very discriminated against. They are required to wear a necklace that everyone can see showing their status as a DGD. Lynn is less common however, both of her parents were infected, the outcome of how the condition will effect her is unknown. She meets another young man, Alan Chi, who is also the product of two DGD. Alan has had himself sterilized, as it has been taught that those suffering from DGD should abstain from reproducing. His mother is still alive at the prestigious DGD ward Dilg where she was submitted when he was only 3 years old.

Lynn and Alan go to this ward to meet his mother. There they see that those running the ward are able to control the patients by giving them something to work on. Alans mother, Naomi, drifted away into insanity many years ago and was blinded, presumably by herself. Even though she is blind, she is able to sculpt amazing things.

The Book of Martha

In this short story Martha, presumably Octavia, is transported into Heaven. Here she speaks with God, a large white man resembling a painting she saw when she was younger, and is told that he has chosen her for a very important job. The job is to make one change to humanity to make it better. At first, Martha is overwhelmed with this responsibility. Every idea she comes up with God shoots down with the possible negative outcomes. In the end, Martha decides to give humans wonderful vivid dreams. In turn, Martha will no longer be able to write stories.

Quotes

• "What, exactly, do you want? A utopia? Because I don't believe in them. I don't believe it's possible to arrange a society so that everyone is content, everyone has what he or she wants."
• "God shook his head. "Free will coupled with morality has been and interesting experiment. Free will is, among other things, the freedom to make mistakes. One group of mistakes will sometimes cancel another. That's saved any number of human groups, although it isn't dependable. Sometimes mistakes cause people to be wiped out, enslaved, or driven from their homes because they've so damaged or altered their land or their water or their climate. Free will isn't a guarantee of anything, but it's a potentially useful tool- too useful to erase casually"
• "Her mother, only a girl herself, hadn't know much about being a mother, but she wanted her child to be "good" and to her, "good"meant "religious"."

Amnesty

Noah, a human who had been abducted and enslaved by a plant-like alien species, called the Community, is now working for her abtuctor. She is free but emotionally connected to her abductors, she believes that they were insure about humans intelligence. Humans, who live in a severely depressed world, go to the Communities to find work but still harbor much resentment towards the Community. Noah now works as a translator between the humans and the Community, who communicate through gestures.

Quotes

• "She herself was enjoying the rare comfort of wearing shoes, long black cotton pants, and a colorful flowing tunic. And there was furniture designed for the human body- an upholstered arm chair with a high back and a table she could eat from or rest her arms on. She had no such furniture in her quarters within the Mojave Bubble. She suspected that she could have at least the furniture now, if she asked her employer for it, but she had not asked, would not ask. Human things were for human places."
• "The Communities could change one another just by exchanging a few of their individual entities- as long as both exchanging communities were willing. Too many of them assumed that humans should be able to do something like this too, and if they wouldn't, they were just being stubborn."
• The aliens used to lock groups of two or more of us together for days or weeks to see what would happen. This was usually not too bad. Sometimes, though, it went wrong. Some of us went out of our minds. Hell, all of us went out of our minds at one time or another. But some of us were more likely than other to be violent. Then there were those of us who would have been thugs even without the Communities help. They were quick enough to take advantage of chance to exercise a little power, get a little pleasure by making another person suffer."

Oy/Octavia: Or Keeping My Promise to Ms. Butler

• Marleen S. Barr published Octavia Butlers last book
• Marleen was disappointed that she could not get Octavia's book published before she passed away
• "The Book of Martha" was to be read at a gathering for fans Octavia Butlers' writing, Marleen insisted that she read it, even though she may bore the audience. She urged to read the story to show her own respect towards the recently deceased Butler
• The reader was worried that due to her lack of acting ability that the audience would not be able to enjoy her rendition. But during the reading, Marleen began to feel herself becoming an actress through Butlers' words.

Quotes

• "I promised Octavia E. Butler that I would give her a copy of the book in which her story appears. I am forever unable to keep this promise because.... [I choked up and was unable to finish my sentence]. My sharing this story with you is my way to honor my commitment, to make this right. I will try my best."
• "As I read, I thought that I could be echoing the conversation Octavia E. Butler and God were having at that very moment."
• "All of my years as a feminist science fiction scholar enabled me to transcend racial difference; I understood exactly what Butler was saying."
• "Here is the conclusion to "The Book of Martha": "I want to forget""

I met God, and s/he's a cultural construct

Merrill Miller writes about societies effect on how we view God. She states that our cutler strongly portrays the divine as what and who we value. She notes "The Book of Martha" stating that when Martha comes to speak to God face-to-face as a relatable being, she is able to grow internally and overcome her insecurities. Bringing God down to an Earthly being has the ability to connect the protagonist with the supernatural, inspiring a new form of self respect and dignity. The common belief of God being a white male is very much due to our culture. We view white males as authoritative figures, with knowledge and power. This oppressive idea only proves itself to be true when we are faced with the option of God being seen as the opposite of a white man, a black woman. 

• ""The Book of Martha," a black woman has a face-to-face conversation with God during which the deity's visage gradually changes and eventually mirrors her face as she grows to trust her own wisdom and perspectives."
• "... Presenting God as a black woman and as a reflection of the authors themselves not only makes the divine more accessible but also instills the protagonists with a personal sense of power and dignity that they did not previously possess."
• "By bringing God down from a holy place in the heavens, human beings can feel more connected to something larger than themselves."

Review of Postapocalyptic Fiction and the Social Contract: "We'll Not Go Home Again."

• "[Martha] is constantly torn down by the tension between her own self identity and role in the existing world and irreconcilable aspirations for a better one" 
• "Curtis reads these works as offering the possibility that the post apocalypse can be a source of "a radical hope" and that we might transcend the limits of our conventional desires for unattainable security. " 
• "reasoning from the veil of ignorance" 

Asian and female in the white God's world

• "A factor that creates additional difficulty for Asian women living in America is the fact that many of them are socialised by their families to uphold traditional Asian virtues of modesty, reservation and the putting aside of personal needs to be helpful to others (Homma-True, 1997). These traits are in stark contrast to traits encouraged by the dominant American culture, such as assertiveness, competitiveness and individualism."
• "Using various measures of religious piety, such as religious affiliation, church attendance, doctrinal orthodoxy and so on, the overall pattern of findings, with some exceptions, has been positive correlations with ethnocentrism, dogmatism, rigidity, intolerance of ambiguity and specific forms of prejudice, particularly against Jews and Blacks"
• "On the other hand, other data suggest that perceiving personal discrimination may be empowering or may serve to protect self-esteem"

Octavia Butler's Aha! Moment

In May 2002, O, The Oprah Magazine, published a short article describing Butler's "Aha!" moment. In this writing, Butler explains that when she was a child travelling to work with her mother, she describes what a pair of dog eyes taught her about life. She describes how he, Baba, the dog, was the first non-human being she was able to see as another living being. Butler says that as she was growing up in her neighborhood, she did not experience much racism, there she saw much diversity. It was when going to the house that her mother cleaned, Baba's house, that she experienced a feeling of insecurity.

Butler then goes on to reminisce about a trip to the zoo where she saw children throwing peanuts at a caged chimpanzee. She describes this as the first time she felt ashamed of being human. This experience caused her to examine life at a new perspective. She now hated cages, both physical and metaphorical. Butler believes that these cages can take the form of racism, sexism, and classism.

This particular essay would go very well with my essay because it addresses the struggles of minorities in America and just how soon the feeling of inadequacy can set in. Butler has an interesting way of projecting sexism and racism onto alien and animal types where the reader can plug in any conflicting cultures and get an accurate portrayal; this is her first experience of personifying a non-human being.

Citation Practice

Octavia Butler was shy as a child.