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== Octavia E. Butler ==

Bio Summary

Octavia Butler was an only child raised by her mother and grandmother in Pasadena, California in a very strict environment. During her childhood, power especially white power was still a being enforced. Her mom being a housekeeper brought her things such as books and magazines for Butler to read. Raised in an all women household and being bullied she began to view the world differently. She was also very shy and being asocial she passed her time reading and in her Community Library. At a certain age, she stopped reading stories and started writing a better version of the things she read and watched. She received a typewriter  after continuously asking her mother for one. At age 13 when a relative came by she started doubting her writing but Butler never stopped. When she graduated from high school and entered college she began entering into writing contests and winning prize money. After work, she would attend UCLA extension to take writing courses. Soon she got a breaking point at The Open Door Workshop of the Screenwriters Guild of America, which got her a step further into her dream. Then on she wrote more books and novels and quit her temporary job to focus more on her writing. She started to travel to do some research for her writing and became acknowledged for her work by winning Awards. But after going through depression, having writer’s block she got inducted into Chicago University Hall of Fame. However on February 24th, 2006 at the age of 58 Butler died outside of her home in Lake Forest Park Washington.

Bloodchild

Octavia Butler was shy as a child. 

Summary

The short story Bloodchild by Octavia Butler explained the becoming of a child to a mature adult living in the alien species world. Gan was a boy who was born to become an N’tlic for a Tlic  named T’Gatoi. T’Gatoi would come over with two sterilize eggs. She would give one to Gan and the other for the rest of the family. Gan’s mother would always refuse the egg, she just watched everyone but mostly Gan. He didn't understand why his mother would refuse the egg because Terrans  drinking of the egg increased their life twice as the average. He also noticed there was hostility between T’Gatoi and his mother but never understood why until the end. Gan father a former N’Tlic and host  of T’Gatoi never refused an egg and lived a long life, Gan wished he could talk to him about his experience of being a host after watching Brain Lomas go through the procedure without having his own Tlic present. The way of life in their world worked by Terrans male carrying Tlic eggs because Tlic babies called grubs need blood to grow. While human benefits by drinking sterile eggs to live a longer life they have a greater risk of dying, because if the grubs isn't taken out in time the grubs would feed on the host in which the N’Tlic could die.The story included Gan waking up in reality and a possible change of how future N’Tlic will know about carrying grubs works.

Quotes

1. "No one ever asks us," I said. "You never asked me".
2. "Now I sat leaning on it, missing him. I could have talked to him. He had done it three times in his long life. Three clutches of eggs, three times being opened up and sewed up. How had he done it? How did anyone do it?"
3. "Your gaining weight finally. Thinness is dangerous." ... "He's still too thin," my mother said sharply. T'Gatoi lifted her head and perhaps a meter of her body off the couch as though she were sitting up. She looked at my mother, and my mother, her face lined and old looking, turned away."

Speech Sounds

Summary

According to “Speech Sounds” by Octavia Butler, in the story there was an illness that had wipe-out most of the population and everything around it. Spoken language became dead and those who spoke their life was in danger. The form of language that  was allowed was body language. Rye  the main character, goal was finding a living relative. She decides to travel to Pasadena to hopefully meet her brother and his children, but due to a fight and a young man who Rye names Obsidian, Rye changed her plans. At first Rye was hesitant of Obsidian because she didn't know who to trust. However  little things started to  impressed her as the minutes passed. By the time she start feeling less lonely there came a turning point. She lost someone but gained two more people. The illness has changed the world into chaos and Obsidian taught Rye to protect the people who can't protect themselves.

Quotes

1."And in this world where the only likely common language was body language, being armed was often enough."

2. "Rye took a step back from him. There was no more LAPD, no more any large organization, governmental or private. There were neighborhood patrols and armed individuals. That was all."

3. "She kept herself alive when she had no reason to live. If the illness let these children one, she could keep the alive."

The Evening and the Morning and the Night

Summary

A girl named Lynn Mortimer found out at age 15 that she was not the same as everyone around her, she had DGDs, also known as Duryea-Gode disease. This disease make them feel as though they are trapped inside their body, which made them want to rip and tear at their flesh. The non-DGDs see these people as destructive so they lock them up in DGDs ward. When Lynn met Alan he asked her to go to Dilg to meet his mom. Dilg is a resort, a special place for DGDS because the place is run by DGDs. When Lynn arrived she found out that she was a double DGDs, and could be useful at a place like Dilg. In the story there's an explanation of  how the DGDs disease started, how Lynn being an DGDS affected the surrounding her and meet another double DGDs. The story also explains how Dilg function compares to the other DGDS ward.

Quotes

1."All I could think of was the danger of those hands."

2. "Naomi seemed unaware of us. Her total attention remained on her work."

3. "Her gentleness could turn in an instant."

The Book of Martha

Summary

The Book of Martha is an new addition to a bible story. Martha is a woman who lives in Lake Washington and writes novels for a living. One day when she was going to the kitchen to make a snack she got transported from her kitchen to a place where she met God. At first she pictured him as how the world view him. However along the way, her perception of God changes. When he talked to her he asked he to remember Jonah, Noah and Job stories. He wanted her to come up with an idea to help save humanity. However she had a price to pay. He wanted her to fix the problem before new generation came. During their discussion Martha questioned if God really is God, based on his expression responses and  laughter. She also questioned why he choose her because she doubt that she could do a good job.

Quotes:

1. “As i’ve told you, you see what your life has prepared you to see.’ God said.”

2. “I see you as a female now.” “If he was God. Why had he chosen her, after all?

3. “If he was God. Why had he chosen her, after all?

Amnesty

Summary

In the book “Amnesty” 6 individuals wanted jobs from alien species that invaded Earth called communities. The communities live in the Earth desert locations. Noah Cannon was abducted from her parents house by the communities at the age of 11. Now 12 years later she worked for them. Noah Cannon was the translator between the communities and the humans. Everything between the humans and the communities are based on a contract. Years before when Noah asked to be released from the communities, the Army took her and questioned her for days, doing everything to get information out of her which led her to an attempted suicide. The 6 individuals had lots of questions from trust to forgiveness to what the communities looked like. They was also was curious about the way the communities communicate with the human; the enfolding process and the history of between the communities and human war.

Quotes:

1. The only difference between the way they treated me and the way the alines treated me during the early years of my captivity was that the so-called human beings knew they were hurting me.”

2. “If they do decide to fight we won't survive.”

3. “They were like human scientist experimenting with lab animals-not cruel, but throuogh.”

Crossover

Summary

“Crossover” by Octavia Butler, involve a woman who is too comfortable in a job where she could never make everyone happy. She is surrounded by “bad” people in her neighborhood and after work one night she runs into person in her past. At first she indulgent it, however before the night ends she runs away.

Quotes

1. "A man who had something wrong with his face."

“On the Phone with Octavia Butler.” Changing Bodies in the Fiction of Octavia Butler

According to Gregory Jerome Hampton.  “On the Phone with Octavia Butler.” Changing Bodies in the Fiction of Octavia Butler. “Vampires and Utopia: Reading Radial and Gender Politics in the Fiction of Octavia Butler”, the article discusses power as one of the main themes in her story. The form of Butler's writing of Science Fiction takes on a  politics aspect. In this article, Hampton analyzes Butlers stories with themes that include race, class, sex, and identity. The source plays well with the story “Amnesty” because it discusses the world today. It talks about using a different protagonist that other story may use. Instead of the white male, as the heroic character, Butler uses black females in most stories as the hero same as in "Amnesty" when she uses Noah as the translator. She uses black women as a survivor in her story. Powerful and independent.

Quotes

1. "Butler's writing is very much invested in the art of governing and influencing of those who might be cocompetingor power and leadership in one way or another."
2. "...butler has expanded humanity's future of white heroes and green aliens to include people of color as heroines, villains, and survivors".
3. "Butler's fiction suggests that the black female body not only survives in dystopian environment, but thrives."

Octavia Butler’s “Amnesty.” (2003) in Race, Aliens, and the U.S. Government in African American Science Fiction.

According to Elisa Edwards, Octavia Butler’s “Amnesty.” Edward goes over the “amnesty” story to break down in three parts from alien's, race and U.S. Government. Starting with the aliens, she compares them to “The Space Traders”.  Edwards also shows how aliens played a major role in "Amnesty" and discussed their addiction to humans. She noted they were not any accurate description of the alien community. She analyzed if they could become ill or whether they can operate like humans. In this society it is split by race and gender however in “Amnesty” Edwards points out that Butler created a new division. Instead of society based on race, it's based on alien and human. In comparison to human-alien species according to the text, the aliens doesn't have any violence they are peacefully and friendly to each other. Edwards linked "Amnesty" to Dr. Lee’s case and how it relates to Amnesty, from Butlers Afterword.

Quotes

1. "The aliens treat humans like laboratory rats, they treat unethically."
2. "As plant-like beings, the communities communicate with their environment differently than humans".
3. "The communities are dark."

“Theorizing Fear: Octavia Butler and the Realist Utopia”

According to “Theorizing Fear: Octavia Butler and the Realist Utopia” by Claire P. Curtis, her article focuses on the central theme of fear in Butler stories. Along with fear, Curtis recognizes that Butler also uses power and domination that plays along with Butler's stories especially “Amnesty.” Butler uses her stories to show that human has thought that they are the only dominant species on earth with the authorities to rule. However, it changes. Curtis noted that Butler occasionally uses hope in her stories, something to look forward too. In "Amnesty" that hope was Noah, she was trying to solve the problem. Curtis also recognizes that Butler’s story has the protagonist as women black and female. Even though they are usually struggling Butler uses them to change the mindset of the other character in the stories. For example Noah. Curtis goes more into detail into comparing both “Amnesty” and “Book of Martha.

Quotes

1. "Butler acknowledges fear, but refuses the move to authority."
2. "But she also uses her female protagonists to show a way forward out of the continued violence".
3. "'Amnesty' exemplifies Butler as a theorist of fear and represents Butler's response to our Hobbesian motivations."

Octavia Butler's Aha! Moment

In the first few paragraph of "Octavia Butler's Aha! Moment", she describes her childhood family life. Living with a family who her mom was the maid and her other family part. Then transition to talking about a book she read that had a family just liked the one her mom work for; Butler's  then discusses a moment when she was two years of age, sitting on the step facing a dog (Baba ) who was doing the same. She described the way he looked and wondered why she hasn't been aware of some feature before. Butler understands at that moment you see someone but don't honestly see them until you take a good look up close and personal. She then focused on the eyes, how looking into the dog eyes lead her to believe he was a whole different person.  From then on Butler focused on eyes.  She remembered on a class field trip when she looked into the eyes of a chimpanzee Butler understood the pain and sadness the animal was going through, and while the other kid made fun of it, she was embarrassed. Butler would remember that day and come to dislike cages, visible and invisible. Visible ones at the zoo and hidden ones that are used to divide society from races to gender, etc.  she believed it much better to know and learn about others while and keeping an open mind.

This Source is an article that represents a human behavior, which most humans aren't aware. The source fits in my research paper because torture used in "Amnesty" against Noah by both species especially humans. When she was locked in caged by the communities and isolated in jail.  How she portrayed some of the human characters to show how they don't have sympathy for the pain they cause their species, and how humans are self-centered people who alway have a motive.