Octavia Butler R.I.P.

Dang. There are so few women's voices in sci-fi, and she was such a good one. :(

I think we need people with more courage and vision. It’s a shame we have had people who are so damn weak.

she wasn't one one of them, for damn sure.

=(

=(

i read "dawn" and "wild seed" over a few days, holed up in williamstown, MA in a big airy loft that my sister was housesitting. it was the beginning of spring, too cold for a southern californian guy to want to go outside but sunny enough that i could sit in the big windows w/ the IDM on headphones and lose myself in her world. i had just finished college. it was a big deal for me.

RIP

She got used to the attention fast though, i think. I've only read the Xenogenesis trilogy and Wild Seed, but on the basis of that alone, she's one of the major science fiction writers, she built amazing worlds.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/books/01butler.html

---

HARLAN ELLISON
- Sunday, February 26 2006 13:47:2

...SOME SIMPLY AWFUL AWFUL NEWS

----------------------------------------------------------------

OCTAVIA ESTELLE BUTLER (1947-2006) died yesterday.

She was my friend, she was my student, she was a startlingly good and important writer, she was my protege, she was--again--my friend; and today she is lying in the morgue up in Seattle.

A winner of the million-dollar McArthur "Genius" grant, she was a novelist of coruscating individuality.

From what can be gathered at this early moment, something close to the following happened, some time yesterday:

Octavia E. (whom I knew, when we first met in the mid-'70s, as "Estelle" because her mother was Octavia M.) went out of her house, to get the mail, or the newspaper, or to water the lawn, or for some other mundane reason, had a stroke, fell in the street or on the sidewalk, or wherever, right in front of the house, and lay there...until she was (I'm told) discovered by a neighborhood lad, possibly a newsboy, who either ran home and had his parents call 911, or he did it himself, on the spot. The paramedics were called, got there very quickly but--and it's uncertain which--Octavia Estelle was either dead already, or expired on her way to the hospital.

More than that I do not know.

But THIS at least IS known to me: here was a remarkable, courageous, gracious, brilliant and extraordinarily talented woman whose like was seldom seen before her hard-won success, and whose like may be long in coming again. But sooner than would have been the case, had my Estelle not been here first.

Her dreams will be the sweetest.

-he

is there another thread that isn't a RIP thread? couldn't find one. i've been nabbing what i can of hers whenever it shows up in the bins at work. i've read parable of the sower, dawn, and kindred so far. hard to pin down what i like about her but i can't put the books down once i pick them up. where do i go from here, what should i look for?

She didn't write anything bad (although Lilith's Brood--of which Dawn is the first part--is my least favorite.) The sequel to Sower, Talents is great. And so is the Patternist series (which is collected chronologically in Seed to Harvest.)

I've said this on other threads too, but anyone who loves Parable of the Sower, should really read Jack Womack's terribly underrated (and unfortunately titled) Random Acts of Senseless Violence which came out roughly about the same time (and is itself part of a larger--albeit somewhat stranger--series.)

I have also been on as much of a binge as my local library will allow. (I pester them to get her books, and they've found many throughout the Lambeth system, but they come in all out of order.)

I read Parable of the Talents last week (stupidly, without reading Sower first, but it was what they had) and though it was one of the most head-fuck territory books I've read in ages. Not because it wasn't believable, (which some of the Patternist books weren't, but that didn't make them un-enjoyable) but because it was so incredibly believable, that sense of "this is not actually science fiction, this is what is already happening, or could so easily be happening very soon." Which made it much, much more terrifying.

But also beautifully written, and full of hope, and made me almost wish that Earthseed were a real thing.

talents and random acts of senseless violence were extraordinarily cheap on amazon and are on their way. thx.

Ebook versions of her work out soon -- and here are the covers:

http://io9.com/5924507/an-exclusive-first-look-at-the-gorgeous-new-covers-to-all-of-octavia-butlers-books

I don't like these anywhere near as much as I like the old mass market pb covers.

they're no
http://cd.pbsstatic.com/l/76/5376/9780445205376.jpg

INVISIBLE CHILDREN

"african" face. gif

OCTAVIA E BUTLER

reminds me of this ripoff

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gSqWmU1tR5k/R08JnWcW2nI/AAAAAAAAAM0/IMTXzLNouFg/s320/nova.jpg

vs

http://theneonheart.com/skeleton/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/SamuelRDelany-Nova.jpg

don't like those new designs at all

I've intermittently tried to get into Butler with little success. her stuff seems overly didactic

Out.

Have you read the Parable of the Sower, Shakey?

I.... don't think so?

You should give it a shot. The Patternmaster books aren't for everyone (except for Clay's Ark which is kinda its own thing anyway) and I don't rate Lilith's Brood at all, but the two Parable books are well worth it.

yeah I think it was the Patternmaster stuff I picked up

http://beautone.tumblr.com/post/28910238328/octavia-butler-is-remembered-by-authors-samuel

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/obit/story/2012-08-07/Marvin-Hamlisch/56844358/1

Can't say I have any feeling for his music, but he was everywhere in the '70s.

Sorry...clicked on the wrong thread.

lol

Nobody transspecies better...

thank you ned

Yer welcome.

http://review.gawker.com/the-law-of-remembrance-what-octavia-butler-taught-me-1685340561/+jparham

a look at her unpublished archives:

http://boingboing.net/2015/11/01/the-incredible-treasures-of-th.html

Wonderful to see that.

i heard there's some television deals afoot?

gonna pretend I didn't read that

maybe don't click on this then
http://deadline.com/2015/09/allen-bain-bainframe-dawn-book-rights-liliths-brood-1201512687/

OK that doesn't seem so terrible after all, thanks

Well goddamn. I'll give Google that much.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DgRRI1wVAAA9k5r.jpg:large

It remains a mystery to me why her stuff hasn't been adapted for the screen

I went to this gallery show in 2016, and the musical performance. Most of the art didn't do much for me but the music performance was good.

http://www.desotogallery.com/attachment/en/55f713866aa72c9f38bb6662/News/5714eff77cc138da7f853727

So after having devoured all of Le Guin and being about to start on NK Jemisin's trilogy, which Butler should I start with? Reviews of Parable of the Sower make it sound brutal, which I'm not sure I'm up for right now lol.

I'd recommend starting with Bloodchild and other stories since it is really great and a super quick read, then moving onto Kindred since it's her best standalone novel.

Wild Seed (the first book in the Patternist series) is great, though it's pretty heavy as well.

starting with Bloodchild sounds like a good idea. After that I'd say dive right in to the Patternist (start w/Wild Seed) or Lilith's Brood (start w/Dawn) series, but sure Kindred is great too.

xpost I will most definitely second that. Wild Seed is fantastic. I just recently finished the entire Patternist series (my first Butler). Honestly, I kinda wish I'd read it in publication order rather than in the chronological order of the narrative. They're all very different stories and don't connect as much as I might've preferred.

It's funny, Tracye, I was thinking about getting through all of Butler's work and moving on to Le Guin.

Thanks all! I'm loving the NK Jemisin trilogy so far too so may have to devour that first haha.

How correct, how *proper* this is. I had to stop catching up on the press conference that was detailing this to take it in.

https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2021/03/05/mars-rover-perseverance-rolls-out-from-landing-site-named-after-pasadena-writer-octavia-butler/

agreed

Good to see.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/17/arts/octavia-butler-vision-kindred.html

Also good to see. May there be endless celebrations.

https://www.vulture.com/article/octavia-e-butler-profile.html

I did end up reading Kindred, and Parable of the Sower & Talents, havent covered anymore of her work but loved all those. Am looking forward to this TV adaptation, it looks reasonably faithful!