Octavia e. butler books list series#

She took risks, big risks, and she allowed people to come along with her as she took those risks, so you had the thrill of participating in the audacity of what she was writing. And I think that gets to why she is so influential. That’s what I knew her as, a beautiful person inside and out, whose work was challenging and dangerous. But to me, she was a gracious, wise, kind, and compassionate friend. Who was she? I could write a book about that-others already have. Who was Octavia Butler, and why do you think her books have been so influential in the world of science fiction and fantasy-and literature more generally? Let me start with a very general question. Foreign Policy & International Relations.She introduces us to a humanist vision for the future that makes space for metaphysical spirituality without the need for a traditional, omnipotent God-figure. It invites us to let go of the conventions that can lock us into a destructive future and to embrace our greatest power, to change. On some level, as a 13-year-old, I understood that Butler's work was not just a warning but also an invitation. She saw a Black, female prophet who understood that nothing was inevitable, that we have the power to change things and change course. What Butler saw in our future matters more today than ever. Maybe, in a way, this was Butler seeing into the future of her own legacy where people like me, impacted deeply by her writing as a child, would one day reflect on her impact, her purpose. We meet her in the book as a person filled with imperfections, before her transformation to a prophet in the minds of Earthseed believers.

Like Butler, Lauren eventually attracts followers to her vision. But as a young woman, she develops a religious philosophy called Earthseed based on the idea that 'God is Change.' It is a philosophy dedicated to the idea that all living things are evolving and the only way to survive is to embrace the central paradox of existence - that we are all evolving, yet we will all die. Lauren's character embodied this tension. She had a complicated relationship with the traditions she grew up in as a Black woman from a religious family. Raised in a strict Baptist household, she was always fascinated by the impact of religion on the human mind. The worlds Butler imagined drew from her reading of history and her upbringing. The book was a smash hit, and just two years later, at the age of 48, she was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship 'Genius Grant.'

Octavia e. butler books list series#

She published a series of very popular novels, including Kindred and Wild Seed, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It wasn't until she was in her 30s that Butler was able to support herself financially as a writer. every day to write before working jobs like dishwasher and potato chip inspector. As a young woman, she would get up at 2 a.m. Butler was 12 when saw a film, Devil Girl from Mars, and thought to herself, 'I could write something better than that.' And so it began.īutler's obsession with writing deepened over the years.

She spent hours in the local library, escaping into fantasy and science fiction novels. As a child, she experienced debilitating shyness. Octavia Estelle Butler was born in Pasadena, Calif., in 1947. Octavia Estelle Butler was the first Black woman to receive both the Nebula and Hugo awards, the highest honors in the science fiction and fantasy genres. Resources are scarce, and violence has forced people to isolate.

In Butler's dystopian world, a strongman has risen to power in the United States, and climate change is decimating the environment. We were introduced by an adventurous middle school English teacher who assigned the book to my class. The girl, Lauren Oya Olamina, is, of course, the main character in Octavia Butler's classic science fiction novel Parable of the Sower. And they shared a burning desire to understand the constantly evolving, confusing world they occupied. They were both growing up in religious households - she a Baptist in a walled community outside of Los Angeles, he a Muslim in suburban Maryland. It was middle school, eighth grade, when a sheltered 13-year-old boy suddenly found himself immersed in an unfamiliar world, guided by a girl who wasn't much older, a girl on the verge of leading a religious movement.Īt first glance, it might appear as if all they had in common was age, but there was more.