Why should you read sci-fi superstar Octavia E. Butler? - Ayana Jamieson and Moya Bailey

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Much science fiction features white male heroes who blast aliens or become saviors of brown people. Octavia E. Butler knew she could tell a better story. She built stunning worlds rife with diverse characters, and brought nuance and depth to the representation of their experiences. Ayana Jamieson and Moya Bailey dive into the works of the visionary storyteller who upended science fiction.

Lesson by Ayana Jamieson and Moya Bailey, directed by Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat.

Following a devastating nuclear war,

Lilith Iyapo awakens
after 250 years of stasis

to find herself surrounded by a group
of aliens called the Oankali.

These highly evolved beings
want to trade DNA

by breeding with humans

so that each species’ genes
can diversify and fortify the other.

The only alternative they offer is
sterilization of the entire human race.

Should humanity take the leap into
the biological unknown,

or hold on to its identity and perish?

Questions like this haunt
Octavia Butler’s "Dawn,"

the first in her trilogy "Lilith’s Brood."

A visionary storyteller who
upended science fiction,

Butler built stunning worlds
throughout her work–

and explored dilemmas that keep
us awake at night.

Born in 1947,

Butler grew up shy and introverted in
Pasadena, California.

She dreamt up stories from an early age,

and was soon scribbling these
scenarios on paper.

At twelve, she begged her mother
for a typewriter

after enduring a campy science fiction
film called "Devil Girl From Mars."

Unimpressed with what she saw,

Butler knew she could tell a better story.

Much science fiction features
white male heroes

who blast aliens or become
saviors of brown people.

Butler wanted to write diverse characters
for diverse audiences.

She brought nuance and depth to the
representation of their experiences.

For Butler,

imagination was not only for planting
the seeds of science fiction–

but also a strategy for surviving an
unjust world on one’s own terms.

Her work often takes troubling
features of the world

such as discrimination on the basis of
race, gender, class, or ability,

and invites the reader to contemplate
them in new contexts.

One of her most beloved novels,

the "Parable of the Sower,"

follows this pattern.

It tells the story of Lauren Oya Olamina

as she makes her way through a near-future
California, ruined by corporate greed,

inequality, and environmental destruction.

As she struggles with hyperempathy,

or a condition in the novel that
causes her to feel others’ pain,

and less often, their pleasure.

Lauren embarks on a quest with a group
of refugees to find a place to thrive.

There, they seek to live in accordance
with Lauren’s found religion, Earthseed,

which is based on the principle

that humans must adapt to an
ever-changing world.

Lauren’s quest had roots
in a real life event–

California Prop 187,

which attempted to deny undocumented
immigrants fundamental human rights,

before it was deemed unconstitutional.

Butler frequently incorporated
contemporary news into her writing.

In her 1998 sequel to "The Parable of the
Sower," "Parable of the Talents,"

she wrote of a presidential candidate

who controls Americans with virtual
reality and “shock collars.”

His slogan? “Make America great again.”

While people have noted her prescience,

Butler was also interested in
re-examining history.

For instance,
"Kindred" tells the story of

a woman who is repeatedly
pulled back in time

to the Maryland plantation
of her ancestors.

Early on, she learns that her mission
is to save the life of the white man

who will rape her great grandmother.

If she doesn’t save him,
she herself will cease to exist.

This grim dilemma forces Dana to
confront the ongoing trauma

of slavery and sexual violence
against Black women.

With her stories of women
founding new societies,

time travelers overcoming
historical strife,

and interspecies bonding,

Butler had a profound influence on
the growing popularity of Afrofuturism.

That’s a cultural movement

where Black writers and artists who are
inspired by the past, present and future,

produce works that incorporate magic,
history, technology and much more.

As Lauren comes to learn in
"Parable of the Sower,"

"All that you touch you Change.

All that you Change Changes you.

The only lasting truth is Change.”