Octavia Estelle Butler was born on June 22, 1947, in Pasadena, California. Her father, a shoeshiner, died when Butler was an infant. Butler’s mother, Octavia, and grandmother raised her. From an early age, Butler watched her mother work to keep the family afloat and heard her grandmother’s tales of suffering and misery. Octavia worked as a housemaid in the homes of white people who treated her as if she were less than human. Butler’s grandmother had been a slave in Louisiana, forced to work in the cane fields. These women, who endured oppression and supported their families, informed Butler’s stories. She said that the misery of her female relatives’ lives inspired her to spin fantasy worlds into which she could escape.
As a child, Butler was known as “Junie,” possibly to distinguish her from Octavia, who shared her name. Butler was a quiet, extremely shy child. Although she suffered from dyslexia, she found solace in books. At age ten, Butler began writing. At age twelve, she developed an interest in science fiction that was to last for the rest of her life. Butler aspired to write science fiction featuring characters who, like her, felt disconnected from society. Through the fantasy societies she created, which were peopled by aliens, vampires, and other nonhumans, Butler was able to explore real-world problems of isolation, cruelty, and racism.
In 1968, Butler earned an associate’s degree from Pasadena City College. She enrolled at California State University, but she left before earning her degree. Later, she took classes at the University of California, Los Angeles. Harlan Ellison, the renowned science fiction writer, taught Butler at the Clarion writing workshop. Butler supported herself by working odd jobs. She got up every morning at two to write.
Kindred is one of very few works of science fiction about slavery, and its first-person narrative makes it unique among books about slavery. Butler said that the idea for the novel came to her as she listened to a male classmate at Pasadena City College complain about how his parents held him back and how he wanted to kill off older generations of African-Americans. Butler wanted to write a story in response, one that would illustrate African-American history in a visceral way. In the novel, Butler tries to depict slaves as individuals, rather than lapsing into typecasts. She also attempts to portray the slaveholders with equity, showing not only their cruelty but also their humanity.
Butler is often hailed for her success as a black woman writer of science fiction, a genre dominated by white men. She said that her experience as a black woman in a hostile society made her singularly capable of writing about dystopias. She also said that she was writing not for other people, but for herself. Although she was glad if her work helped others, she said that writing each of her works forced her to grow in new ways, and that she wrote to create herself.
Most of Butler’s fictional creations are aliens and other nonhuman characters, but all of them have complex human traits. Her first novel, Patternmaster (1976), was the first published in the Patternist series, which explored a society run by a race of telepathic people who were attempting to create a superhuman race. Butler wrote twelve novels, including Parable of the Sower (1993), Parable of the Talents (1998), and Fledgling (2005). She also published a short story collection called Bloodchild in 1995.
In 1995, Butler won the MacArthur fellowship. She was the first science fiction writer ever to receive the award. Among other awards, Butler won two Hugo Awards from the World Science Fiction Society and two Nebula Awards from the Science Fiction Writers of America.
Octavia Butler died on February 24, 2006, after falling near her home in Lake Forest Park, Washington.
On June 9, 1976, it is the twenty-sixth birthday of Dana, a young black woman. She and Kevin Franklin, her white husband, move into their new apartment in Southern California. Dana does the majority of the unpacking and settling in; Kevin focuses on his office and then stops helping. Dana gets dizzy, and her surroundings fade away. When she comes to, she finds herself in the early 1800s in Maryland. A young white boy named Rufus is struggling in a river. Dana wades in after him, but he is unconscious by the time she reaches him. She drags him to the shore and resuscitates him. Tom Weylin, Rufus’s father, arrives and points a gun at Dana, terrifying her. Following another dizzy spell, she reappears in her apartment in 1976.
Several minutes later, Dana again gets dizzy and disappears. This time, she is whisked back to 1815. Rufus, now a few years older, watches in horror as his bedroom drapes burn. He had set fire to them because he was angry with his father for selling a horse he wanted. Dana puts out the fire, talks to Rufus, and escapes from the house before Weylin finds out she is there. She runs to the home of Alice Greenwood and her mother, free blacks who Dana suspects may be her ancestors. A group of young white men smash down the Greenwoods’ door, drag out Alice’s husband, who is a slave, and beat him. They also beat Alice’s mother. After the men leave, Dana comes out of hiding and helps Alice’s mother. Dana steps outside, and a returning white man finds her, beats her, and attempts to rape her. Dana fears for her life. Following another dizzy spell, she returns home to her own time.
The next time Dana time travels, Kevin comes with her by holding onto her. Back at the Weylins’, Rufus has fallen out of a tree and broken his leg. Nigel, a young black boy, runs for help, and Weylin comes with his slave, Luke. Rufus will not let Dana leave, so everyone returns to the house together. Kevin and Dana stay on the plantation for several weeks and help educate Rufus. But when Dana gets caught teaching Nigel to read, Weylin whips her. Dana returns to 1976, but Kevi. . .
We hope you are enjoying the book so far. To continue reading...
Please log in to recommend or discuss...
