Some of Octavia Butler's earlier works are: _Kindred_ (in which a 20th
century African American woman who is married to a white man finds herself
mysteriously--the method is never explained--transported back to the
antebellum South. It turns out that when a certain white child (when she
first meets him he's a child) is in danger, she is moved back to save
him--because he is one of her ancestors. The trips become longer, and she
spends more time as a "slave." Her husband is transported back once as
well. It's an interesting book: Butler notes it sort of gets categorized
differently, reflecting what she considers her three main groups of readers:
as African American literature, as time travel (SF), and as a feminist text.
(I've read her comments in an interview published in a collection edited by
Larry McCaffrey.)
She wrote the _Patternmaster_ series--I've never gotten all of those (some
went out of print rather quickly)--and cannot recall all the titles except
of the last one, _Mind of My Mind_. This series is interesting because the
protagonist is a sort of vampire (more psychic than physical consumption)
named Doro. He was born in a part of Africa millennia ago, and he engages
in a breeding project (humans with certain psychic abilities are tastier?)
with humans. Different books detail his adventures over a long period of
time--but the end of the series comes when his project (which moves from
Africa to America, following the Diaspora) finally produces Mary, a young
African American woman who is able to destroy him and sort of mind meld with
other psychics and create a new "race." (I'm a bit blurry on the details
because it's been a few years).
Interesting stuff on "race" since Doro (an African "black") preys off humans
of any color; his breeding program ignores racial differences and is based
on psychic ability. The psychics are dysfunctional, though, and only Mary
can bring them together, but what results is a multicultural "culture" that
is still based on exploiting "Mutes" (those humans without any psychic
abilities--"Mutes" are enslaved by telepathic means). I've written about
Butler's tendencies to undercut the seventies feminist assumption that
"women" are naturally non-hierarchial, more nurturing, less violent, etc.
She consistently creates wonderfully strong female protagonists--that
undercut some of the more naive assumptions of some feminists about the
"nature of women." The novel also questions the assumptions that previously
expressed groups will be "better" than the exploiters once they gain power.
Butler also has some other novels out (if you're interested, let me know and
I'll try to remember to bring a list from home) using biological themes--I
rememberr reading her work I think in the seventies and thinking "Wow, this
is totally different from anything else I've ever read"--she was probably
the first African American writer I read (my undergraduate English work was
Completely Canonical), yet I somehow categorized her as "SF" for years!
I think her work is fascinating (as someone else noted) because of its
themes, content, and plots--she manages to introduce some really radical
ideas while using fairly conventional narrative strategies. (This issue of
form vs. content interests me; I think sometimes in my discipline, the
assumption is made that a writer must use experimental form to get across
any "new" idea, and yet "women" and "minority" writers consistently show
that is not the case in their work.)
Robin
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