Sci-Fi News and Reviews

Octavia Butler - Gone But Never Forgotten

The sci-fi community is mourning the death of one of its greatest writers this week. I've been hard pressed to write about it, though. I've been uncertain what to say. How can anyone do justice to this brilliant woman's life and work in a few mere words? I've decided that it's just not possible and that I should just tip my hat to her and shut up.

Last Friday, Octavia Butler fell outside her home in Seattle, hitting her head. She soon died as a result (reports are still mixed on whether it was from a head injury or a stroke). There. With that said, let's talk about her work, not her death.

As an African American and a woman, Butler brought a fresh new voice to the genre. Weaving in themes of race, gender and power, she was able to speak to her audience in a way few others have done.

Marcia Davis of the Washington Post stated it quite well: "[She was a] woman who believed the genre could deal with more than ray guns and transporters, and that she had a right to create fiction that tackled race and class and what it meant to be human in worlds where humanness had all but been obliterated."

Her first book Kindred catapulted Butler to sci-fi writing fame. She described the book as a "grim fantasy" about an African-American woman who is thrown from 1976 to the antebellum South, where she is forced to deal with life in a culture based on slavery. It remains one of her most popular books, with a quarter of a million copies currently in print.

Butler penned many fan favorites books such as Dawn, Parable of a Sower, and Bloodchild. Last year, she released the vampire tale Fledgling, her 12th novel and the first in seven years. In true Butler style, the book mixes good 'ole fashioned sci-fi with a healthy dose of social commentary.

Butler's work was not only well received by the fans, but it was also (eventually) recognized by the critics. She won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, received an award for lifetime achievement in writing from the PEN American Center, and was the first science fiction writer ever receive the MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant."

Genius is right. We can only hope that Butler's work will inspire sci-fi writers to continue to push the boundaries of the genre - to interweave the true nature of the human experience with their otherworldly tales. She set the bar very high, indeed. Thank god. -- Shannon Nolley

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Posted by Shannon on March 1, 2006 9:04 PM
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