Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/CUNY, LaGuardia Community College/The Research Paper: Octavia Butler's Fledgling (Spring 2015)/sandbox team 2
Themes
editThe critique of present-day hierarchies
editIn multiple interviews and essays, Butler explained her view of humanity as inherently flawed by an innate tendency towards hierarchical thinking which leads to intolerance, violence, and, if not checked, the ultimate destruction of our species. [1] [2] [3] “Simple peck-order bullying,” she wrote in her essay “A World without Racism,” [4] “is only the beginning of the kind of hierarchical behavior that can lead to racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, classism, and all the other ‘isms’ that cause so much suffering in the world.” Her stories, then, often replay humanity’s Darwinian domination of the weak by the strong as a type of parasitism. [3] These superior beings, whether aliens, vampires, superhuman, or a slave masters, find themselves defied by a protagonist who embodies difference, diversity, and change, so that, as John R. Pfeiffer notes “[i]n one sense [Butler’s] fables are trials of solutions to the self-destructive condition in which she finds mankind.” [1]
The remaking of the human
editIn his essay on the sociobiological backgrounds of Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy, J. Adam Johns describes how Butler’s narratives counteract the death drive behind the hierarchical impulse with an innate love of life (biophilia), particularly different, strange life. [5] Specifically, Butler’s stories feature gene manipulation, interbreeding, miscegenation, symbiosis, mutation, alien contact, non-consensual sex, contamination, and other forms of hybridity as the means to correct the sociobiological causes of hierarchical violence[6] As De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai note, “[i]n [Butler’s] narratives the undoing of the human body is both literal and metaphorical, for it signifies the profound changes necessary to shape a world not organized by hierarchical violence.” [7] The evolutionary maturity achieved by the bioengineered hybrid protagonist at the end of the story, then, signals the possible evolution of the dominant community in terms of tolerance, acceptance of diversity, and a desire to wield power responsibly. [3]
The survivor as hero
editThe survivor as hero Butler’s protagonists are disenfranchised individuals who endure, compromise, and embrace radical change in order to survive. As De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai note, her stories focus on minority characters whose historical background makes them already intimate with brutal violation and exploitation, and therefore the need to compromise to survive [7] .Even when endowed with extra abilities, these characters are forced to experience unprecedented physical, mental, and emotional distress and exclusion to ensure a minimal degree of agency and to prevent humanity from achieving self-destruction. (Gant-Britton; Belle) In many stories, their acts of courage become acts of understanding, and in some cases, love, as they reach a crucial compromise with those in power. ("Butler, Octavia E." American Ethnic Writers) Ultimately, Butler’s focus on disenfranchised characters serves to illustrate both the historical exploitation of minorities and how the resolve of one such exploited individual may bring on critical change. (Gant-Britton)
The creation of alternative communities
editButler’s stories feature mixed communities founded by African protagonists and populated by diverse, if similar-minded individuals. Members may be humans of African, European, or Asian descent, extraterrestrial (such as the N’Tlic in Bloodchild), from a different species (such as the vampiric Ina in Fledgling), and cross-species (such as the human-Oankali Akin and Jodahs in the Xenogenesis trilogy). In some stories, the community’s hybridity results in a flexible view of sexuality and gender (for instance, the polyamorous extended families in Fledgling). Thus, Butler creates bonds between groups that are generally considered to be separate and unrelated, and suggests hybridity as “the potential root of good family and blessed community life.” [8]
Relationship to Afrofuturism
editButler’s work has been associated with the genre of Afrofuturism, [9] a term coined by Mark Dery to describe “speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th-century technoculture.” [10] Some critics, however, have noted that while Butler’s protagonists are of African descent, the communities they create are multi-ethnic and, sometimes, multi-species. As De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai explain in their 2010 memorial to Butler, while Butler does offer “an afro-centric sensibility at the core of narratives,” her “insistence on hybridity beyond the point of discomfort” exceeds the tenets of both black cultural nationalism and of “white-dominated” liberal pluralism. [7]
Point of view
editButler began reading science fiction at a young age, but quickly became disenchanted by the genre’s unimaginative portrayal of ethnicity and class as well as by its lack of noteworthy female protagonists. She then set to correct those gaps (Foster 38) by, as De Witt Douglas Kilgore and Ranu Samantrai point out, “choosing to write self-consciously as an African-American woman marked by a particular history” [11] —what Butler termed as “writing myself in.” [12] Butler’s stories, therefore, are usually written from the perspective of a marginalized black woman whose difference from the dominant agents increases her potential for reconfiguring the future of her society.[13]
Audience
editPublishers and critics have tended to label Butler’s work as science fiction, [2] but while Butler enjoyed working in what she called “potentially the freest genre in existence," [14] she resisted being branded a genre writer. [15] As many critics have pointed out, her narratives have drawn attention of people from varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds, [16] and she herself claimed to have three loyal audiences: black readers, science-fiction fans, and feminists. [7]
References
edit- ^ a b Pfeiffer, John R. "Butler, Octavia Estelle (b. 1947)." Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day. Ed. Richard Bleiler. 2nd ed. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999. 147-158.
- ^ a b Gant-Britton, Lisbeth. "Butler, Octavia (1947– )." African American Writers. Ed. Valerie Smith. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. 95-110.
- ^ a b c "Butler, Octavia E." American Ethnic Writers, Revised ed. Vol. 1. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2009. 168-175.
- ^ "A World without Racism." NPR Weekend Edition Saturday. 1 September 2001.
- ^ Johns, J. Adam. "Becoming Medusa: Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood and Sociobiology." Science Fiction Studies 37.3 (2010): 382-400.
- ^ Ferreira, Maria Aline. “Symbiotic Bodies and Evolutionary Tropes in the Work of Octavia Butler.” Science Fiction Studies 37. 3 (November 2010): 401-415.
- ^ a b c d Kilgore, De Witt Douglas and Ranu Samantrai. "A Memorial to Octavia E. Butler." Science Fiction Studies 37.3 (November 2010): 353-361. Cite error: The named reference "Kilgore" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Kilgore, De Witt Douglas and Ranu Samantrai. "A Memorial to Octavia E. Butler." Science Fiction Studies 37.3 (November 2010): 353-361.
- ^ Sinker, Mark. “Loving the Alien.” The Wire 96 (February 1992): 30-32.
- ^ Bould, Mark. “The Ships Landed Long Ago: Afrofuturism and Black SF.” Science Fiction Studies 34.2 (July 2007): 177-186.
- ^ Kilgore, De Witt Douglas and Ranu Samantrai. "A Memorial to Octavia E. Butler." Science Fiction Studies 37.3 (November 2010): 353-361.
- ^ Fox, Margalit. “Octavia E. Butler, Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 58.” The New York Times. 1 March 2006.
- ^ Kilgore, De Witt Douglas and Ranu Samantrai. "A Memorial to Octavia E. Butler." Science Fiction Studies 37.3 (November 2010): 353-361.
- ^ Butler, Octavia. “Black Scholar Interview with Octavia Butler: Black Women and the Science Fiction Genre.” Frances M. Beal. Black Scholar (Mar/Apr. 1986): 14-18.
- ^ Logan, Robert W. "Butler, Octavia E." Black Women in America: A Historical Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. Ed. Darlene Clark Hine. Oxford: Oxford U P, 2005.
- ^ Belle, Dixie-Anne. "Butler, Octavia Estelle (1947–2005)." Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture. Ed. Carole Boyce Davies. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2008. 235-236.
- ^ Fox, Margalit. “Octavia E. Butler, Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 58.” The New York Times. 1 March 2006.