African American

The Polack MSgt

(13,451 posts) Fri Jun 22, 2018, 03:26 PM Jun 2018

I am a huge nerd. Science fiction was one of my 1st loves

And Octavia E. Butler was a giant in my eyes.

I seemed to gravitate to female writers - Octavia Butler, Ursula Le Guin, Emma Bull, Anne McCaffery, etcetera etcetera... I enjoyed all of their work, but Octavia E. Butler was in her own league in my opinion.

I was just a white trash coal country hillbilly when I discovered her and it was her short stories that slapped my mind and started to wake my thoughts.

She made me imagine my way forward into her created worlds and backward into her life to attempt to understand what led her to take a particular path or make a particular choice in telling her story.

But beyond, and more important than, the deep thought and introspection she triggered in me was her voice - Clean clever prose. Precise word choices, nimble phrasing and entrancing story telling all in one writer. Novels Novellas and short stories she excelled at all of them.

Todays Google doodle reminded me that today was her birthday (and thank you Rogue Emissary for the OP pointing it out) and it struck me that I hadn't even thought of her since she passed.

Looks like I need to take a stroll over to my local Library.

Here is an article that points out that she was clairvoyant as well.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/second-read/octavia-butlers-prescient-vision-of-a-zealot-elected-to-make-america-great-again

6 replies

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I am a huge nerd. Science fiction was one of my 1st loves (Original Post) The Polack MSgt Jun 2018 OP

The first novel I ever read in English was Ray Bradbury's "The Illustrated Man" Xipe Totec Jun 2018 #1

Dandelion Wine SonofDonald Jun 2018 #3

Connie Willis is great thbobby Jun 2018 #2

Oh, my God! Kindred was the first Butler book I read Kind of Blue Jun 2018 #4

She was an amazing author The Polack MSgt Jun 2018 #5

For sure, I enjoyed your OP. Kind of Blue Jun 2018 #6

Xipe Totec

(44,106 posts)

1. The first novel I ever read in English was Ray Bradbury's "The Illustrated Man"

Reply to The Polack MSgt (Original post)

Fri Jun 22, 2018, 03:31 PM

Jun 2018

I must have been 12 at the time and understood maybe 70% of the words but I was fascinated.

I fell in love with science fiction then and there.

SonofDonald

(2,050 posts)

3. Dandelion Wine

Reply to Xipe Totec (Reply #1)

Fri Jun 22, 2018, 04:08 PM

Jun 2018

Bradburys tales were what got me into reading and enjoying so in the first place.

I just picked up most of his early works to read again and am remembering what was so good about them.

He could put magic down in print.

thbobby

(1,474 posts)

2. Connie Willis is great

Reply to The Polack MSgt (Original post)

Fri Jun 22, 2018, 03:52 PM

Jun 2018

Good SciFi with a humorous streak. I have read many of her short stories in Year's Best Science Fiction and have a book compilation of her short stories. I also love SciFi.

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)

4. Oh, my God! Kindred was the first Butler book I read

Reply to The Polack MSgt (Original post)

Fri Jun 22, 2018, 06:23 PM

Jun 2018

and I had no idea the author was a black woman. I can't even start to tell you of the effect of being a sci-fi/fantasy nerd Butler had on me as a young black woman. Now, as I'm approaching crone-dom, I jump out of my skin to see many sites, such as black girl nerds, and I can rest, happy and hopefully way before I die, that Butler has inspired African and African-American writers to explore and write ourselves into the future and that Ms. Butler did this. I need a tissue of joy right now

Thanks so much, Polack MSgt, and Google, for this remembrance. I fucking love it!

And Thank You for the link, too!

The Polack MSgt

(13,451 posts)

5. She was an amazing author

Reply to Kind of Blue (Reply #4)

Fri Jun 22, 2018, 08:46 PM

Jun 2018

Speculative fiction is looked at askance by so many "serious" critics and publishers that no one in the sci-fi/fantasy arena gets a fair judgement from them.

Glad to find a fellow fan. Happy you enjoyed the OP.

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)

6. For sure, I enjoyed your OP.

Reply to The Polack MSgt (Reply #5)

Fri Jun 22, 2018, 09:38 PM

Jun 2018

And forever grateful to my high school Lit teacher who insisted on the course for seniors way back when. She followed Univ. of Maryland's lead that I believe was the first in the nation to bring the course to its curriculum back in the '70s/early '80s. Since then, nobody could tell me it is not a serious genre.

Found recently that WEB Dubois wrote speculative fiction back in 1920s called The Comet and waiting for it to arrive any day now.

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