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“Theorizing Fear: Octavia Butler and the Realist Utopia”

Summary

Claire P. Curtis analyzes Butler's short stories "Amnesty" and "The Book of Martha" and how Butler puts her female protagonists in charge in their respective dystopias to bring forth change. Curtis analyzes Butler's use of fear in the stories: fear of the unknown and fear of the present destruction.

Quotes

• "Both Noah Cannon and Martha are responding to conditions that will not change. In Noah's case, the conditions include the arrival of an alien species and the consequences for life on earth given the fact and continued presence of that species. For Martha, the unchangeable condition is the re quest that God has made of her to do the work of changing humanity."
• "Butler's characters are not superhero feminists. Rather, they are the traditionally oppressed: female, minority, poor who see the worlds in which they live and aim to make those worlds visible to others."
• " If Noah is working from conditions that help critique the idea of the state of nature as a place from which one must escape, then "Martha" is criticizing the idea that civil society is the guarantor of peace."

“Octavia Butler’s ‘Amnesty’”

Summary

Elisa Edwards provides a survey of Butler's "Amnesty," with a brief analysis of the protagonist Noah and the six applicants, how they react to Noah and their attitudes towards the Communities. Edwards also discusses the biblical significance of Noah's name and her role in the story, to help bring peace and order between the two species on Earth.

Quotes

• "Due to her ethnicity, as an African American, Noah might feel this 'twoness' of being part of both African and American culture; and due to her abduction and life with the Communities, she is simultaneously torn between both the human as well as the aliens' world."
• "He assumes that she -as a human being- has to stay faithful to her own species."
• "The culturally mixed group in 'Amnesty' consists of abductees who have lived in an have been shaped by both the Communities' bubbles as well as the human world. Some of the abductees helped to develop a new code of communication and they question the one-sided representation of the Communities and the false attitude of human superiority."

"Digging Deep: Ailments of Difference in Octavia Butler’s 'The Evening and the Morning and the Night'"

Summary

Isiah Lavender III proposes that the Duryea-Gode Disease in Butler's "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" is a metaphor for racism. He also discusses the significance of Lynn, the protagonist, being racially ambiguous in the story. Lavender theorizes that the ostracized group of afflicted DGD's are parallel to black people in America being marginalized, while the healthy humans (the dominant "race") are the white people. He also links the use of sterilization on the DGD's in the story to the real-life sterilization experiments that occurs in the 50s and 60s in America on black welfare recipients.

Quotes

• "The desire to destroy a person's ability to reproduce generates fear, forcing the reader to ask who is meant by they and who is meant by us. The subjunctive tension of the story is clearly racial; ending an inferior race is surely the stuff of science fiction."
• "His self-hatred is the result of internalizing racism. This idea of internalization is a reminder of double consciousness, at least in that having this disease clearly causes psychological problems that rise solely out of society's view of the disease rather than the afflicted's day-to-day experience of the illness."
• "Butler asks her readers to challenge this 'white' default position by not identifying Lynn's biological makeup. She is digging at her readers' embedded assumptions of her readers."

"Disparate Spirits Yet Kindred Souls: Octavia E. Butler, 'Speech Sounds,' and Me"

Summary

Sandra Y. Govan's "Disparate Spirits Yet Kindred Souls" is a character analysis on Octavia Butler's protagonists. Butler's leads are strong women who are faced with distressing situations in their environment but are able to overcome them despite all odds. Govan centers on Valerie Rye from Butler's "Speech Sounds," as that is the character she identifies with most. Govan commends Rye for being sharp and cunning, always aware of her surroundings and relying on her street smarts to navigate throughout the story.

Quotes

• "I like the way Rye protects and defends herself; I like how she copes with and manages around her disability, how she maintains her self-control, her ability to function despite the dysfunctional society surrounding her."
• "Tense, antagonistic, and unable to communicate, people generally attack rather than support; at the slightest provocation they irrationally vent their frustrations, and sometimes their desires, upon the more vulnerable or upon survivors perceived to be less impacted than themselves. Here Butler invokes the base dimensions of human nature - jealousy, envy, lust, territoriality, violence, the tendency to fear and to fight what we do not comprehend."
• "Though he may be the last cop standing, the policeman who helps the passengers escape drives about policing, asserting control...as if community policing remains his duty despite the surrounding decay. He has retained both his badge and his gun, symbols of authority. Rather than succumb to predatory practices heightened by the virus, he uses his remaining police presence to maintain order in the community, assisting citizens as a last representative of civic government."

"Loss of Words: Octavia Butler's 'Speech Sounds'"

Summary

Maria Holmgrem Troy discusses using Butler's "Speech Sounds" as a thought experiment in her linguist classes and the power and value of communication. She observes various metaphors in the story and how the loss of language has led to the loss of order and balance in the post-apocalyptic society.

Quotes

• "The connection between verbal skills, human relationships, and survival is made clear in the increased difficulty to establish relationships and to survive due to the loss of verbal means of communication. Misunderstandings abound and more impaired individuals kill less impaired people out of jealousy and frustration."
• "So, although the exchange of the name symbols is an indication of a wish for mutual interaction and communication, the story emphasizes the shortcomings of this method compared to the use of spoken or written language and Rye's sense of loss when she thinks that she will never hear her name spoken again."
• "The story is mainly told in short, simple sentences and in a language almost entirely devoid of metaphors, which accentuates the theme of language impairment."

Amnesty

Summary

In Butler's "Amnesty," the Communities are shrub-like creature who have inhabited deserts in "Bubbles." The alien invasion came in two waves, Noah, the female protagonist being abducted in first wave when she was 11 years old. The Communities were not aware of how intelligent human beings really were and subjected them to horrific experimentations; by the time the second wave came around, the aliens were much more gentle and understanding of the nature of humans. After she was released by the Communities, Noah was captured by the U.S. government and held for questioning, enduring torture until her uncles manage to save her. Noah meets with six recruits and recounts her time as a captive by the Communities throughout the story. The recruits are filled with curiosity, fear, and disgust, each person having their own personal reservations about the Communities and the aliens that have now inhibited Earth. Many people are on the side of the aliens and are welcoming, and others see them as very unwanted guests. However, working for the Communities is the only chance at employment for many humans. The invasions have destroyed the quality of living on Earth, leaving the economy in ruins and hardly any food to eat. Noah is one of only 30 people who are able to speak the alien language and communicate with them.

Quotes

• "Calm them. The subcontractor repeated. And she knew then that it meant, literally, 'Change them from disturbed people to calm, willing workers.'"
• "Each of the six potential recruits stared at her, perhaps wondering or pitying, judging or worrying. perhaps even recoiling in horror, suspicion, or disgust. She had received all these reactions &om recruits and from others who knew her history. People had never been able to be neutral about abductees. Noah tended to use her history as a way to start questions, accusations, and perhaps thought."
• "'They're here to stay...there's no 'away' for them-not for several generations anyway. Their ship was a one·way transport. They've settled here and they'll fight to keep the various desert locations they've chosen for their bubbles. If they do decide to fight, we won't survive. They might be destroyed too, but chances are, they would send their young deep into the ground for a few centuries. When they came up, this would be their world. We would be gone." She looked at each member of the group. 'They're here,' she said for the third time. 'I'm one of maybe thirty people in this country who can talk to them. Where else would I be but here at a bubble, trying to help the two species understand and accept one another before one of them does something fatal?'"

The Book of Martha

Summary

"The Book of Martha" opens up with Martha Bes in Heaven in the presence God. He assigns her with the task of going back to Earth and saving humanity using some of the power He will lend her; it is up to Martha to help people treat each other more kindly and better society. Martha is hesitant and skeptical of this version of God that is present before her; God's command is a burden to her, but she also does not want Him to grant this power to anyone else in fear of the outcome being worse than her proposal. Martha constantly questions the true nature of God's powers, why He chose her, and why God himself cannot make the changes to humanity He wants to see. As the story progresses, Martha's perception of God changes, from a massive bearded white man, to a black man, to a version of her. This progression makes God more human and His command more attainable once Martha sees herself as a god. Martha proposes vivid dreams as the solution-people can act out the utopias of their desires in the dreams, no matter how good or bad.

Quotes

• "What you see is up to you, Martha. Everything is up to you."
• "It's difficult, isn't it? You're truly free for the first time. What could be more difficult than that?"
• "'I want them to have the only possible utopia." Martha thought for a moment. 'Each person will have a private, perfect utopia every night-or an imperfect one. If they crave con· flier and struggle, they get that. If they want peace and love, they get that. Whatever they want or need comes to them. I think if people go to a ... well, a private heaven every night, it might take the edge off their willingness to spend their waking hours trying to dominate or destroy one another.'"

Speech Sounds

Summary

"Speech Sounds" is set in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, with the protagonist Rye aboard a bus to Pasadena to visit her brother. The illness that has taken over the society has ridden people of the ability to read and/or write and/or speak, leaving the community with no way to communicate except non-verbally with gestures. A fight has broken out on the bus, due to misunderstandings in gestures and body language between the two men involved. Rye manages to get off the bus as the fight starts to escalate, and as she contemplates walking the twenty miles to Pasadena a blue Ford pulls up near her. Transportation such as cars and buses are rare, and are mainly used in the city as weapons. The man reveals himself to be an LAPD cop, and breaks up the fight on the bus using tear gas. He offers Rye a ride, which she hesitantly accepts. Everyone has to use small symbols and tokens to represent their name, and the man presents Rye with a black rock, and she dubs him Obsidian. He pulls out a map for Rye, and she is overcome with rage and jealousy because Obsidian is able to read and write; she even considers killing him with her gun. Similarly, Obsidian asks Rye if she is able to speak, and he is upset by her ability to do so. Rye makes note of Obsidian's gentle gestures, such as his hand on her leg. As they're driving, the pair notice a fight happening between a man and woman on the street. As Rye and Obsidian attempt to help, the man ends up killing Obsidian with his own gun. The story ends with Rye rescuing two children left behind at the scene; these two children are able to speak and in an act of reassurance, Rye introduces herself to the children and tells them that it is okay to speak to her because she is like them.

Miscommunication is common in the society, and this tension and jealousy has led to fights and even deaths; Rye, and most likely several others, keeps a gun on her for protection. There are also differing levels of impairment in people, with left-handed people being less impaired and often seen as targets because of jealousy among those who are more impaired. Rye, a former professor, has retained her ability to speak, but cannot write nor understand any written language.

Quotes

• "His use of the left hand interested Rye more than his obvious question. Left handed people tended to be less impaired, more reasonable and comprehending, less driven by frustration, confusion, and anger."
• "She had lost reading and writing. That was her most serious impairment and her most painful. She had taught history at UCLA. She had done freelance writing. Now she could not even read her own manuscripts. She had a houseful of books that she could neither read nor bring herself to use as fuel. And she had a memory that would not bring back to her much of what she had read before."
• "'I’m Valerie Rye,' she said, savoring the words. 'It’s all right for you to talk to me.'"

The Evening and the Morning and the Night

Summary

"The Evening and the Morning and the Night" tells the story of Lynn, who suffers with Duryea-Gode Disease, a chronic illness that manifests fully in the sufferer's adulthood; it is characterized by self-harm and manic behavior that can be a threat to others. The society is segregated into DGD's and non-DGD's, with the DGD's being alienated by the latter group. The disease requires a special diet, limiting most foods, and a special tag identifying one with the disease. Lynn's father was afflicted with the disease, and has led to to the deaths of him and Lynn's mother as a result. While in college, Lynn moves into a house with four other DGD's, and eventually a fifth named Alan. Alan's mother is an "out of control" DGD who resides at Dilg, a retreat for severe DGD patients.

Lynn and Alan pay his mother a visit and are introduced to Beatrice, whom Lynn immediately takes a disliking to. As soon as they meet and interact with Alan's mother Naomi, they observe how responsive she is to females. Beatrice reveals that this is due to double DGD females (like Lynn and Beatrice) possessing a special pheromone that enables them to "lure" people in and have others trust them; because of this ability, most female DGD's end up opening up retreats to help out of control DGD's. This new information puts Lynn in a difficult situation: does she follow what she is biologically destined to do? This also creates a conflict with Alan, who feels as if he is going to end up as Lynn's puppet in the future. The story ends with Lynn contemplating her future as the head of her own ward, and her future with Alan.

Quotes

• "I didn’t like the way people edged away from me when they caught sight of my emblem. I’d begun wearing it on a chain around my neck and putting it down inside my blouse, but people managed to notice it anyway. People who don’t eat in public, who drink nothing more interesting than water, who smoke nothing at all—people like that are suspicious."
• "All we had in common was our disease, plus a weird combination of stubborn intensity about whatever we happened to be doing and hopeless cynicism about everything else. Healthy people say no one can concentrate like a DGD. Healthy people have all the time in the world for stupid generalizations and short attention spans."
• "'It’s a pheromone. A scent. And it’s sex-linked. Men who inherit the disease from their fathers have no trace of the scent. They also tend to have an easier time with the disease. But they’re useless to us as staff here. Men who inherit from their mothers have as much of the scent as men get. They can be useful here because the DGDs can at least be made to notice them. The same for women who inherit from their mothers but not their fathers. It’s only when two irresponsible DGDs get together and produce girl children like me or Lynn that you get someone who can really do some good in a place like this.'"

Bloodchild

Summary

"Bloodchild" by Octavia Butler is about the cohabitation between a human species, the Terrans, and an alien species, the Tlics, on an alien planet. On this planet, the men serve as hosts for the Tlic's babies, instead of the women (who bear human children). The survival of the planet and species is dependent on the bond the humans and aliens form through childbearing. The narrator, Gan, is a young male who is chosen as the host for the female T'Gatoi's child. Gan has always viewed being impregnated by the Tlics as an honor until he witnesses T'Gatoi perform the horrific extraction process of the child from a male's body.

The Tlic form familial bonds with the host and the host’s family before implanting the male host, and Gan has been chosen as the sacrificial host for T’Gatoi since his birth. Gan’s older brother Qui is the only one not fazed by male pregnancy; in fact, he is repulsed by it because he has witnessed a birth go wrong. Their sister, Xuan Hoa, is the only one looking forward to being pregnant, and it’s because of her willingness Gan needs to choose between sacrificing her or himself for implantation by T’Gatoi.

Quotes

• "We wait long years for you and teach you and join our families to yours. You know you aren't animals to us."
• "Because your people arrived, we are learning what it means to be a healthy, thriving people. And your ancestors, fleeing from their home world, from their own kind who would have killed or enslaved them-they survived because of us."
• "But something had happened when [Qui] reached adolescence...he began keeping out of T'Gatoi's way.Then he began running away until he realized there was no 'away.' Not in the Preserve...after that he concentrated on... looking out for me in a way that made me all but hate him-a way that dearly said, as long as I was all right, he was safe from the Tiic."

Citation Practice

Octavia Butler was shy as a child.