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Octavia Butler was shy as a child 

Bloodchild

Summary

“Bloodchild” written by Octavia E. Butler is about a world in space where humans (Terrans) live on a Preserve are the host for Tlic babies.  T’Gatoi, the Tlic government official in charge of the Preserve, is the alien that has become close to a family. Gan, one of the children, will be the host for T’Gatoi eggs. The Tlic people feed the humans eggs to keep them living longer, to heal them after birth of N’Tlic (a Terran impregnated with a Tlic's eggs), and to keep them sterile and drugged a little. The humans are what are keeping the Tlic generations going. These two groups made an agreement to be able to live in peace because earlier humans used to try to kill them.

Humans arrived on this world after escaping earth and all the horrors, like killing and enslaving, which came with living on earth. T’Gatoi and Gan’s mother Lien have known each other since Lien was a child. Lien promised T’Gatoi one of her children. Since she would have to give one her children up to become a host, it might as well be T’Gatoi. Even though Gan’s older sister Xuan Hoa wanted to be chosen, T’Gatoi liked the idea of seeing and partaking in the growing up cycle of an infant host.

At a point in the story, Gan witnesses an actual birth and becomes terrified. Gan and his brother Qui had a disagreement of how they viewed the Tlic people and this agreement of humans carrying their young. Qui did not trust them but Gan seen it a different way. He saw the Tlic as family and the agreement as more than just keeping the Tlic alive.

Gan then insists that his sister Xuan Hoa take his place but when T’Gatoi obliges his wishes, he changes his mind because he does not want his sister to go through it. In addition, he does not want his sister to become closer to T’Gatoi than he is. As T’Gatoi implanted her young which are worms that are similar to maggots, she kept assuring Gan that she will never leave him alone as he seen the other Terran left alone whose labor he witnessed. Gan also stated his devoted love for her.

Quotes

• “Yes.” I leaned my forehead against her. She was cool velver, deceptively soft. “And to keep you for myself,’ I said. It was so. I didn’t understand it, but it was so.
• “I’m healthy and young,” she said. “I won’t leave you as Lomas was left-alone, N’Tlic. I’ll take care of you.”
• “The animals we once used began killing most of our eggs after implantation long before your ancestors arrived,” she said softly. “You know these things, Gan. Because your people arrived, we are relearning what it means to be healthy, thriving people. And your ancestors, fleeing from their homeworld, from their own kind who would have killed or enslaved them-they survived because of us. We saw them as people and gave them the Preserve when they still tried to kill us as worms.”

The Evening and the Morning and the Night

Summary

The short story “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” by Octavia Butler is about how a disease called Duryea-Gode takes over the body and the person will eventually self mutilate themselves, possibly others and are uncontrollable as they age unless drugged or restrained.  People who have this disease have to maintain a special diet. A drug named Hedeonco that cured cancer and a number of serious viral diseases caused it. A patient treated with this drug will have offspring with the disease. If two people with DGD, their offspring will definitely have it. A facility named Dilg run by controlled DGDs is the only facility that has found how to keep the disease under control without the adverse effects and no one has succeeded in manufacturing the scent yet. They found a way to get DGD to explore their creativity and work instead of having the disease work them. Alan, the main character Lynn’s boyfriend, has a mother at this facility. The doctor, Beatrice reveals to him and Lynn that the secret is a pheromone in which only men inherit from their mothers and women inherit from their mothers. Two DGD parents who have a girl are a rare commodity. That is why Beatrice purposely looked for Lynn, who not by coincidence received a Dilg scholarship for college. She also wants Alan. She feels they both will be a great asset for the facility after they graduate. Alan is opposed to this but Lynn is on the fence with the idea. At first, she is for it but then at the end she hesitates looking back at Beatrice when they leave because she feels she will be looking back at herself. Lynn has been through many trials with this disease from when she was 15, did not want to stick to her diet trying to show her independence, and went to a DGD ward to when her father killed both him and her mother by self-mutilation. Butler asks the question in her foreword of exactly how much of what we do is decided by what we are genetically.

Quotes

• “But how can I look at what happened to them and trust anything?”
• “He was the only other double DGD I had ever met, and if nobody did anything for him, he wouldn’t last much longer.”
• “This and much more. Our people work instead of tearing at themselves or staring into space.”

Speech Sounds

Summary

The short story “Speech sounds” by Octavia Butler is about an illness that has taken over the world with language being the number one effect lost along with other impairments done to the body. There are no words spoken throughout the story just sounds and movement.  It starts with the main character Valerie Rye riding a bus on a one-way ticket to go see her brother in Pasadena because she was tired of being lonely and hopeless. Her husband, children and family were wiped out by the illness. Her brother and his two children were the only relatives she thought she had left alive. There is an altercation on the bus. A bearded man shows up and stops the bus altercation. They leave with each other and build a relationship. Rye has lost her reading and writing ability and the bearded man cannot speak or comprehend. At the end of the story, she loses the bearded man because of a crime situation they encountered driving back to her house but gained two children who can speak like her but are afraid to speak in front of her. In this world, people were envious of what other people’s abilities were. Her work finally got acknowledged.

Quotes

• “The illness, if it was an illness, had cut even the living off from one another.”
• “ ‘I’m Valerie Rye,’ she said, savoring the word, ‘It’s all right for you to talk to me.’”
• “She would have to take the children home with her.”

Butler's Biography

Octavia Estelle Butler was born on June 22, 1947 and raised mostly by her mother and grandmother after her father’s death when she was seven in Pasadena, California. Even though she grew up during the segregation era, she still was aware of white supremacy and how it played a part in her race. Her mother, who cleaned white family houses, would bring her daughter books and magazines that they had thrown away. At an early age, her shyness and being bullied in school paired with her dyslexia, made her pass the time reading at the library and got her interested in science fiction magazines. She started her talent of writing at the age of ten when she begged her mother to buy her a typewriter and after watching Devil Girl from Mars at the age of twelve convinced her that she could do a better job. She continued to believe in herself and her writing even after her aunt enlightened her with the truth of segregation and told her, “Honey….negroes can’t be writers” at the age of thirteen. She continued working hard and striving throughout high school and college doing her writing and even made sure she looked for jobs that wouldn't interrupt her writing. Her first work was acknowledged at the Open Door Workshop of the Screenwriters' Guild of America, West, by one of the Writers Guild teachers Harlon Ellison. He encouraged her to attend a six- week program in Pennsylvania called Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop. In those six weeks, she met the writer Samual R. Delany. She continued to write science fiction novels and win awards as her life continued. After her mother died and she won an award for best science novel, she tried to continue writing her Parable novels but the research was too much for her and depressed her. To better herself she wanted something lightweight and fun to write about. Her last science fiction novel before her death was a vampire novel called Fledgling.

References

Wikipedia contributors. "Octavia E. Butler." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 Mar. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

The Book of Martha

Summary

Octavia Butler’s short story “The Book of Martha” is about God telling Martha Bess he has a job for her to do. God wants Martha to think of one change she would do to save humankind from destroying themselves. Even if it made humanity nonexistent, God will make her choice happen. She was reluctant at first because she did not want to make a wrong choice and be responsible for the consequences it would make. God advised her that she had free will to do whatever she wanted and however she wanted to feel also that she could take as long as she wanted to make the decision but she was going to do the work he wanted her to do. At first meeting God, they was standing in just a gray space and then as time went on and as God told her she sees what she wants to see or what life has made her see. As she did, the gray space changed to what she spoke of wanting to see and God changed into many different forms of being as well. Martha eventually made the choice to have people dream their utopia in their dreams when they sleep at night so it can help humankind to be more aware and awake when they are not. Of course, one consequence will be people eventually not wanting to read because they can create their own fantasies in their dreams. This would leave Martha the writer looking for a new career. Martha did not want to remember her choice when she requested God to go home as she stood in her living room looking out the window not knowing what she wanted to forget. Makes the reader question was from the beginning of the story is her choice already happening and how our dreams prolong humanity?

Quotes

• “All in all, the dreams will probably give humanity more time than it would without them.”
• “ ‘As I said earlier, you’re truly free. You’re even free to be terrified. But I assure you, you will do this work.’”
• “But never mind. I’m not asking you to create a utopia, Martha, although it would be interesting to see what you could come up with.”

Amnesty

Summary

The short story “Amnesty” by Octavia Butler talks about how aliens have taken over different deserts in the world and made bubble sections throughout these deserts.  Humans are hired by contract to be enfolded by these moss tree like aliens because it calms the aliens as well as the humans when they wrap them into their “community” entities. They will also be used for little errands and teaching these “communities”, as Noah calls them because the substance which looks like leaves has entities in them, about human culture. These aliens are not going anywhere whether humankind likes it or not. They will also learn how to communicate with them. Translator Noah Cannon who is human and was abducted by these aliens before now works for them. She has taken the job to talk to the new human contracts about what they will be doing and ultimately wants there to be peace and understanding between human and aliens. She has learned that these aliens are no more a threat to humans than humans are a threat to humans through the difference of her being captive by the aliens and then by humans. She learned humans could not destroy them. The “Communities” now have the upper hand over humans. This was what her calling was after she had given up when she was held captive and tortured by humans thinking she knew something more about these “communities” that she did not.

Quotes

• “I want to vote for peace between your people and mine by telling the truth. I don‘t know whether my efforts will do any good, in the long run, but I have to try.”
• “ ‘They’re nothing like anything that any of us have ever known,’ she told them.”
• “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.”

Crossroads

Summary

The short story by Octavia Butler “Crossroads” is about a character named Jane and how she is completely unhappy with her life that. At work, whether she does good or not, someone will have a problem with her. She has a horrible headache only because she knows her ex-boyfriend is coming out of jail from an altercation he had three months ago. For three months while he was in jail, her headaches went away. She is afraid in life to try something new whether it is work or even relationships only because of the thought it might be worse. She feels low about herself and does not have the courage to break free from it. She is in denial of her life and feels ignoring or self-medicating would make things go away and make it not matter.

Quotes

• “ ‘What am I that I could need you anyway?’ She wished she had said the words to him but it didn’t matter. It was just another of the things she didn’t have the courage to do. Like accepting the loneliness or dying or…”

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

In an excerpt by Maria Holmgren Troy from the book The Power of Words titled “Loss of Words: Octavia Butler’s ‘Speech Sounds’”, she shows how the value of communication with stories like “Speech Sounds” can be a great discussion piece in a classroom. She summarizes the story throughout the article to show how loss of words can bring on violence and disruption in a society. This loss of verbal communication and interpretation can turn humanity against each other, which in turn will create major consequences. Not being able to communicate properly in a society will eventually create a new world of animals with severe limitations instead of a humane society. She also shows how money will be useless in a world without language and just sounds. These nonverbal communications show severe limitations when not followed by words and will be associated with negativity and destruction. She also goes on to show more associations while going back to examples of “Speech Sounds” how there are no guarantees in a world without words. Showing compassion or being humane will be lost if us as humans were not able to communicate or understand.

Quotes

• “Communication, or more specifically lack of verbal communication and it’s relation to violence and social disorder, social breakdown.”
• “The consequences of the language impairment are loss of intellectual abilities, constant misunderstandings, murderous jealousy, violence, and the dissolution of society.”
• “It makes sense that money, in the form that we know it, would be useless in a world where cannot speak, read and write.”

Animal “Languages” and Human Language

Charles F. Hockett talks about the properties of human language that separates us from animals in this journal article. He shares the power of speech is the one key thing which separates us from other species. Seven properties separate our communication from animals. One unique part of human language, which separates us, is what he calls duality of patterning. This is the ability to divide speech into non-meaningful and meaningful segments. For example, word formation and sound patterning. Before language developed and became what we use today, it went through a series of stages with our ancestors. The first four properties he believes that developed along with duality of patterning are productivity, blending, cultural transmission, and arbitrariness. Without language, society was unproductive and had no flexibility. There was no learning or imitation among the young children. Even though there are many undiscovered properties between animals and humans there is still a major difference between what makes our communication unique.

Quotes

• “One item found on every such list, though under various labels, is the power of speech.”
• “In duality, then, we may have found one genuine uniqueness of human behavior.”
• “There are other universal properties of human language that might be considered, and there are certainly a great many animal communicative systems about which we are as yet in total ignorance.”

Function of Language in Human Society

Language plays a significant role in our lives. Without it, civilization will vanish. It develops our brain, which helps with our intelligence. We learn language as we develop as children through socializing. It helps us express ourselves as human beings and create rules to maintain a society. Language is the number one difference between chimps and us. This essay states the five subsystems of language. We need to add words to body language to be able to get a rational interpretation. Nothing can replace words. It delivers peace and understanding among cultures. There is no world without language according to this essay. Words are meant to be said with a purpose at hand. Language builds a common ground among man. It helps us help each other by way of culture or counseling. There is extreme openness in communities with the use of language. Language gives certain details that animal signs cannot.

Quotes

• “A distinguishing characteristic of man is his ability to communicate through the use of language.”
• “We use language to express inner thoughts and emotions, make sense of complex and abstract thought, to learn to communicate with others, to fulfill our wants and needs, as well as to establish rules and maintain our culture.”
• “In human world, language and communication is unique because of it’s rational nature.”

Language Evolution

This review shows how studying where language came from brings up many theories in science. With all the advances in understanding the universe, we are still trying to figure ourselves out and what makes us human. This book shows how language makes us and in order to understand humanity we have to understand language evolution. It goes through all the disciplines of language from the biology of how humans changed to how we learn language, and how evolution, culture and learning of language interact. All language is equal which because linguists take it for granted is why the interests have been slow in regards to the study of it. For humans to be able to put words together and understand it when received is the difference between human and non-human. Many of the statements suggest we developed from visual gesture to vocal ones. However, compared to actual speech, visual gestures lacked in not being able to see the gesture communicated. Language had to be developed in order to communicate with each other from afar. Through the decades, language became genetically encoded for future generations to have the ability to learn it. These are the many disagreements on how language has developed but one agreement is that language does make humans a unique species and therefore is what makes us humans. This is useful in my paper because I am trying to prove how language makes us human and how without it we are alien to each other because we would not be able to understand one another 100% creating a non-humane society. This review shows the background of language and is something to look into how it developed because it is what makes us human.