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posted by martyb on Sunday December 18 2016, @01:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the fact-following-fiction dept.

Wired has a recent article about author Octavia Butler and how her work presaged the "Make America Great" again campaign.

Octavia Butler, who died in 2006, was the author of such visionary science fiction novels as Kindred, The Parable of the Sower, and Dawn. Gerry Canavan, who just published a book-length study of Butler, describes her as one of the greatest writers of her era.

"I think you'd put her up there with Philip K. Dick and Le Guin and Delany and these other people who really made an impact on the way that science fiction circulates," Canavan says in Episode 234 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "Especially that mode of literary science fiction that's somewhere in the middle between genre fiction and prize-winning novels, she has to be top two, top three in that list."

Butler made headlines this year when fans noted that her 1998 novel The Parable of the Talents features a fascist politician who rises to power by promising to "make America great again." The comparisons to Donald Trump are obvious, but Canavan says the character was actually inspired by Ronald Reagan.

[...] Butler had a singularly dark imagination, and often had to do multiple rewrites in order to tell her stories in a way that readers would find palatable. But Canavan says that in the current political climate, Butler's dim view of humanity is starting to seem ever more relevant.

"She often thought about how easy it would be for everything to just kind of go back to the way it was," he says. "That the things that seemed like they were permanent progress were really just a kind of epiphenomenon of the wealth of the United States in the latter half of the 20th century, and that when that fell apart, all the bad days would come back again."


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 18 2016, @04:27PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday December 18 2016, @04:27PM (#442700) Journal

    Octavia Butler. Compared to Philip K. Dick. Funny - I've never read anything she has published. Apparently, she's not an Ursula K. Lequin. Hmmmm - the lady is dead. 1947-2006 I note that she's a black lady - can't see that she's obviously a SJW.

    https://examinedworlds.blogspot.com/2015/03/review-of-kindred-by-octavia-e-butler.html [blogspot.com]
    Review of Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
    Time travel is a science fiction trope, but Kindred is essentially a horror novel. The horror is American slavery. Here we see it through the eyes of an American black woman living in 1976 who is transported to an early 1800's Maryland plantation.

    So - this may be a very good book, or not, but it's not really Science Fiction. At least not science fiction as I define it.

    Another review of Butler's work - http://thenewstalkers.com/bob-nelson/group_discuss/3268/liliths-brood-by-octavia-e-butler [thenewstalkers.com]

    That one looks interesting - maybe she is really a Sci-Fi writer.

    Ehhhh - to bad the lady is dead. Maybe she could lay to rest the Butt-Hurt Left's suspicions that she wrote about Trump.

    I'll have to read some of her books. Another search for Butler and SJW fails to find whether she ever took a position on SJW issues. At first glance,she is more interested in black history than gender issues.

    Hmmmm - wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_E._Butler [wikipedia.org]

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  • (Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @04:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @04:48PM (#442705)

    > can't see that she's obviously a SJW.

    Wow. You really have just one lens through which you view the world.

    • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 18 2016, @06:19PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday December 18 2016, @06:19PM (#442733) Journal

      Wow, dumbass - reading comprehension isn't your strong suit, is it? I've never heard of the woman. Just maybe I saw one of her books somewhere, and didn't take note of it, but I didn't know who she was. I went exploring, to see who she was. She is very much centered on race relations, and somewhat centered on feminine issues. Perhaps feminist, but feminine for sure. I asked myself if she were a SJW - maybe she qualified as such, but that's not exactly where the reviews place her. I've stated clearly that she is interesting, and some of her books are interesting.

      Unfortunately, she didn't live long enough to have a say on the Sad Puppy issue. We might make a more accurate assessment of her and her works, had she lived that long.

      Now, you tell us, which color tinted glasses do YOU look through when you evaluate the world around you?

      No matter how you look at things, the dems/left/socialists in America are just having another go at whining and crying over Trump. Ms. Butler didn't warn us of Trump. She wrote a book based on her perceptions of a former president, not a future president.

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @02:18AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @02:18AM (#442906)

        SJW: Stop being such dicks to people! Systemic cultural racism is a problem you inconsiderate fuck face.

        Con: Waah waaah people are insulting us and pointing out major cultural issues, waah waaah. They want to change merry christmas to happy holidays waah waaah my sacred bullshit.

        SJW: Waah waaah people are violating our over-the-top restrictions on social conduct. Waah waaah

        Con: Angry yelling! Those SJW kids need to get off my lawn! Moar tax breaks for the rich cause then they'll be grateful and give us back the jobs all those immigrants stole!! Rabble rabble rabble.

        Observer: What a bunch of RETARDS.

        Republican Party: This is so sweeeet, we can do whatever we want and they'll just yell at each other!

        Observer: Asshole retards destroying their own country... Can I still say retard? No? Fuck you retard. Can I do whatever I want if it doesn't infringe on others? No? Fuck you religious fascist.

        2016: WE'RE ALL FUCKED! well, except for the swamp, it doesn't look too worried.

      • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday December 19 2016, @04:48AM

        by Reziac (2489) on Monday December 19 2016, @04:48AM (#442954) Homepage

        She was an acquaintance of a friend of mine, and evidently was very gracious to my socially-inept friend, as he always spoke very highly of her.

        I've read a couple of her early books -- I remember them as well written but a little heavy on the social commentary, and I wasn't really interested in reading more. It's been a long time; perhaps I should revisit them.

        --
        And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
    • (Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Sunday December 18 2016, @07:42PM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday December 18 2016, @07:42PM (#442775) Journal

      > can't see that she's obviously a SJW.

      Wow. You really have just one lens through which you view the world.

      And that lens is through a glass, darkly. Some people cannot take their own advice!

      Just STFU. You have the right to remain silent - use it. Doing so will help to hide the fact that you're an idiot.

      I, for one, am always interested in what Runaway thinks, if it can be called thinking. NOT!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @07:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @07:05PM (#442751)

    Maybe she could lay to rest the Butt-Hurt Left's suspicions that she wrote about Trump.

    Because if she thought reagan was a monster she would think trump was just swell!

    Are you retired from cirque du soleil? Because the mental acrobatics you perform in order to rationalize your ridiculous world-view are worthy of a vegas show!

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @08:28PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 18 2016, @08:28PM (#442797)

    Anyone who uses the term "SJW" disqualifies themselves from the discussion.

    • (Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 19 2016, @12:42AM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 19 2016, @12:42AM (#442876) Journal

      Actually, the opposite is true. If you don't have any antipathy toward the SJW's, then you are unqualified - for anything.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @03:13AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @03:13AM (#442928)

        > If you don't have any antipathy toward the SJW's, then you are unqualified - for anything.

        Then what does that make you?
        Because you clearly have a raging hard-on for SJWs. Over half your posts are about SJWs. They are obviously all you can think about. Well, them and the geys and the muzzies. But SJWs are clearly your first and greatest love. You should put some tape over your webcam, we can all see you stroking it whenever you post about them.

        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday December 19 2016, @03:57PM

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 19 2016, @03:57PM (#443171) Journal

          Half of my posts? Math isn't your strong suit, anymore than reading comprehension. Do you even know what antipathy is? Here - let me help:

          an·tip·a·thy
          anˈtēpəTHē/
          noun
          noun: antipathy; plural noun: antipathies

                  a deep-seated feeling of dislike; aversion.
                  "his fundamental antipathy to capitalism"
                  synonyms: hostility, antagonism, animosity, aversion, animus, enmity, dislike, distaste, hatred, hate, abhorrence, loathing
                  "I never encountered racial antipathy until I went to college"
                  antonyms: liking, affinity

          Origin
          late 16th century (in the sense ‘opposition of feeling, nature, or disposition’): from French antipathie or Latin antipathia, from Greek antipatheia, from antipathēs ‘opposed in feeling,’ from anti ‘against’ + pathos ‘feeling.’

          I do happen to own a webcam or three. Stupid things that I've bought for the boys over the years. I think I can find one, if I want, I saw it collecting dust a couple weeks ago in the middle son's room. The question is, WTF do I even want one for? I already know what I look like, and you have no need to know.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @04:01PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @04:01PM (#443173)

            Wow. It really easy to send you spiraling off into weird solipsistic rants. You've done it twice in this thread alone.
            I suspect a fragile ego.