![]() “Her work is extremely cinematic I’m waiting for the day something gets adapted,” Christovale said. ![]() Those worlds and the characters’ struggles are just as relatable today, film curator Erin Christovale said, making Butler’s work ripe for new audiences. “And underneath that was a social and political fever which spoke so loudly and clearly to women in the black community.” “She had a deep commitment to science fiction, and she wrote many wonderful books, but her talent was in worldbuilding,” said mystery writer Walter Mosley, a friend and contemporary. Richard Ducree/FXĪside from mastering the science of her subject matter, Butler built worlds that included people often left out of history and popular culture. Mallori Johnson as Dana and Austin Smith as Luke in a scene from the "Kindred" series. “What’s profound about Butler’s work is, she talks about cultural differences and social differences and people, but it’s always in a way to look at human connectivity.”įor the “Xenogenesis” trilogy (now published as the “Lillith’s Brood” books), a post-apocalyptic tale of human-alien genetic blending, Butler dived headlong into human anatomy and molecular biology.Īs one biologist noted, her vision was “remarkably consistent with modern molecular biology, even predicting developments that have occurred since the novels were written.” “What she has done is prefigured the young-adult literature market,” photographer Connie Samaras said. in a different way than you would get in a Raymond Chandler novel.”īutler researched life in the antebellum South for “Kindred,” the story of a black woman in California who goes back in time to rescue an ancestor, the white son of a plantation owner. “Just because of who she was and what she experienced, she writes about L.A. in a different way than you would get in a Raymond Chandler novel.” crime novel,” said Julia Meltzer, founder and director of Los Angeles arts organization Clockshop. “Her characters are mostly black women or brown people living in a world that is deeply problematic, and it’s a different underbelly than you would get in the typical L.A. ![]() In 1995, she became the first science-fiction writer to win a prestigious MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” fellowship. She took a series of temporary jobs on factory assembly lines and elsewhere while honing her craft.Īfter the success of her novel “Kindred” in 1979, she was able to support herself writing full time and went on to capture top literary accolades. She went on to study at the Screen Writers Guild Open Door Program and the Clarion Science Fiction Writers’ Workshop, where she found a mentor in science-fiction great Harlan Ellison. Their attitude was understandable for the era, when few people of color – and even fewer women – pursued careers as writers.īutler prevailed, graduating from Pasadena City College in 1968. She received little encouragement from her mother or grandmother, who helped raise her after her father died. Social justice activists in particular are taking an interest in Butler’s work for the way it weaves themes of racism, misogyny and class struggles into dramatic stories about alien abduction, time travel and parallel universes.īorn in 1947 to a domestic worker and a man who shined shoes, Butler sought refuge in writing from her isolated existence as a tall, awkward black girl growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. Political and social justice activists in particular are taking an interest in her work for the way it intertwines themes of racism, misogyny and class struggles with alien abduction, time travel and parallel universes. Her fan base continues to grow as a new generation discovers her 12 novels and short stories, most of which take place in Southern California, where Butler lived for most of her life. Her work helped define the literary cornerstone of Afrofuturism, then an emerging movement that draws from science fiction and fantasy with a socially conscious bend.īy the time she died of a stroke at age 58 in 2006, Butler had amassed international acclaim among fans of speculative fiction, a combination of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Butler, one of few African-American authors to become a prominent name in the white-dominated universe of science fiction.īutler featured people of color in battles for control against aliens and hybrid species, opening a world of possibilities to readers who had been excluded from the genre. Before dystopian fiction like “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent” reflected an increasingly diverse society, there was Octavia E.
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