Sunday, February 26, 2006

Octavia Butler... keep stirring our souls...

Oh, oh, oh, oh......

Octavia Butler passed away? Aw, man what a total bummer.

What a wonderful person. While her tales verged on depressing and pessimistic, they never tipped over into nihilism or hatred of whole types of people. Her political leanings never tipped too far, sacrificing story and character for the sake of polemic. Rather, while chiding humanity for relentless bad habits and foolishness, her stories and novels also beckoned - always - with a glimmering allure of hope.

Certainly Octavia was always personally upbeat and pleasant and ready to talk about her greatest love, ideas. She was a fabulous writer and one of the truest science fiction authors... the compliment that I believe she liked hearing best.

parable-of-the-sowerI cannot post any more right now. Other stuff must wait anon.

She'll live on as a great part of our collective conscience. Keep stirring us, Octavia.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is some terribly depressing news. Octavia Butler's fiction has been a big part of my life and I am truly saddened to hear of her passing.

Anonymous said...

This is awful, awful news.

Anonymous said...

She was a terrific, intelligent author and a very inspriring individual. I feel fortunate now to have met her even briefly, at an author reading that she did here in Seattle a few months ago as a kickoff to her latest book Fledgling. She was a very intelligent and measured speaker and I am deepy saddened to hear that she is gone.