Part of the club. [Octavia E. Butler: Kindred, Fledgling, Collected Stories (Library of America #338) ]
An original and eerily prophetic writer, Octavia E. Butler used the conventions of science fiction to explore the dangerous legacy of racism in America in harrowingly personal terms. She broke new ground with books that featured complex Black female protagonists—“I wrote myself in,” she would later recall—establishing herself as one of thepioneers of the Afrofuturist aesthetic. In 1995 she became the first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, in recognition of her achievement in creating new aspirations for the genre and for American literature.
This first volume in the Library of America edition of Butler’s collected works opens with her masterpiece, Kindred, one of the landmark American novels of the last half century. Its heroine, Dana, a Black woman, is pulled back and forth between the present and the pre–Civil War past, where she finds herself enslaved on the plantation of a white ancestor whose life she must save to preserve her own. In Fledgling, an amnesiac discovers that she is a vampire, with a difference: she is a new, experimental birth with brown skin, giving her the fearful ability to go out in sunlight. Rounding out the volume are eight short stories and five essays—including two never before collected, plus a newly researched chronology of Butler’s life and career and helpful explanatory notes prepared by scholar Gerry Canavan. Butler’s friend, the writer and editor Nisi Shawl, provides an introduction.
Because there are a several stories and novels included in this collection, I will give my thoughts on each, best I can, and then give a final overview.
Kindred:
There was a rolling disgust with Dana, the main character, as I read this story. How could she, a Black woman in the 1970s, be so naïve and generally altruistic? And still, even with the diminished portrayal of violence against Black bodies, I was so disgusted with the accurate representation of plantation life. I'm not want to ever willingly read books depicting slavery times. I think as a Black person living in the Americas, with generations of family based in the Americas, I more than have that right.
But Dana's ignorant attempt to remediate Rufus, or even as she acknowledges, her ease with accepting her enslaved status, were both revolting in the most self-reflection inducing of ways. Anyone can imagine how they would be, can set an ideal for themselves and imagine themselves sticking to that ideal in extreme situations. Reality can be quite different. The limits of what Dana was able to endure or willing to see others endure all in the name of self preservation can’t be ignored as a major theme.
"Stop defending him" Kevin tells Dana, and that best encapsulates my thought process. Stop defending this manipulator, this abuser, this rapist. Stop pitying him. Stop forgiving him. That's really where the book started to pick up for me, where I started to care and empathize with Dana, when she started to experience the reality she had otherwise been passively observing. The idea that her white, and extremely caring, husband was more realistic was baffling. I suppose on one hand, his involvement wasn’t as personal so he was allowed more objectivity. Until it became a years long ordeal for him, and even that was too much to bear. Again, a stark contrast to Rufus, whom she defends so much.
The concept of traveling back in time to meet your terrible ancestor and having to suffer them and all their ills seems like some cosmic punishment for the sins of the ancestor. But then again, so I’d being marked by your descendant. I will say that parts of the foreword spoiled parts of Kindred for me, but I can officially say I've read Octavia Butler now. What fun. Had I read this story alone I probably would have given it 4 stars, but I'm not reading it alone.
Fledgling:
Struggling to get through this vampire story without being revolted every five minutes that we've got a pedophile in a supporting character role, it's tough. But I will admit the worldbuild is extensive. And I get that our main character Shori is a 50 year plus old vampire, but she's characterized as looking no more than 10 or 11. So no matter how powerful or knowledgeable she is portrayed, as I see the story unfold in my head the imagery of grown-looking men sexualizing a young-looking Black female character is weird. On top of which she's sexually immature for an Ina? And then it's just made out to be this normal thing? It was all a bit weird.
Ignoring that issue that never went away, the pacing was very slow. Sure, the detail was extremely important in building the story, but all in all the story was quite weird? This was weird vampire harem story with strong themes of racism and prejudice, but to what end? The character is Black as a matter of fact and not a lived experience. I guess this whole story was her experience of Blackness then? But still, what was the point of it? The MC experiences trauma, builds/finds a new family, more trauma, and barely and justice. Fledgling was Butler's last book so I can't help but wonder if a series might have eventually been built further expanding this vampire universe exempting the unfortunate stroke that led to her passing.
But truly, I just really could not get over the whole intimacy between grown adults and a 10,11-year old looking humanoid. Probably at best I'd have given this no more than 4 stars, about 3.5 if I'm being strictest. And then at times I was bored and/or disgusted and wouldn't have given it more that 2.5 stars. So that averages to about 3 stars for this story.
Stories (one word reviews):
Childfinder - Epic. // Crossover - Confused. // Near of Kin - Eww. // Speech Sounds - Interesting. // Bloodchild - Frightening. // The Evening and the Morning and the Night - Eugenics. // Amnesty - Subjugation. // The Book of Martha - Hubris.
Essays:
In her essays Butler puts forth that her fiction is her best written output, but I quite enjoyed these essays. Yes, I was interested in Butler's works of fiction, they are much ballyhooed. But I also can't help being just as interested in her life, in her role as a groundbreaking Black Woman science-fiction writer. And so reading her describe her journey as a writer, as a reader, on being a minority in a white male dominated space.
Thoughts:
I've finally read Octavia Butler. As an introduction to Octavia Butler and her works, I think was fantastic. I don't know that were I to read her entire range of novels that Kindred and Fledgling would be among my favorites, but I think their pairing, especially the inclusion of the latter, was an apt display of Butler's storytelling range. Fledgling wasn't really enjoyable for me, but I can appreciate its inclusion. But between the foreword, the stories, essays, and respective afterwords, you get a repeatedly emphasized sense of Butler's belief system, values, and ideals. Alongside her rejection of religion, there's a sense of that humanity is alone in the grand scheme of the universe. That we face a bitter, harsh, somewhat meaningless reality, and that life continues in spite of that. And while that worldview isn't my cup of tea, I did appreciate how well that was conveyed in this anthology. You get the sense of Butler as an author, as a person, and where the two met. Overall, the anthology gives a lot of bang for your buck. 4 stars from me.
Octavia E. Butler: Kindred, Fledgling, Collected Stories (LOA #338) (ISBN:9781598536751) was published January 2021.
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