![]() RONALD REAGAN: Welfare is another of our major problems. And what was Octavia's inspiration for the story? The news. No aliens, no time travel, simply a teenage girl in the year 2024 watching society crumble before her very eyes and desperate to find a way to survive. "Parable Of The Sower" is your the-apocalypse-is-right-now coming-of-age story. KAPLAN-LEVENSON: But this isn't your "Catcher In The Rye" or To-Kill-A-Mockingbird type of coming-of-age story. JAMIESON: She is about 15 years old, turning 16 in this book, so it's a coming-of-age novel. KAPLAN-LEVENSON: This is Ayana Jamieson, founder and director of the Octavia Butler Legacy Network. And then one of her most famous books released in 1993 brought her a whole new reputation on a whole other level - Octavia the prophet.ĪYANA JAMIESON: So "Parable Of The Sower" is actually a book that was written where the protagonist, Lauren Oya Olamina, is this girl who lives in this place called Robledo. She was Octavia, the feminist Octavia, the Afro futurist Octavia, the radical. KAPLAN-LEVENSON: But her work complicated traditional power structures and centered marginalized voices, so the labels persisted. It's there, so it's not something I'm focusing on. LAINE KAPLAN-LEVENSON, BYLINE: Octavia Butler resisted labels all of her life.īUTLER: And my attitude was I am a Black woman and if it doesn't come out in the stories, I can't imagine why. OCTAVIA BUTLER: I don't recall ever having wanted desperately to be a Black woman science fiction writer. Here's Laine Kaplan-Levenson from NPR's history show Throughline. She was prolific and prophetic from the 1970s until her death in 2006. She was the first science fiction writer to win a MacArthur genius grant. Those are the highest honors in science fiction and fantasy writing. She was the first Black woman to receive the Nebula and Hugo Awards. Octavia Butler seemed almost to belong to the future.
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