Rahel

Well. Read Clay‘s Arc by Octavia Butler. I‘m traumatized.

Reading Wild Seed by Octavia Butler right now and GOD THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DORO AND ANYANWU ARE SO STRIKING ITS MAKING ME INSANE. Doro is SO arrogant while Anyanwu is cautious, curious. And in the few hours Doro has known her, he has already made plans how to “tame” her, make her follow him and make her have children, suggesting those children should marry each other so their “elite abilities” will survive. Great. The incest details kind of make more sense now - the Patternists have been bred to be “superior” etc. We actually have many cases of incest in medieval royal families and one of the reasons was to “keep the bloodline pure and royal”. It makes sense for Butler to have used such unsettling details in making a point about a hierarchical, eugenic society.

happy pride monthhh

Mind Of My Mind by Octavia Butler is such a complex and haunting book. Butler explored themes of eugenics and power dynamics in such unique ways that really sit with you. Doro uses humans as his puppets, seeks to pursue “perfection” in creating the telepaths. Those who fail to become telepaths suffer a life of isolation, abuse and something similar to mental illness. Regular humans are mentally programmed by the telepaths and used and consumed by Doro, as though they are “subhumans” to Doro and his “elite race”. What’s even more interesting is that Mary does not deconstruct that system; she helps build and later reforms it. She changed the system to her benefit, no longer forced to obey Doro, fully able to create a new society that enslaves regular people and uses them for her and the other Patternist’s liking, similar to how Doro treated the telepaths. In Patternmaster, that system is even more securely formed, seemingly even more violent. It forces the reader to ask what happens if some people are regarded as more valuable, what happens to the ones that are not and if you’d be willing to not only change the system so it suits you better personally but if you’re also ready to deconstruct the power dynamics that benefit you while the “subordinates” suffer. Mary and Doro are so alike and I think that the only thing that makes Mary different is that she’s able to feel empathy through her more human experiences. Although her empathy has clear limits; she has no compassion for Vivian or any other “mutes”. Only the ones she considers her “equals”.

The power dynamic and lack of autonomy in Octavia Butler’s Patternist series are truly terrifying to me and I think that’s only one more detail of Butler’s brilliance. I’m reading in publication order and I’m only on Mind Of My Mind. The mutes and outsiders in Patternmaster, Vivian in Mind Of My Mind, every detail about them breaks my heart. It feels dystopian to me but I think I also need to remember what kind of real life power dynamics the mutes and outsiders resemble. People being treated as pets, as less than because they lack the power, the privilege that their oppressors have, because they weren’t born with the same societal advantages. There’s a lot of that in real life, obviously and that makes it all the more gruesome to read some sci-fi version of that.

Wife by Mitski is literaly such an underrated song. It makes me want to cry every time. It’s brilliant how she captures that agony and longing to have or do something that you were told makes you worthy and the sheer grief when you realize you can’t do that (“I cannot bear you a son, I have tried but if I am not yours, what am I?”). It’s literally heartbreaking (coming from a lesbian girl who doesn’t want kids and will therefore probably never be in this situation lol but Mitski has a way of making you feel things you could otherwise not understand)

To me, it’s so cool to read some of Octavia Butler’s earlier work and really see how her writing has evolved. I read Patternmaster which I think was one of her if not the very first books and compared to her later work, it’s definitely different. I enjoyed it but couldn’t help but noticing that she for example stuck to the perspective of Teray who was not challenged in his participation in the Patternist society by more marginalized groups like mutes or outsiders. Usually, Butler offers multiple perspectives that differ greatly from each other. The Xenogenesis books had a different perspective each time, first Lilith as the human voice, then Akin and Jodahs as the Oankali construct voices. In Parable of the Talents, Lauren’s mindset is repeatedly criticized by her daughter Asha/Larkin. In Kindred, while Dana is in the dilemma of ensuring her bloodline’s survival and in doing that also ensuring that Rufus will grow up and have power that is used cruelly against people of color and is partly resented for it by Alice (I find their dynamic fascinating). But in Patternmaster, there’s none of that and it’s really interesting to see the evolution of Butler’s work. Love her, she was a legend

finished reading Patternmaster by Octavia Butler two days ago and…holy shit, I loved it but the book description was so inaccurate lol. It says that Teray would “take refuge among the Clayarks” and that it would “ensure a war that would change humanity forever”. Yeah no. It was literally about Teray and Amber breaking loose from Coransee etc. And I loved reading it, I really did and I’m excited for when Mind Of My Mind arrives but why was the description so false?😭

unrelated but does anyone else struggle with this? When I buy something, say for 4,99€ (or whatever your currency is) and I give a five, I’m always like “should I say they can keep the change?” because ONE CENT IS SO LITTLE I’M SCARED I’LL SEEM PETTY IF I TAKE THE CHANGE but also if I say they can keep the change it’s almost insulting BECAUSE it’s so little. Either way I always feel like a brat afterwards 🙂

What‘s your favorite Lilith‘s Brood book? I‘ll start. First Dawn, then Imago, then Adulthood Rites

What do y’all think of Larkin/Asha from Parable of the Talents? She’s very interesting and has definitely had a lot of trauma growing up. I don’t exactly blame her for resenting Lauren, I just think it’s devastating how Lauren didn’t find Asha/Larkin until decades later. I’m also asking myself how it was possible for Lauren not to find her once Earthseed grew popular and she gained all these resources. Marc found Asha/Larkin approximately a few years after CA captured Acorn. Of course because he’s an asshole who likes to fraternize with people he KNOWS tortured his sister, he had the resources of CA to find her. But I think Lauren could’ve been able to find Larkin/Asha sooner, at least once Earthseed gained so many followers. What do y’all think?

Does anyone else think daily about the brilliance that is the ending of Kindred by Octavia Butler? Throughout the book Dana has had to realize that Rufus wasn’t going to be a good person despite her attempts to influence him. But she was also bound to him, she had to rescue him in order to rescue herself. When she kills Rufus and loses her arm in the wall, I thought that was the most devastating metaphor ever. Butler portrayed the loss and suffering Black people have gone through and still have to deal with today. She essentially said “Black people bear the scars of centuries of suffering and torment” and symbolized it with Dana literally losing a part of herself. It really stuck with me.