WALK WITH OCTAVIA E. BUTLER

What does it mean to be human? A great way to explore this question is through science fiction. And what better author to read, then Octavia E. Butler (1947-2006), whose work is not as  widely known as you’d expect. Her stories deal with questions about what it means to be human, what it means to be good, how we should lead our life. The stories deal with questions about power, because as she says “I began writing about power because I had so little.” She won several of the big science fiction prizes, and in her stories is not afraid to ask about what our future could or should be like. She breaks away from what we assume is the norm, not only in her stories, but also by daring to write science fiction in the first place. “Why aren't there more S[cience] F[iction] Black writers? There aren't because there aren't. What we don't see, we assume can't be. What a destructive assumption.”

 

We will be reading three different stories by Octavia E. Butler. One per meeting. No need to attend all three meetings, although you're welcome to, of course. We will meet on Zoom and someone will read the story out loud. Everyone is invited to go for a walk while listening to the story being read. Afterwards we will discuss it together. 

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Stories we will be reading:

Monday: Speech Sounds (read by Lara Hoffman and Nicole des Bouvrie)

Thursday: The Book of Martha (read by Sagy Watemberg Izraeli)

Saturday: The Evening and the Morning and the Night

 

Please email Nicole (nicole.nobyeni@gmail.com) to sign up to receive the Zoom-link ahead of time. In case you prefer to read along (optional) you can find the stories we will read in the short story collection published as ‘Blood Child’. (Volunteer readers welcome.)