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A review by thebookishapoth
Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler
adventurous
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Reading through Octavia Butler's Bloodchild and Other Stories has left me with the feelings of elation and furor.
For me, this collection of short stories and essays have created a wave of emotions and realizations - what science fiction is or can be or means to me, the power in the words we use and the worlds we are able to create, where inspiration can come from and what it can transform into...
Butler's stories and introspections on writing provide a wide array of ideas and depictions of our current existence. I am grateful for the afterwords that followed each piece and allowed for another layer of understanding.
To me, Butler's writing feels simple, universal, relative, impactful, transformative, affective, and effective.
Your personal dreams and goals and the persistence you maintain in reaching them will ultimately determine and lead you to your utopia.
Be open to new, strange, and frightful things - and persist throughout it all.
A few key impressions I am left with from each piece:
Bloodchild - a classic I am glad to have read, weird, the experimentation and exploration of ones fear
The Evening and the Morning and the Night - what are we?, the feeling of being trapped within oneself, empowerment of the female being, the power of... or lack of power of ones genetics
Near of Kin - "a sympathetic story of incest", wild and thoughtful and wrong and reality and biblical fact
Speech Sounds - weariness and depression and sorrow leading to hope returned, the want to see human communication surpass the need for physical violence
Crossover - the oddities and vices hidden by other and their methods of distraction and conformity
Positive Obsession - "aiming yourself, your life, at your chosen target. Decide what you want. Aim high. Go for it."
Furor Scribendi - 1. Read 2. Write 3. Communicate 4. Revise 5. Submit 6. Forget: inspiration, talent, imagination >>> PERSIST.
Amnesty - Dr. Hen Ho Lee, "... my tormentors were my own people."
The Book of Martha - "my utopia story", to be truly free > to be able to exist in fear, think of the future and the present with lessons from the past. Dreams + self-respect.
For me, this collection of short stories and essays have created a wave of emotions and realizations - what science fiction is or can be or means to me, the power in the words we use and the worlds we are able to create, where inspiration can come from and what it can transform into...
Butler's stories and introspections on writing provide a wide array of ideas and depictions of our current existence. I am grateful for the afterwords that followed each piece and allowed for another layer of understanding.
To me, Butler's writing feels simple, universal, relative, impactful, transformative, affective, and effective.
Your personal dreams and goals and the persistence you maintain in reaching them will ultimately determine and lead you to your utopia.
Be open to new, strange, and frightful things - and persist throughout it all.
A few key impressions I am left with from each piece:
Bloodchild - a classic I am glad to have read, weird, the experimentation and exploration of ones fear
The Evening and the Morning and the Night - what are we?, the feeling of being trapped within oneself, empowerment of the female being, the power of... or lack of power of ones genetics
Near of Kin - "a sympathetic story of incest", wild and thoughtful and wrong and reality and biblical fact
Speech Sounds - weariness and depression and sorrow leading to hope returned, the want to see human communication surpass the need for physical violence
Crossover - the oddities and vices hidden by other and their methods of distraction and conformity
Positive Obsession - "aiming yourself, your life, at your chosen target. Decide what you want. Aim high. Go for it."
Furor Scribendi - 1. Read 2. Write 3. Communicate 4. Revise 5. Submit 6. Forget: inspiration, talent, imagination >>> PERSIST.
Amnesty - Dr. Hen Ho Lee, "... my tormentors were my own people."
The Book of Martha - "my utopia story", to be truly free > to be able to exist in fear, think of the future and the present with lessons from the past. Dreams + self-respect.