My book project was born out of a project I started in graduate school that was interested in how Black speculative writers in the 20th century imagined and interacted with a field of thought called posthumanism. Butler’s Posthuman Ontologies.” What is posthumanism and how does it relate to Butler’s work? Your project is called “Cellular Blackness: Octavia E. In “Bloodchild,” in which humans help insectlike aliens procreate, readers can see Butler plumbing this theory by imagining different ways humans can interact and evolve with other species. Take Butler’s interest in symbiogenesis, an evolutionary theory based on cooperation rather than Darwinian competition. Her interest in subjects such as slime-molds, cancer and biotechnology come through in her stories in ways that readers might not expect. I was continually surprised by not only the breadth of her interests and the depth of her knowledge, but also in the way she was able to synthesize seemingly disparate topics. What was one of the most surprising things you learned about Butler from the collection?Įven given what I knew about Butler as a celebrated writer and scholar, every day I spent in her archive only increased the amount of esteem I hold for her.
I’ve found that the content in these notebooks has been an invaluable window into Butler’s scientific thinking. I’ve spent most of my time working through Butler’s research materials, her correspondence with authors and her drafting materials, including her notecards and notebooks. Butler’s short story ‘Bloodchild’ appeared in a 1984 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine.Īs you can imagine, it’s a great deal of collected material – so much, that when I began my fellowship, I was told by the curator who processed the collection that I wouldn’t be able to see everything. It’s housed in 386 boxes, one volume, two binders and 18 broadside folders. Butler collection consists of manuscripts, correspondence, photos, research materials and ephemera. After reading that story, I was pretty much hooked.Ĭan you give us an idea of the scope of this collection, in terms of its volume and value, and how much of it you were able to read during your fellowship? I managed to get my hands on “ Bloodchild,” an award-winning short story that came out in 1984 about aliens and male pregnancy. But I wanted to know if she had anything weirder on her backlist. I was really intrigued by the prescient nature of the novel. We read “ Parable of the Sower,” an apocalyptic novel published in 1993 but set in 21st-century America. I first read Butler’s work in a graduate course on feminist literature and theory.
How did you become interested in Octavia E.
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