Why has Octavia Butler been relatively obscured from science fiction canon? Or at least dropped off so dramatically in the public SF eye since her death?
Why has Octavia Butler been relatively obscured from science fiction canon...
Mason Smith
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Daniel Martinez
Even notorious Alt Right Bigot Nick Land was a fan of her work
Adam Wright
Bump
Isaiah Lopez
No idea, considering Xenogenesis is one of the greatest accomplishments in the genre.
I think a factor is that, since she is dead, people can't really hold her up as an example of diversity in the field anymore. This is one of the reasons (one of the others being her high quality writing) that Nnedi Okenafor is being championed right now, she can be pointed to as an example of diversity in sci-fi.
All of this is really sad because while keeping the genre diverse is important, it reduces writers like Delany, Butler, and Okenafor to "token" writers when they should be lauded for their quality prose.
Christopher Russell
>keeping the genre diverse
>important
Tyler Hughes
That doesn't have to be as simple as "more races, more women" but in general its good for a genre that banks so hard on new ideas and different perspectives to have diversity in every way whether racial, sexual, economic, political, etc.
Luke Howard
From what I've observed unless an author had a HUGE impact or have a dedicated team keeping their memories alive they will slide into obscurity pretty quick after their death.
David Robinson
I agree with this sentiment, especially considering how derivative most published sci-fi is.
Jack Wright
I don't have the stats handy but I thought she was quite popular for a recent sci-fi writer. More so than James Tiptree or Joanna Russ.
Jaxon Ward
it's not really aimed at the male audience at all. if her works had been, then every second male character wouldn't have been an obnoxious, stupid rapist.
Alexander Johnson
I think you're spot-on with pretty much everything you said.
I think the tokenization thing is especially sad with Butler, given that she'd even say that she's not trying especially hard to do anything profound with race. And yet all Charlie Rose could seem to ask about in the interview he did with her was about whether she was "trying to create a new African mythology."
Aaron Morales
>scifi canon
nigga l m a o
Xavier Moore
there are lots of interesting semi forgotten sci fi authors from the 50s and 60s, like Cordwainer Smith or RA Lafferty.
Jace Russell
Take the redpill and realize the truth, fucking brainwashed idiots
Brayden Rivera
Two things.
Sci-fi isn't literature so it doesn't last. It's like how musicis nowadays.
Juan Torres
It was a genuine pleasure to witness your the intellectual superiority of your post, thank you
Joseph Powell
The real world is hysterical Sci-Fi by this point, an amalgam of every crazy sci-fi dystopia, don't you want to understand how this meme reality came into being?
Juan Miller
Most authors fall off for a couple years after their deaths. Then they're brought back as "classics".
Most people read for one of two reasons: to feel "up to date" or to feel "traditional". People who are recently dead feel too lukewarm.
Cameron Jones
>keeping the genre diverse is important
In content, ya, not in the hand. You people really amaze me. It'd be nice if people wanted wanted work to be good.
Ethan Adams
Never heard of her (I don`t read a lot os sci-fi). What did she write? Is it any good?
Carter Nguyen
I think she's absolutely a good writer.
She's written many things. I'm personally a huge fan of her Xenogenesis trilogy, which consists of the books Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago (in that order).
However, her book Kindred has also been thought of as really influential and important, as is her Parable series/duet, which consists of Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents (also in that order).
Ryder Jackson
Asher Barnes
Why isn't it literature though?
Ian Green
You need to sh re ek yourself be4 u chek ur self
Leo Hernandez
Because she's a nigger.
Gabriel Price
>cosmoetica.com
because it's SF, which makes it genre fiction, and genre fiction isn't allowed to be literature. that's wh SF is often referred to as a ghetto. that's why Margaret Atwood won't come out and say her work is SF, because if she did, she'd be sent to the ghetto.
William Bell
The sci-fi/fantasy general should be banned. All general threads across the site should be banned, I despise them. Fuck generals.
Daniel Parker
I don't totally think that is the case, but even if it was, it sounds more like a description of the way things are rather than a statement of how things should be.
I'm wondering WHY it is that SF SHOULDN'T be thought of as literature.