Octavia E. Butler: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

 

 I was ecstatic to learn about the experience of a woman in Australia who jumped into a cold stream to rescue a wild baby horse. The newborn wild horse had fallen into the water and the desperate mother horse had nudged the woman asking for help. The woman’s husband took a video of the event. The baby horse’s parents witnessed the rescue and soon enough, the mother was able to nurse her baby; the horse family reunited.

  This heart-warming story deserves to be shared, and Octavia Butler gave me a good reason to do so. On the same day I came across this story, I learned that Octavia Butler loved horses from this fabulous book of engaging interviews with Octavia Butler.

  Grab your favorite infusion, curl up in your comfy spot and immerse yourself in the depths of these amazing conversations. What a pleasure it was to read her words! It was like spending time with a good friend... You don’t want those conversations to end.

  Octavia Butler was too humble to acknowledge that she was a visionary, but she was. If you don’t believe me, read this book. Her words are as relevant today as they were when she said them.

  Octavia Butler asserts that to foresee the future, one has to study history.

   In addition to sharing interesting life experiences, she reveals a lot about the writing life. Persistence and the desire to learn from mistakes are more important than talent. They are necessary aspects of a writing life with goals and a purpose. I dare say that to persist and learn from mistakes are imperative actions in everything we wish to attain.

  Her grandmother managed to eke out a living by working hard in sugar plantations in Louisiana. She had been treated like a slave, except for the fact that she was free to leave the job if she chose to do so. Eventually, she saved enough to move to California. She purchased her own space and worked as a farmer. Octavia’s mother lost her husband when Octavia was a little girl. Her mother could not complete elementary school. She worked hard as a maid to make sure Octavia had what she needed to complete her own education. Octavia witnessed how her mother was treated poorly in the workplace, enduring insults and humiliation.

   Octavia Butler meditates on her mother’s sacrifices. She considers her a hero. Octavia’s hard work and dedication had the foundation on her mother’s sacrifices. Despite the fact that Octavia grew among resilient, strong women, Octavia did not find characters like these women in the books she read during her childhood. The novels and short stories were mostly focused on the stories of white men. She was puzzled. Why didn’t science fiction authors integrate black women into the stories?

   Octavia Butler only encountered stories about black people when the narrative dealt with the topic of slavery. Otherwise, black characters were not included. Thankfully, Octavia Butler’s writing incorporated diverse people and challenged the stereotypes and biases she had to put up with through her childhood and youth.

   I appreciate her style of communication. It is concise, clear and honest. I admire her introspective, reflective attitude and the clarity and precision of her observations.

 I enjoyed the revelations about the different books she wrote, what she had in mind when she wrote them, and the ways she tackled challenges and obstacles.

  I read Parable of the Sower not too long ago. Parable of the Talents, the sequel to Parable of the Sower, is now in my mental list of books to be read.

  Octavia Butler reveals interesting information about these two books, “One of the kinds of research I did was to read a lot of stuff about World War II. Not the war itself, but I wanted to know in particular how a country goes fascist, so, I have this country in Parable of the Sower, and especially Parable of the Talents, sliding in that direction. And I really was not trying to prophesize that somehow we would do that but…”

 Regarding these two books, she added, “You can call them save the world fiction, but it clearly doesn’t save anything. It just calls people’s attention to the fact that too much needs to be done and obviously they are people who are running the country who don’t care. I mean, look at what the Congress is doing in terms of taking money away from every cause that is helping people who aren’t very rich; it makes it harder for people to get an education. Who would want to live in a world where there were fewer educated people?”

 She said this in January, 2006, the year she passed away. Yet her words resonate as if they were pronounced today.

 I agree with Octavia Butler.  I would like to add, what kind of government uses fear, threats and intimidation to stop children from attending school? 

 The totalitarian regime of Hitler did it, too. 

 Let's not forget, however, that the right to an education is a basic human right.

 To understand the features of fascism, I encourage you to check this site.

  I strongly believe that critical thinking skills and empathy are important elements of a well-rounded education. These are skills and talents that should be prioritized. They should form the foundation of every healthy society, because without them democracy cannot survive.

 Tyrants deride education and they do anything to dismantle it, because they know that a well-rounded education is a threat to their abuse of power. 

  Octavia Butler's reflections apply to our current situation:

 "I guess many people just need someone to feel superior to to make themselves feel better. You see Americans doing it now, unfortunately, while voting against their own interests. It is that kind of shortsighted behavior that is destroying us."

 I will pass on this book by dropping it in a Free Little Library. Soon it will be dancing to the rhythm of somebody else’s thoughts and dreams. Such is the magic of books…

  Octavia E. Butler was a pioneer of the science fiction genre who received a MacArthur “Genius” grant and PEN West Lifetime Achievement Award for her body of work. Born in Pasadena, California, in 1947, she was raised by her mother and her grandmother. She was the author of several award-winning novels including Parable of the Sower (1993), which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and Parable of the Talents (1995), winner of the Nebula Award for the best science fiction novel published that year. She was acclaimed for her lean prose, strong protagonists, and social observations in stories that range from the distant past to the far future.

 

If you enjoyed this book, feel free to read my writing on the following books:

 

Spirit Woman: The Diaries and Paintings of Bonita Wa Wa Calachaw Nunez

Unstoppable Native American Women by April Riverwood

 

 

 

Walking Away From Hate by Jeanette and Lauren Manning

 

  

   Last December I was distraught and shocked to learn that a student at a Christian school in Madison, Wisconsin, shot and killed a teacher and another student. The shooter’s action had been motivated by neonazi, white supremacist ideology. That same month, a neonazi, white supremacist rammed his vehicle into a group of people at a Christmas Market in Germany, killing five people and injuring several others. (Please, note that I type the word neonazi without capital letters on purpose).

    Neonazi hate groups are part of a reality that is often ignored. Interestingly, the members of these extremist groups consider themselves a “political movement.”

  These hate groups recruit young people in a state of vulnerability. The vulnerable young people who fall prey to the brainwashing of these groups—or I should say to the brain-tainting-- happen to be angry and insecure. They have a need for validation and often feel like outcasts. They may have a need to be accepted by their peers and they lack a sense of purpose.

  These neonazi violent groups entice them by making them feel that they care about them, but the reality is different. The hate groups are based on neonazi ideology. They teach the followers to loathe anybody they consider non-white, gays and Jews; they hate black people; they resent immigrants, falsely accusing them of stealing their jobs. Instead of white supremacy, the ideology should be called white insecurity or white perversion.

  How can we prevent people from joining hate groups or from sympathizing with hate ideology? We need to raise awareness on the spread of neonazi ideology. Other hate extremist groups--ISIS, for example-- follow the same pattern and strategies.

  Lauren Manning belonged to one of these groups in the past. She knows what it is like to be part of such a group. She was able to get out of the hate group despite the dangers and threats she encountered, and is now working to share her story and help others in similar situations.

   Two years ago, I received a copy of On Account of Darkness  by Ian Kennedy, published by Tidewater press, a small publisher from Canada. I wrote a review on it at My Writing Life blog: Awareness, Reflection, Inspiration. Soon after that I navigated the site of the small Canadian publisher, and Walking Away from Hate caught my attention. I included Walking Away from Hate in my mental list of books to be read, but it took me two years to get to it. The book is not present in the library system I count on, so I chose to purchase it directly from Tidewater Press. I did not use Amazon.

  I approached the read with trepidation due to the unpleasant nature of the topic. However, I was eager to understand how young people are lured into the network of falsehoods that coax them to believe in the existence of a so-called superior white race. 

    Five years after she left the white supremacist group, Lauren Manning learned about the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and about the murder of Heather Heyer by a white supremacist. It summoned up memories of her past: “I had been living under a rock for the last few years, not paying attention to current events, but I couldn’t pretend I was shocked to hear of the Charlottesville tragedy. Back when I’d advocated for the division of humanity, I’d known many lost and angry souls in search of a life purpose. Their discussions had revolved around violence and what they considered cleverly crafted methods of returning society to an all-white population. Back then, I believed them. I was one of them, totally immersing myself in their culture while desensitizing myself to my emotions. I’d taken their ideology as gospel and would have gladly died for it.”

 Walking Away from Hate shows how Lauren became involved in a neonazi, white supremacist group, and how her choices pulled her away from her family. Even though Lauren had grown in a healthy, loving environment, she had been exposed to the ideology of her maternal grandfather, who later became estranged from the family. Her grandfather had migrated to Canada from England in 1954. He had fought in the Second World War. Yet he resented immigrants. He disliked gays, black people and Jews and had always been clear about his bigotry. Eventually he severed his relationship with Jeanette and her family, but traces of his ideology may have contributed  to Lauren’s choices when she was in a state of vulnerability, after losing her dad to leukemia at age 16.

  I think it is important to highlight that races do not exist. It has been proven by science.

   The obsession with classifying people into different races makes me uncomfortable; it has been a trend that may perpetuate biases and stereotypes. Science has shown that there is only one race: the human race. Putting labels on people on the basis of something that does not exist is absurd, but we are caught up in a pattern that has emphasized a way of dividing people. Race is a societal construction used to divide people into categories. For this reason, whenever I can avoid ticking the box, I do so.

  Walking Away from Hate is shared in Jodi Picoult’s literary style: mother and daughter narrate their experiences in alternating sections of the book. The conversational style of their prose is engaging and introspective, and it keeps you turning the pages, because you have no idea what is going to happen next. You keep wondering how far she is going to go before she comes to her senses and returns to her family.

  One aspect of the book that I’d like to emphasize is how women in the group were viewed as a means to an end.  Women were simply considered a medium to have children. Their choices and talents were ignored, disregarded and ridiculed. They are never treated as equals.

   The unsafe situations Lauren went through and the emotional and physical violence she had to put up with stunned me. The poor choices that led her to drink alcohol and to neglect herself and surround herself by people whose actions were about hate, criminality and violence made the read heartbreaking, but I love that at the end she was able to leave that behind and to rebuild an authentic life of health and hope not only for herself, but also for the benefit of her family, friends and for those who need her experience to understand that choices make a difference.

  The new beginning in her life allowed her to study, find a fulfilling job, and to discover new talents and hobbies. Her new sense of self paved the way to thrive in healthy relationships. She embarked on a path of mindful meditation daily. As she left her past behind, the support and forgiveness of her family were crucial in the process of healing and recovery.   

    I highly recommend Walking Away from Hate. Read it and share it with the teenagers in your life. Talk about it. If you are a social studies teacher, use the book to educate others on the topic. It can save lives.  

 Last but not least, I will share resources that may also be of help:

  Life After Hate was founded in 2011. This is their message: “Life After Hate is dedicated to inspiring individuals to a place of compassion and forgiveness, for themselves and for all people.” Their goal is to interrupt violence committed in the name of ideological or religious beliefs through education, intervention, research and outreach. According to the book, they help people exiting hate groups and support those who have already left, in both the United States and Canada.

 Exit USA was born in 2014 and is available to people around the world. Its mission statement reads, “No judgment. Just help. If you are ready to leave hate and violence behind, we are here to support you. At Exit USA we are dedicated to helping individuals leave the white power movement and start building a more fulfilling and positive life, just like we did.”

 

Other organizations/resources to seek support:

https://www.splcenter.org/policy-advocacy/

 https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/peril-understanding-preventing-gender-sexuality-bigotry/

www.antihate.ca

www.moonshotcve.com