User:Amalia.galvis/sandbox

Octavia Butler
Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction stories writer. She was born into a humble family, she lost her father at a young age and was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother. Her mother worked as a maid for white people’s houses and butler witnessed how they treated her mother poorly. Octavia E. Butler was known for her shyness and her impressive height, as a solitary child she took refuge in reading and  her mother always encouraged her to read books and love learning. She was a black woman who witnessed racial segregation and bullying during her childhood. Butler's first work published was Crossover in the 1971 Clarion Workshop anthology and her award winning short story collection. ‘Bloodchild and Other Stories’ was declared as a New York Times ‘Notable Book’. With this book she established herself as one of the strongest voices in contemporary literature.

summary
In the story “Bloodchild” by Octavia butler, Gan is a Terran who lives with his family on an alien planet, among powerful grubs called Tlic. According to the story Tlic help the terrans to survive by sharing their preserve with them, but, terrans have to allow them to use their bodies for reproducing their specie. Gan’s mother (Lien), has been friend of a Tlic called T’Gatoi since she was a child, then, they made an arrangement in which, Lien would have to provide one of her children to T’Gatoi for Tlic reproduction. They both terrans (human beings) and Tlic (aliens) depended on one another in order to survive. Therefore, the Tlic needed Terrans for using their bodies to incubate their eggs, though, the Tlic were more powerful,  they depended on Terrans for the survival of their species. In this story Gan witnessed an alien birth from another man called Bram Lomas. this event was really traumatic to Gan because he saw this man suffering in a great pain and dangerous situation. in this birth, T’Gatoi cut and opened Lomas’s body to find the grubs (aliens) inside him and Gan would had kill an animal to feed the grubs or otherwise this grubs would eat lomas’s flesh if they did not find nothing else, these aliens used to eat their egg cases and then their hosts. Gan saw a lot of this red worms crawling over lomas’s flesh which make him so afraid than he would prefer kill himself before being used for something like this. It was so frustrating for him that he fought with his brother (Qui) when he said terrans just were host animals and bother him for asking if he have already been implanted. in spite of this terrible situation, Gan had to take a hard decision, he had to sacrifice and accept that T’Gatoi used his body because whether he didn't accept to be implanted by T’Gatoi, then, she will took his older sister (Xuan Hoa) to do it.

quotes
“I was first caged within T’Gatoi’s many limbs only three minutes after my birth. I tell Terrans that when they ask whether I was ever afraid of her” (8).

“T’Gatoi and my mother had been friends all my mother’s life” (4).

“You were the one making the choice tonight, Gan. I made mine long ago.”(28)

summary
In the story “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” by Octavia butler, Lynn is a young women who suffer a Duryea-Gode disease. It is a genetic disease in which people used to harm themselves and others as well. When she was a child her father killed her mother and then, he committed suicide. Lynn went to college where she met people with the same disease. During this time Even though Lynn does not have any symptoms, she suffered rejection by their peers, because they were afraid of DGD people, since they tend to be self-destruction and attack others, people reject and separate them from society. So, Lynn decided to rent a house with other DGDs where she met ALAN who was another DGD premed. one day after they talked about each other’s lives and their parents, Alan wants to visit his mother  so he invites Lynn to go with him to Dilg, a place when DGD people work and create new things in spite of their  disease. There, Lynn and Alan meet Beatrice. Beatrice is in charge of the patients at Dilg who leads Alan and Lynn to see his mother, in this place Lynn realized that even though she was DGD, she had a special gift to influence people. Beatrice analyzed Lynn while she told to Alan’s mother and controlled her. finally, after Beatriz speak with both of them about Lynn’s gift she wanted Lynn and Alan to work to Dilg, Lynn liked and wondered herself  working there, but Alan reject it because he was afraid become as his mother. So, Alan and Lynn get into the car and the guard drives them away from Dilg.

quotes
“ dad had killed mom, then skinned her completely, at least that's how I hope it happened”(36)

“ this and much more. our people work instead of tearing at themselves or staring into space” (48)

“ nobody complained. nobody even seemed annoyed. they just came up out of their academic daze, cleaned, mopped, mowed, and went back to it.”

summary
In the story “Speech Sound” by Octavia butler, Rye is a woman who lives alone in California, one day she decided to go and seek for her brother in Pasadena, when her journey began, two men started a fight in the bus, and they had some disagreement or misunderstanding. Butler in her story draw a disease in which people only can communicate one and another through gestures and signs, the author described it as a virus strikes the humanity, people can't speak, read or write. So, as well as the fight was getting worse, Rye decided to leave the bus and wait until the fight ends. It is then she meets Obsidian, a man who is wearing a Los Angeles Police Department uniform under his coat, so, he throw a gas into the bus to stop the fight, and then, he asked rye to ride his car, she liked him and even though he was a stranger, she accepted, they began talking about her destination and she reveals that she is able to talk, and they both share an intimate moment and have sex. So, on their way, they saw a man assault a woman with a knife, rapidly, they tried to save the woman but it was late, then, Obsidian hurt the assailant and this man take obsidian’s gun and shoot him in the head, killed him immediately. So, Rye in the midst of despair killed the assailant, Finally, when Rye was collecting obsidian’s body, two children emerged from dead woman’s car, Rye heard them speaking English and she realized that she should take them with her because they know to speak like her, so, she introduce herself with them and make them feel confident to speak with her.

quotes
"His use of the left hand interested Rye more than his obvious question. Left-handed people tended to be less impaired, more reasonable and comprehending, less driven by frustration, confusion, and anger." (2)

"as it swept over the country, people hardly had time to lay blame on the soviets (thought they were falling silent along with the rest of the world ), on a new virus, a new pollutant, radiation, divine retribution….The illness was stroke-swift in the way it cut people down and strokelike in some of its effects”( 5)

""don't talk" the little boy said to her. there was no blurring or confusing of sounds. both children had spoken and Rye had understood."

summary
In the article “Loss of Words: Octavia Butler's "Speech Sounds" by Maria Holmgren Troy, the author states that Octavia Butler in her story draws important themes such as the communication, lack of verbal communication, violence, and society. she said that this science fiction is not as another fantastic story because it focuses on human languages, people who have lost the ability to speak, write and understand speech, but  butler described it as an illness which killed many people. the author emphasize that the language impairment brings constant misinterpretations, murderous jealousy, violence, and social issues. the author based of some examples and scenes in butler's story, and some authors point of view, explains how butler addressed a speechless world through of an illness. For example, she states that some scenes in “Speech Sound” story point out a society where guns replace verbal communication,  a world where money is useless because people can't speak, read and write and where people communicate by exchanging name symbols. the author said that butler created a illness on symptoms of aphasia which means a loss or impairment of the power to use or comprehend words.

quotes
“The consequences of the language impairment are loss of intellectual abilities, constant misunderstandings, murderous jealousy, violence, and the dissolution of society.”

“ Thus, the absence of money in the story underlines the loss of words, the problems of communication, and social disintegration, or to use Jakobson and Halle's expression, the loss of "a common code" (2002:72).”

“Moreover, the reference to Rye's "sometimes useless memory" is one of the traces in the story that indicates that Buder has modeled the "illness" on symptoms of aphasia.”

summary
In the article “Disparate Spirits Yet Kindred Souls: Octavia E. Butler, 'Speech Sounds,' and Me." by Sandra Y Govan, the author mentions her many similarities with Octavia Butler’s life, she also mentions some of the commonalities during their childhood and how both of them suffered physical and psychological abuse from their peer because they were different in race and intellectually. Besides, the author emphasizes in their similar families and how family members discourage both of them to become writers because of social barriers during segregation, Butler’s relatives as hers were African Americans with limited opportunities. they both liked to read and found refuge in reading books. The author also said how she and Butler had a close friendship because of their similar lives and the health issues that they faced. on the other hand, the author mentions Octavia Butler's stories and analyze her “speech sound” story based on Octavia life experiences, author says that she identify with the protagonist of this story (Rye), which she described as a brave, black woman, she states that terrible disease created in “speech sound” is a tool butler used to draw our real world when people fear and hate others because of their differences, she argues that Butler draw in her story the depression and difficult times that she faced in the 1980s. In USA.

quotes
"While we were not bosom buddies, Octavia and I established connection that went deeper than "write" and "scholar." in addition to sharing the joy and disappointments of having summer birthdays and being raised as Baptist, we discovered that we both had somewhat sheltered childhoods and that because of our positions in society, no one expected either of us to amount to much.(110)

"Valery Rye is for me a principal attraction of the story. like most of Butler's women, Rye is an engaging and fully rounded character, an intriguing individual."(119)

"The disastrous disease causing havoc in "Speech Sound" is a tool Butler uses to illustrate how easily entire communities can unravel into destructiveness. (120)

summary
According to the article “Digging Deep: Ailments of Difference in Octavia Butler’s “The Evening and the Morning and the Night.” by Isiah Lavender III, the author states that Octavia Butler in her story called “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” draw another racial analogy in which Butler has created a disease but in reality she is talking about race and racism through disease metaphors. Also, he argues that in Butler’s stories her character are marked, degraded and stereotyped in the same way that social racism. For example, Lavender, based on other critics point of view and investigations, point out that in Butler’s story, the protagonist (Lynn) race never was mentioned, suggesting to her readers assume it. even though nothing specify DGD is a racial metaphor, it has inconclusive parts. For instance, the segregation and isolation of DGD victims showed a kind of oppression where healthy and diseased people are separated from each other through political means and social norms. the author point out some examples of the story to argues his believes that it is a racial story, such as the fears of living with difference, feminism, the separation between healthy and ill people, the violence and social conflict, etc. The author states that all these points generate a sense of cultural racism.

quotes
"victims are marked as other and made to suffer by healthy citizens, who often degrade and stereotype these people in ways that have similar social impacts to race and racism because hale citizens dread contamination"(65)

"readers don't know Lynn's racial identity, creating even more anxiety in this story. Racial imagery is in play here"(67)

"At some levels, Butler is "digging" at issues related to racism in her story about disease. disease seems to be "raced" in the story that is, made into race by cultural perceptions, whereby Butler is purposefully tangling together the symbolic and the literal, the victim and the society."(78)

SUMMARY
In the story “The Book of Martha” by Octavia Butler, Martha is a writer who lives alone, one night while she was writing her fifth novel, she met God and he had chosen her to make a work, in which, he asked her to remember Jonah, Job and Noah bible stories. then, he wanted her to help humankind to survive by finding the way that people will be less destructive, God said her that, people needed help in treat one another better and taking more care about their environment. so, Martha was so afraid and she didn't know how she could do this. Then, she made a lot of questions to God such as why he had chosen her? And what she could do?. Martha had grown in a poor and black family and if she didn't do a good work for humankind the consequences will be come back to the bottom level of society, eventually, Martha thought what she could do. first she thought that people should only have two children but it was not a good idea, then, she thought that people should have powerful dreams in which, humans can achieve their needs in their sleep and spend a lot of their energy, so, in this way when they will be awake, they will be much more peaceful people. finally, God said Martha that this idea could to end with her profession because maybe people won't read anymore, so, Martha said God that she is afraid to make a bad decision and cause harm to others, she is afraid of the damage that the dreams can do and even lose the only career she had cared about but she asked God to make the dreams happen anyway.

QUOTES
"Of course not," God said, sounding annoyed. "They're well on the way to destroying billions of themselves by greatly changing the ability of the earth to sustain them. That's why they need help. That's why you will help them."

"I want them to have the only possible utopia." Martha thought for a moment. "Each person will have a private, perfect utopia every night or an imperfect one. If they crave conflict and struggle, they get that. If they want peace and love, they get that. Whatever they want or need comes to them."

"Even so," Martha said. "I'm afraid the time might come when I won't be able to stand knowing that I'm the one who caused not only the harm, but the end of the only career I've ever cared about. I'm afraid knowing all that might drive me out of my mind someday. She stepped away from God, and already God seemed to be fading, becoming translucent, transparent, gone."

summary
According to the short story “Amnesty” by Octavia Butler the entire human race is being subdue by different communities that have arrive to earth in order to conquest planet earth. The arrival of these new specie to our planet has created chaos among the population, now the humans rely on out of world intelligence in order to cover the most essential needs, and for the first time the entire humanity it’s being dominated by a specie way more intelligent than ours. Octavia states that the presence of extraterrestrial life is causing conflicts between humans. Furthermore, the arrival of new and stronger specie to our planet cause anger and frustration, not only because people were scared, but also because the global economy was taking a big hit due to the arrival of the visitors, and because of the fact that we were working for them instead of ourselves. Humanity was under extraterrestrial dominance and it was difficult to ignore them. In addition the communication between humans and out of world creatures was worsening as time pass by, at the beginning humans were able to choose their own food ,after a while they didn’t have that luxury. They were everywhere and in control of everything, even the medicine, but they have been there for a little while. in "Amnesty" story there is mutuality between the aliens and the humans, even though they are two different species and have only recently learned to communicate through kinesics. The Communities are clearly dominant, but do not act upon it; instead, they want to understand how the humans live, work and Noah aims to give humans a better understanding of the aliens and their true nature.

quotes
“I noticed the same thing. Now we find ourselves in a kind of sibling rivalry with the communities. There is other intelligent life. The universe has other children. We knew it, but until they arrived here, we could pretend otherwise.”

“It was almost easier when the aliens just made us solve puzzles to get food or when they put things in our food that made us sick or when they enfolded us and introduced some nearly lethal substance into our bodies.”

I’m angry that things, these weeds can invade us, wreck our economies, and send the whole world into a depression just by showing up. They do whatever they want to u, and instead of killing them, all I can do is ask them for a job.”

summary
In the article “Octavia Butler’s ‘Amnesty’” (2003) in Race, Aliens, and the U.S. Government in African American Science Fiction by Elisa Edwards, the author states that Octavia Butler uses otherness as a way to describe a phenomenon that is harming our society. In addition when the author states that aliens don’t have a central color, it relates directly to the way in which our society has created all kinds of stereotypes in order to alienate others. One of the main characters of the story “Noah” explains how the “communities” (Aliens) are different from humans. While “Linda Schneekloth” insists that plants are the aliens that been coexisting with humanity and that also have rooted to the world. In order to coexist humans must learn a way to communicate with aliens. However according to Butler’s story analysis “communities” have created a way to communicate showing us that they are willing to peaceful coexist. The use of science fiction along the story shows that aliens are not the real problem for humanity. The problem lies in humanity itself by not being able to treat each other with respect and kindness. Since humanity don’t necessarily have any natural enemies humans have created their own by using race, culture, and gender and all kinds of labels that keep us fighting one another in order to satisfy our own twisted needs.

Quotes
“In ''Amnesty," readers learn about Noah' s abduction by the aliens at the age of eleven, her psychologically and physically abusive captivity and teenage years with them, as well as her departure from the aliens in young adulthood”(45)

"Due to the economic crisis, humans are now forced to apply for jobs at the 'enemies" bubbles where they are expected to become "calm, willing workers" (153) as Noah's subcontractor demands. Although the conditions in the bubbles" improved much since the abductions 'some humans are allowed to wear basic clothing and receive medical aid if needed the Communities' arrival on Earth threatens human life."(51)

“In '' Amnesty” the world, and thus also the U.S. is divided into two distinct species: the alien Communities and human beings. Their differences become most palpable by each species' attitude towards the other species and the way each species treats its own kind.”(52)

summary
In the article “Theorizing Fear: Octavia Butler and the Realist Utopia” by Claire P. Curtis, the author states that Octavia Butler in their stories "Amnesty" and "the book of Martha" draw an analogy to Hobbes states of nature, where Butler show scenarios filled with fear in her stories. the author states that Butler in her stories include female protagonists facing impossible conditions of living and always these protagonist learn to deal with fear, butler create a realist utopia overlap with political realism as understood by Hobbes. besides, Butler sets her stories and novels in states of nature where politic authority is usually absent, in contrast with Hobbes, Butler present in her stories a civil society as a fiction, she mirrors in her stories IR feminist theorist. the author states that humans are fearful, self interested and proud and they need all these things for their motivation and the security from that fear is one the most important people goal.

quotes
"each of these protagonists is seen at a different point along the trajectory of their fear. Martha is presented with her impossible situation at the opening of the story and works through it within the real time of the story. Noah is working from her own past and dealing with new recruits who are facing, as is Martha, the introduction of the feared unknown" (5)

" "Amnesty" and "the book of Martha" present unconventional states of nature scenarios filled with fear and perfectly understandable fear at that"(4)

"these stories exemplify a particularly Butlerian approach to what we fear and what we desire because of that fear." (2)