![]() ![]() The term Afrofuturism, coined in 1993, seeks to reclaim black identity through art, culture, and political resistance. The Earthseed series seems to accurately envision the near-future world’s downfalls, brought on by climate change and economic disparity, which have resulted in growing populism and demagoguery around the world.In African Arguments (“This is Afrofuturism, March 6, 2018), Bolanle Austen Peters states: Inverse calls Octavia Butler the “Mother of Afrofuturism” and describes four themes used in her books: critique of modern-day hierarchies, violence, survival, and diversity. Butler: Why the Author Is Called the Mother of Afrofuturism,” by Kat Tenbarge, June 22, 2018), is a type of cultural aesthetic that explores the intersection of African culture with technology and futurism. Though a few terms have been introduced to describe the subject of climate change as a genre in fiction, one phrase that is often ignored is Afrofuturism, which, according to Inverse (“Octavia E. She went against the odds on many levels: gender, skin color, and story subjects. ![]() But we should never forget adventurous authors like Octavia Butler who were innovative for their time. And, of course, writers naturally take on what they see around them. The reasoning may be that today climate change is more accepted and obvious around the world. The number of authors tackling the subject of climate change in fiction has risen in the past few years, but as stated earlier in this series, many authors were writing about it before it became more mainstream. Despite tackling multiple issues–politics, environment, segregation, religion, social injustices, her prose was concise. Her protagonists were stoic and inspiring. The worlds she built were beautiful, harsh, and grim. She wrote powerfully, imaginatively, and creatively. Octavia helped usher in the genre of YA dystopian fiction. Talking about the Earthseed series as very “real” tale should not drown out the story itself. And by the early 1990s the first IPCC report stated that warming was likely. If you look at a timeline of climate change (American Institute of Physics), you’ll see that global warming had, by in large, become agreed upon by scientific opinion by 1977. But time marches impossibly on, and for those of us who clearly remember 1993, the vacuum that has sucked out space from then to now seems both eternal and too quick. Sower opens in 2024, which once seemed so futuristic, even in the year 1993 when the book was published. ![]() A third in the series, Parable of the Trickster, was not completed before her death. Earthseed contains two novels: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. It is the Earthseed series on which this spotlight focuses, but her other works are relevant and recommended. In addition, she wrote two stand-alone novels, two short story collections, and several essays and speeches. 123-126.) Octavia’s series include the Patternist, Xenogenesis, and Parable (also called the Earthseed). “Positive Obsession.” Bloodchild and Other Stories. By the time she was a pre-teen she got her first typewriter, ignoring her Aunt Hazel telling her, “Negroes can’t be writers.” (Source: Butler, Octavia Estelle. A Hugo and Nebula award winner, she wrote fairy tales as a young girl. ![]() Octavia Butler, an African American science fiction writer, was born in 1947 and died in 2006. ![]()
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