Octavia Butler has died

She fell and hit her head over the week end


I loved her and I am heartbroken

Condolences are hardly worthwhile, but that's all I can offer you. And so I do.

"
Octavia Estelle Butler: (June 22, 1947-February 25, 2006) was an American science fiction writer, one of very few African-American women in the field, and a leading lesbian writer. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards, and was the first science fiction writer ever to be a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant".
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It is a very sad thing to lose someone you love. My thoughts are with you. Take care.

Amy Goodman interviewed her ,and it was so insightful . I have read some of her work and was drawn to her . She was a very wise and magestic woman

Friday, November 11th, 2005

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/11/158201&mode=thread&tid=25

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AMY GOODMAN: Octavia Butler, could you read a little from Parable of the Talents.

OCTAVIA BUTLER: I'm going to read a verse or two. And keep in mind these were written early in the 1990s. But I think they apply forever, actually. This first one, I have a character in the books who is, well, someone who is taking the country fascist and who manages to get elected President and, who oddly enough, comes from Texas. And here is one of the things that my character is inspired to write about, this sort of situation. She says:

"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery."

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http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/11/158201&mode=thread&tid=25

:hi:

Octavia really touched me that day on Democracy Now! & I will never forget her.
peace

I can't believe this. Her work was so incredible.... :cry:

The first book I ever read by her was Wild Seed. I went into her writing blind, and that book blew. my. mind. The way she tackled race in Wild Seed and Mind of My Mind (not to mention the brutal and brilliant Kindred), and the way she tackled sexuality and the instinct for survival in the Xenogenesis trilogy....

I just can't get over this.