My long-lost friend Octavia Butler wrote a critically acclaimed story that was read by hundreds of thousands of people. She was a role model, an award winner, and by most standards a genius. Many of us considered Octavia a friend of hers, even those who weren't lucky enough to meet her. But I not only met Octavia, we spoke on the phone about her character's name and her dream date. I invited her to her dinner and ate her dinner in her kitchen. I had to engage with her dozens of times, in dozens of ways.
Now that she has passed away, I am asked to write about Octavia and her wonderful work. New books by and about Octavia are coming out all the time, and I'm tasked with reviewing them. But that's difficult because if you don't completely separate yourself from the proceedings, you end up crying. So for the majority of this review, I'll stick to the hard, hard facts.
Relentlessly hopeful and at the same time able to view the world's misery with an unflinching eye, Octavia was widely known for her elegant and penetrating prose. As well as the deceptively simple style employed in her novels, the mystery novel (her chosen genre) is what made her who she was (in her own words, “the oil of ambition and laziness''). He brought to the audience a clear and concise essay on “Water Combinations''. , Anxiety, Certainty, and Drive”), and about her writing. The last category includes great advice, including Octavia's most recent book, published posthumously, “Some Rules for Predicting the Future” (originally an essay published in her 2000 Essence magazine). We have a lot.
Most science fiction intellectuals agree that the genre isn't really about prophecy, but 18 years after her sudden and tragic death, Octavia Butler is being hailed as a prophet. is an undeniable fact. That's in part because of her terrifying prescience in portraying the character of President Andrew Steele Jarrett and his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” in “Fables of Talent.” Add to that the gated communities and climate crisis that formed the backdrop for the previous book in the Parable series, The Sower, and there's further evidence that this author knew what he was doing. Enter. And in keeping with her legendary generosity, Octavia shared some of her knowledge on “A Few Rules.”
This is a slim book at 56 pages and 1700 words. The knowledge shared is vast, but the text is concise. This essay is still available online, but if you want to hold what Octavia wrote here in your hand, to place it under your pillow and dream about it, to treasure it, or to give it to someone else, there are many ways to do it. In order to do the same, you must own this book.
Many of these 56 pages contain elegant sentences summarizing thoughtful insights and advice like crisp, precisely proofread and cut gems. Artist Manzel Bowman's collage-like vision of gold and goggled heads piercing the interstellar darkness makes this edition particularly valuable.
And now I write this part that will probably make me cry. (I hope you don't either.)
As I mentioned above, Octavia was a friend of mine. I sometimes wish she understood what we're facing these days, like the pandemic, voter suppression, and the slow deterioration of our living planet, but I still wish she'd understand that it's I'm glad I can't. Her stupidity infuriates her, and we've seen a lot of her stupidity lately. Her blood pressure has skyrocketed and she wonders if it's not doing her any good.
Does the fact that Octavia used these rules mean that she definitely knew what kind of stupidity would come down the pike of events towards us? I know that she used these rules to predict some of our current reality. Because I talked about this kind of thing with her when we shopped together, went out to eat, or saw a play. However, this is the first time I have seen this essay. This is the first time I've picked up these rules and read them over and over in order. And for the first time I understood its limitations.
Octavia's rules are not fail-proof. They worked very well for her, probably because she was able to apply them very objectively. At the beginning of her “A Few Rules,” she quotes a young man who tried to blame her for writing about her “troubled” future. She defended herself to him, and by extension to us, by saying, “I didn't make the problem up.'' All she did, she claimed, was that she imagined they would last long enough to develop into a full-blown disaster.
The problem I think is: The strategies outlined by Octavia will help you paint a big picture of your future. They help us build future backstories, build future worlds, and plan timelines of future events. But they cannot predict anything personal. And personal things mean a lot to us. Perhaps the personal impact is covered by my friend's last rule: “Expect surprises.” But death is not surprising.
Octavia must have known that she would die eventually, and she did. It's a simple prediction. But how could she have foreseen the effect her death would have on the world? Perhaps she understood that her friends would mourn her absence, but how could she have predicted how much the world would feel about her? Did she really know how many friends she had? How would she continue to make more friends decades after her death? And what made her believe that each of us would do her best, just as she tried to persuade that accusing young man to be the solution to the problems that hit us? ?
Keep these rules at hand to remind you how to look forward with hope and act with as much determination as Octavia. And use this book to remind yourself that these rules are not cages. They are the building blocks of the future we want to live in.