geoffreyjen's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent portrayal and analysis of Octavia Butler’s complex legacy - there are very few books that seriously present us with her life and work. Must reading for any attempt to grapple with her body of work.
isagrapefruit's review against another edition
5.0
A fantastic overview of Octavia E. Butler's life and writing. Canavan writes with fidelity to both Butler's expressed wishes and the spirit of her work. This book offers readers a chance to spend some quality time with Butler--a real opportunity we should all take advantage of.
elliot_dw's review
5.0
I had wanted to read this since it came out, and wow, I wasn’t disappointed! It’s less a biography of Butler, and more of an extended, chronological reading of her work, including loads of unpublished material in her archives. Canavan does a really wonderful job of dealing with the unpublished archival material - he uses it to find new insights into Butler and her work, while not pushing it too far or losing sight of its relationship to her published oeuvre. He talks in the introduction about trying to find a properly ethical stance towards her extremely rich and also deeply personal archival collection, and I think he succeeds at that. I also got a lot out of Canavan’s extended consideration of the cynicism and pessimism underlying many of Butler’s stories, and his application of the idea of “reproductive futurity.” I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has read Butler’s work, and wants to grapple with it and understand it more deeply.
eloiseinparis's review
2.0
This essentially a paper about Octavia. If you're a huge fan and you want to learn more about her, and don't mind the academic tone you will enjoy this book. This isn't entertainment reading, it's more informative.
glaiza_echo's review
4.0
'Butler’s creative and critical work demonstrates that science fiction was never really a straight, white, male genre, despite its pretensions to the contrary, blackness, womanhood, poverty, disability, and queerness were always there, under the surface, the genre’s hidden truth.'
This is an accessible academic read that delves into Octavia E. Butler’s influential science fiction work in addition to highlighting her writing process with references from her documents as preserved in The Huntington Archive: https://paperwanderer.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/octavia-e-butler-by-gerry-canavan/
This is an accessible academic read that delves into Octavia E. Butler’s influential science fiction work in addition to highlighting her writing process with references from her documents as preserved in The Huntington Archive: https://paperwanderer.wordpress.com/2017/02/08/octavia-e-butler-by-gerry-canavan/
calissa's review
3.0
As with Letters to Tiptree, I went into this without having read any of Octavia Butler's work (don't worry, it's on my list) and without even knowing a whole lot about her. I feel that approach didn't work for me quite as well this time around.
I'd been expecting a biography. And Octavia E. Butler is a biography to some extent. However, it is equally concerned with analysing her work. Throughout the book, the author puts forward a theory unifying her work, looking in depth at her significant published and unpublished works and examining how they fit together. This necessarily reflects on her as a person--and in particular her views on humanity--but may not be satisfying for people looking for more details of her daily life. As someone who hasn't read the stories being examined, I found it reasonably accessible, though I have no doubt it will hold much more meaning for those who have.
Despite the heavy focus on her stories, I still learned a lot about the person. I found the examination of her writing process particularly interesting. Learning about the way she would almost compulsively write many different variations of the same story was intriguing. Her preoccupation with the business side of writing was also something I think many writers will be able to related to, even if it was amplified by her poverty. This drive to make sales is also shown as being in conflict with what she felt was her artistic integrity; she needed to sell her stories but resented making changes in order to make them more palatable to publishers or the public. Unsurprisingly, she is portrayed as a deeply unhappy person, never satisfied.
The tone tends towards academic and may be considered dry by some. Indeed, the book started to drag a little after a while.
Nevertheless, I found it an interesting read. This will probably appeal to fans already familiar with Butler's work.
This review first appeared on Earl Grey Editing.
This review first appeared on Earl Grey Editing.
I'd been expecting a biography. And Octavia E. Butler is a biography to some extent. However, it is equally concerned with analysing her work. Throughout the book, the author puts forward a theory unifying her work, looking in depth at her significant published and unpublished works and examining how they fit together. This necessarily reflects on her as a person--and in particular her views on humanity--but may not be satisfying for people looking for more details of her daily life. As someone who hasn't read the stories being examined, I found it reasonably accessible, though I have no doubt it will hold much more meaning for those who have.
Despite the heavy focus on her stories, I still learned a lot about the person. I found the examination of her writing process particularly interesting. Learning about the way she would almost compulsively write many different variations of the same story was intriguing. Her preoccupation with the business side of writing was also something I think many writers will be able to related to, even if it was amplified by her poverty. This drive to make sales is also shown as being in conflict with what she felt was her artistic integrity; she needed to sell her stories but resented making changes in order to make them more palatable to publishers or the public. Unsurprisingly, she is portrayed as a deeply unhappy person, never satisfied.
The tone tends towards academic and may be considered dry by some. Indeed, the book started to drag a little after a while.
Nevertheless, I found it an interesting read. This will probably appeal to fans already familiar with Butler's work.
This review first appeared on Earl Grey Editing.
This review first appeared on Earl Grey Editing.
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