Well, aside from the fact that Tony Toni Tone lied when they said “it never rains in Southern California” and the fact that Yaze and I are trying to carpool to the opposite ends of the earth in one car, there was worse news today:
Science Fiction Writer Octavia Butler Dies
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSFiled at 11:53 p.m. ET
SEATTLE (AP) — Octavia E. Butler, considered the first black woman to gain national prominence as a science fiction writer, has died, a close friend said Sunday. She was 58.Butler fell and struck her head on the cobbled walkway outside her home, said Leslie Howle, a longtime friend and employee at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle.The writer, who suffered from high blood pressure and heart trouble and could only take a few steps without stopping for breath, was found outside her home in the north Seattle suburb of Lake Forest Park and died Friday, Howle said.Butler’s work wasn’t preoccupied with robots and ray guns, Howle said, but used the genre’s artistic freedom to explore race, poverty, politics, religion and human nature.”She stands alone for what she did,” Howle said. ‘
‘She was such a beacon and a light in that way.”Jane Jewell, executive director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, said Butler was one of the first black women to explore the genre and the most prominent. But Butler would have been a major writer of science fiction regardless of race or gender, she said.”She is a world-class science fiction writer in her own right,” Jewell said. ”She was one of the first and one of the best to discuss gender and race in science fiction.”
Butler began writing at age 10, and told Howle she embraced science fiction after seeing a schlocky B-movie called ”Devil Girl from Mars” and thought, ”I can write a better story than that.” In 1970, she took a bus from her hometown of Pasadena, Calif., to attend a fantasy writers workshop in East Lansing, Mich.Her first novel, ”Kindred,” in 1979, featured a black woman who travels back in time to the South to save a white man. She went on to write about a dozen books, plus numerous essays and short stories. Her most recent work, ”Fledgling,” an examination of the ”Dracula” legend, was published last fall.She received many awards, and in 1995 Butler was the first science fiction writer granted a ”genius” award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which paid $295,000 over five years.Butler described herself as a happy hermit, and never married.
”Mostly she just loved sitting down and writing,” Seattle-based science fiction writer Greg Bear said. ”For being a black female growing up in Los Angeles in the ’60s, she was attracted to science fiction for the same reasons I was: It liberated her. She had a far-ranging imagination, and she was a treasure in our community.”
——Associated Press writer Donna Gordon Blankinship contributed to this report. * Copyright 2006 The Associated Press
Maybe I’m more sensitive to death because of my dad, or sudden death because his was sudden, but this made a big huge thump appear in my gut. Do I feel sad because we lost another elder or do I feel sad because every elder is my father? I never knew I would have Greek Tragedy-like issues. This is the stuff that obsesses writers for the rest of their lives. Perhaps I can spend the rest of my writing “career” focusing on reconciling loss and making peace with the fact that my generation will forever be labeled the “hip hop” generation, even though there’s no real room for some of us who don’t specifically write about breakdancing, graffiti, rhyming or DJing. That’s my next blog. I’m foreshadowing. I have to get something about hip hop being our culture and our track and not just our verse or our surface level gear. Folks are shutting you down if you don’t get simple. For realz.
Rest In Peace Octavia. I hope you get to talk to my Dad and my Grammy. They’re cool peoples.
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thas a dope name… scruffdiva. where that come from…?
Comment by messi — February 27, 2006 @ 3:04 pm
thas a dope name… scruffdiva. whea that come from?
Comment by messi — February 27, 2006 @ 3:05 pm
Scruffy! Tony Toni Tone did lie indeed! Actually, I have a telephone call into ALL the Tony’s as I write!
Your thoguhts are valid. There’s no true answer - whether you should feel a certain way to all fallen soldiers (Octavia Butler) and/or your knight and shining armor (your dad) - either way, your sensitivity to death is two fold. 1) Um, you simply care and 2) Is explained better below…
Being Highly Sensitive -
from Jim & Amy Hallowes
Highly Sensitive People
We’ve learned Highly Sensitive People or HSP make up 15% to 20% of the population. Highly Sensitive People are also sometimes referred to as Ultra Sensitive People, Super Sensitive People, or People with “Overexcitabilities.” HSP’s nervous systems are different and are more sensitive to subtleties in their environment, which can be a good or bad thing. And because they process and reflect upon incoming information so deeply, they are more likely to become over stimulated and overwhelmed than Non-HSP.
THEN THERE WAS SOME BLAH BLAH BLAH in between all of this … and it continues …
The trait of Highly Sensitivity causes them to process and reflect upon incoming information very deeply. It is not that they are “afraid,” but that it’s in their nature to process incoming information so deeply. Highly Sensitive People may even sometimes need until the next day to have had enough time to process the information fully, reflect upon it, and formulate their response. The trait of High Sensitivity can be viewed as having both positive as well as negative characteristics, and it is a valid and normal trait and is not a “disorder.”
On the positive side, and there is a big positive side, we have learned Highly Sensitive People have wonderful imaginations, are very creative, curious, and are known for being very hard workers, great organizers and problem solvers. They are known for being extremely conscientious and meticulous. HSP are blessed with being exceptionally intuitive, caring, compassionate and spiritual. They are also blessed with an incredible aesthetic awareness and appreciation for nature, music and the arts.
Ummm, It’s ME AGIAN -
Enjoy the eclectic YOU! Further, Jim & Amy Hallowes said you are being blessed with an exceptionally intuitive, caring personality!
This is INDEED true! Can’t wait to read your HIP HOP Blog! Fosheezy! My Neeeeeeeeezy!
Comment by Cause-N-Effect — February 27, 2006 @ 3:39 pm
I know what you mean and I wish that we would quickly invent another musical genre. This is why those of us who are about something different cannot give up even though we “should get a real job and pay off those student loans, buy a house, have 2.5, get a perm, wear outfits”
Make anger, disappointment and sorry into action. Okay, I am going to finish writing a piece by the end of March and flog it all over town.
Comment by Webstar — February 27, 2006 @ 5:57 pm