293:"I was trying to tell a good story about a strange community of people. I find myself doing that over and over again. That's not all I was trying to do. In each book, I was trying to do something a little different. But overall to gather these people and start this community that didn't work very well, if you noticed. There are people who think that they've won, so everything's fine. But they were really not very nice, the Patternists. When you get to Patternmaster, you'll see that. Really they were pretty awful. You wouldn't want to live in that society. And why were they so awful? Well, they were so awful because they had, shall we say, a bad teacher. And it didn't really occur to me until I had been working on the series for awhile that I might have been making some comment on Black America. Once the thought came to me, I realized that I probably was commenting on Black America. Then I had to ask myself how I felt about that – that I was perhaps making a comment on learning the wrong thing from one's teachers. I realized that maybe it was something that I needed to think about and maybe it was something that I needed to say, so I certainly wasn't going to stop saying it or deny having said it."
263:, the first book to be published but the last in the series' internal chronology, depicts a distant future where the human race has been sharply divided into the dominant Patternists, their enemies the "diseased" and animalistic Clayarks, and the enslaved "mutes", regular humans without any enhanced abilities. The Patternists, bred for intelligence and psychic abilities, are networked telepaths. They are ruled by the most powerful telepath, known as the Patternmaster.
191:, in which Doro's breeding program has created a society of networked telepaths that he struggles to control. By the end of the novel Doro's thousands-of-years long breeding program has succeeded, but he is killed in the process, and the first patternmaster takes his place as leader of the patternists, establishing control over the fictional city of Forsyth, California, which is still the seat of their power during the time of
533:
Buckman, Alyson R. "“‘What Good Is All This To Black People?’: Octavia Butler's
Reconstruction of Corporeality." FEMSPEC 4.2 (2004): 201-218. "Octavia Butler." For Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy, Vol. 2. Ed. Robin Reid. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2007. Octavia Butler. “Kindred.” In The
166:. Set in the 17th and 18th centuries, the story involves the relationship between two immortals - Doro, a man born in Africa thousands of years ago, who survives by transferring his consciousness from one body to another (feeding on each new victim's mental energy in the process), and Anyanwu, a
246:
the now out-of-print book in the series that Butler later disowned, depicts the Clay's Ark disease ravaging the Earth, and Doro's telepathic descendants asserting control over what remains of humanity. One group of regular humans decides to escape Earth to a new planet, where they struggle to
211:
the last book of the series to be published, deals with a colony of people who have been mutated by a disease that astronauts brought back to Earth from outer space. The group struggles to keep itself isolated enough to keep the disease from spreading throughout humanity.
20:
83:
notes that the themes of the series include "racial and gender-based animosity, the ethical implications of biological engineering, the question of what it means to be human, ethical and unethical uses of power, and how the assumption of power changes people."
541:". Dissertation Abstracts International, Section A: The Humanities and Social Sciences (DAIA): 58.6 (1997 Dec.), pp. 2201. 2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:9737929
558:
Holden, Rebecca J. "'I Began
Writing about Power Because I Had So Little': The Impact of Octavia Butler's Early Work on Feminist Science Fiction as a Whole (and on One Feminist Science Fiction Scholar in Particular)."
271:
of Teray, a young
Patternist who learns he is a son of the Patternmaster. Teray fights for position within Patternist society and eventually for the role of Patternmaster.
828:
656:
76:
592:
Shaw and other matters: A festschrift for
Stanley Weintraub on the occasion of his forty-second anniversary at the Pennsylvania State University
893:
170:
healer with perfect control over her body. They struggle to live together over generations as Doro attempts to create a new race through a
898:
699:
241:
107:
778:
368:
563:. Ed. Rebecca J. Holden and Nisi Shawl. Seattle, WA: Aqueduct, 2013. 1744. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.
220:“A Necessary Being,” a short story found in Butler's papers written in the early 1970s but posthumously published in her
835:
771:
649:
281:"presents several questions about how race works in a social structure and how gender works in the function of race."
575:
Science
Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day
534:
Facts on File
Companion to the American Novel. Edited by Abby H. P. Werlock. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2006.
888:
866:
420:
803:
483:
642:
538:
591:
277:
explores the creation and maintenance of social and genetic hierarchies. For
Gregory Jerome Hampton,
268:
95:, was the first book in this series to be released. From 1977 until 1984, she published four more
843:
616:
544:
Ferreira, Maria Aline. "Symbiotic Bodies and
Evolutionary Tropes in the Work of Octavia Butler."
348:
222:
171:
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353:
303:
162:
125:
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57:
608:
61:
19:
796:
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561:
Strange
Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler
309:
187:
101:
53:
392:
469:
65:
882:
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447:
321:
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259:
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119:
555:. Ed. Valerie Smith. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. 95110.
595:. Ed. Susan Rusinko. Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna University Press, 1998. 140–154.
72:
26:
599:
Salvaggio, Ruth (1984). "Octavia Butler and the Black
Science-Fiction Heroine".
88:
498:
Changing Bodies in the Fiction of Octavia Butler: Slaves, Aliens, and Vampires
69:
861:
425:
509:
Rowell, CH & Butler, OE (1997) "An interview with Octavia E. Butler."
620:
577:. Ed. Richard Bleiler. 2nd ed. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
359:. Vol. 1 (4. pr. ed.). Brooklyn, N.Y.: Carlson Pub. p.
612:
160:
Chronologically, the series starts with the fourth novel published,
18:
634:
627:
Smith, Frances Foster. “Octavia Butler’s Black Female Fiction.”
638:
570:. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Vol. 34. Detroit: Gale, 2010. 258281.
226:
collection, deals with the world explored in the repudiated
583:
Magill's Guide To Science Fiction & Fantasy Literature
539:
Octavia E. Butler's Patternist Series: A Cultural Analysis
526:
Bogstad, Janice. “Octavia E. Butler and Power Relations.”
129:
trilogy in 1987, all but one of her published books were
355:
Black women in America : An Historical Encyclopedia
573:
Pfeiffer, John R. "Butler, Octavia Estelle (b. 1947)."
414:
412:
589:
Pfeiffer, John R. "Octavia Butler Writes the Bible."
854:
813:
788:
760:
730:
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551:Gant-Britton, Lisbeth. "Butler, Octavia (1947– )."
247:co-exist with the species that already live there.
352:
421:""My Star Trek novel": Octavia Butler's Survivor"
60:that detail a secret history continuing from the
140:Butler later expressed a dislike for the novel
631:, Vol. 23, No. 1, Spring, 1982, pp. 3749.
650:
8:
144:, and declined to bring it back into print.
580:Pfeiffer, John R. "The Patternist Series."
657:
643:
635:
123:(1984). Until Butler began publishing the
829:The Evening and the Morning and the Night
325:were published in a single volume titled
393:"Octavia E. Butler Plants an Earthseed"
340:
484:"Octavia Butler's "A Necessary Being""
230:before the humans arrive from Earth.
7:
289:Butler on her goals in the series:
185:The series' history continues with
14:
16:Novel series by Octavia E. Butler
601:Black American Literature Forum
450:. Publishers Weekly. 5 May 2014
419:Walton, Jo (February 5, 2009).
79:plague. A profile of Butler in
1:
894:Science fiction novel series
836:Bloodchild and Other Stories
500:, Lexington Books, 2010, 52.
470:"Short Stories and Novellas"
915:
216:“A Necessary Being” (2014)
197:
23:First combined publication
869:(Mars rover landing site)
867:Octavia E. Butler Landing
496:Hampton, Gregory Jerome.
899:Novels by Octavia Butler
553:African American Writers
546:Science Fiction Studies
779:Parable of the Talents
81:Black Women in America
30:
548:37.3 (2010): 401415.
89:first published novel
22:
772:Parable of the Sower
537:Colema, Letetia F. "
448:"Unexpected Stories"
391:Littleton, Therese.
137:was the exception).
568:Novels for Students
530:4.4 (197879): 2829.
349:Hine, Darlene Clark
269:coming-of-age story
40:(also known as the
844:Unexpected Stories
223:Unexpected Stories
172:selective breeding
64:period to the far
31:
876:
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789:Standalone novels
566:"Patternmaster."
58:Octavia E. Butler
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889:Secret histories
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62:Ancient Egyptian
52:) is a group of
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747:Adulthood Rites
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721:Seed to Harvest
693:Mind of My Mind
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613:10.2307/2904131
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586:(vol. 3). 1996.
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521:Further reading
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188:Mind of My Mind
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179:Mind of My Mind
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133:novels (1979's
102:Mind of My Mind
54:science fiction
49:Seed to Harvest
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68:that involves
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452:. Retrieved
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430:. Retrieved
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400:. Retrieved
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298:Compilations
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73:mind control
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27:Warner Books
513:(1), 47–66.
126:Xenogenesis
117:(1980) and
883:Categories
714:Clay's Ark
675:Patternist
432:20 October
402:2006-12-14
376:20 October
370:0926019619
335:References
316:Clay's Ark
267:tells the
207:Clay's Ark
199:Clay's Ark
131:Patternist
120:Clay's Ark
97:Patternist
70:telepathic
56:novels by
46:series or
36:Patternist
862:Earthseed
804:Fledgling
707:Wild Seed
331:in 2007.
304:Wild Seed
243:Survivor,
174:program.
163:Wild Seed
154:Wild Seed
114:Wild Seed
91:, 1976's
87:Butler's
700:Survivor
235:Survivor
228:Survivor
142:Survivor
111:(1978),
108:Survivor
105:(1977),
99:novels:
855:Related
797:Kindred
762:Parable
621:2904131
426:Tor.com
135:Kindred
75:and an
764:series
677:series
619:
454:26 Oct
397:Amazon
367:
319:, and
285:Themes
254:(1976)
237:(1978)
201:(1984)
181:(1977)
156:(1980)
66:future
38:series
752:Imago
617:JSTOR
528:Janus
742:Dawn
456:2022
434:2014
378:2014
365:ISBN
33:The
609:doi
361:208
885::
615:.
605:18
603:.
423:.
411:^
395:.
363:.
313:,
307:,
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658:e
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29:)
25:(
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
