morganlf, I'm looking your way...

[go_team]

Where do I start reading the works of Octavia Butler? Anybody? You don't have to be morganlf to answer.

Comments

[morganlf.livejournal.com]

heh. Honestly, I've only read the Xenogenesis trilogy (now called Lilith's Brood). Next summer my plan is to read Parable of the Sower and Kindred.

Dive right in! Start with Lilith's Brood!

[foolmonkey.livejournal.com]

You don't have to be morganlf to answer.

I'll take it a step further, and say that I don't even have to be knowledgable to answer.

Where do I start reading the works of Octavia Butler?

I would suggest a comfy chair. Though I often read in bed also, and occasionally on the bus. I typically find the bus more difficult to start a new book/author, so the former two are my better suggestions.

[goteam.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! You win the award for the most literal-minded geek comment of an unspecified period of time, possibly forever because I'm likely to forget all about having created this award!

[katiemouse.livejournal.com]

great suggestions! I was going to say, "the bathtub" because that is where I do a lot of my reading but you beat me to the "answering the literal question without providing useful information to the asker" punch.

[foolmonkey.livejournal.com]

That's hawt.

[katiemouse.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I think.

[msmithma.livejournal.com]

And here I thought Library or Bookstore would be the choice spots. Shows what I know.

[antonvowel.livejournal.com]

Okay, well I liked Parable of the Sower. I mean, I didn't like it, exactly, because a lot of it is nastily intense, but I admired and respected it and read it all straight through in one sitting at the Westfield Library when I was supposed to be shelving some books.

Man, that job was the absolute best.

I liked Kindred too, but I think it's easier to reduce to talking points. Parable of the Sower has stuck in my gut for years now.

[mediumthin.livejournal.com]

Mrs. Forstner will bounty-hunt you to the ends of the earth to get back those name plates, dude.

But it was a sweet job.

At first glance: "Parable of the Sower has made me suck in my gut for years now."

[boojum.livejournal.com]

I like the Lilith's Brood trilogy (first one's _Dawn_, I believe, if you run into them separately) and half of the Clay's Ark series, whatever it's named. (I like _Wild Seed_ and _Mind of My Mind_, don't mind _Patternmaster_, and never end up rereading _Clay's Ark_.) The order on that one is...hmm. Read _Wild Seed_ before _Mind of My Mind_ before _Patternmaster_. Chronologically, they go _Wild Seed_, {_Mind of My Mind_ and _Clay's Ark_ contemporaneously}, then _Patternmaster_, but I don't know if that's the order she wrote them in.

_Kindred_ and the two _Parables_ books are too dark for me to reread often, but if you like dark, try those first.

Mmm, Octavia Butler. Did you know she was teaching a class at one of the other 5C our senior year? Argh, wasted opportunities.

[goteam.livejournal.com]

Just the other day I remembered somebody telling me we'd missed the chance to take a class from her; now I'm pretty sure it was you. Yay, random memory!

[bookerz.livejournal.com]

And speaking of missed opportunities, check this out: David Foster Wallace is a prof at Pomona. TEACHING CREATIVE WRITING!!!!

[goteam.livejournal.com]

Dude, that made headlines while I was still at Mudd. Where have you been? (Also, check out avani's LJ archives for at least one funny story about DFW in action; the episode I'm thinking of was in earlyish 2003, IIRC.)

[bookerz.livejournal.com]

Hmm, maybe you have to be her friend.

[iainuki.livejournal.com]

I have read two things of Butler's: Wild Seed, which I appreciated, and Clay's Ark, which I found too dark and too implausible to enjoy. In my limited experience, I'd suggest Wild Seed.