[F] Butler, Octavia E.: Wild Seed

The 1980 novel Wild Seed is Octavia Butler’s fifth book out of fourteen published during a  lifetime in which she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant and a Nebula  Award for Best Novel. Although Kindred and The Parable series are better known, with Wild Seed Butler breaks ground for science fiction to explore early America from the perspective of shapeshifting, African immortals. Through the characters of Doro and Anyanwu, Butler engages ideas about community, gender, enslavement, and genetic supremacy. The novel’s events take place from 1690 to 1840 and it is organized into three books, all three with biblical names. The effect is a grand and unpredictable story that’s never preachy nor breaks the fictional dream it creates. We will discuss the novel’s form including how it structures time, and explore how it blends history and futurism using craft of the highest order.