Butler died in 2006 at only 58 years old. Yet in her later years, as the new millennium dawned, Butler\u2019s imagined futures, more and more, appeared to closely mirror that present. When asked about her keen predictive powers, she would often remark that she simply \u201cpaid attention\u201d\u2014and that we, to stave off worse, should too.<\/p>\n
Morris\u2019s cultural biography analyzes Butler\u2019s bold vision along with that essential contextual connective tissue\u2014elucidating not only Butler\u2019s hows but also her whys.<\/p>\n
Your book does what Butler did for herself: It mirrors her long-standing promise to herself to\u2014as a Black woman\u2014\u201cwrite myself in.\u201d With <\/strong>Positive Obsession<\/strong>, you are writing Butler in\u2014into her contexts and influences. What made you decide to take this path? You first read Butler as a teen, then later in college. Which Butler did you walk into the archive envisioning, and which one did you emerge with after? How do you think she is most misunderstood? You write, \u201cOctavia\u2019s earliest and most prevailing positive obsession was figuring the patterns of human behavior and using that to imagine possible futures for humanity.\u201d Which of her other passions speaks most to you and why? What was it like for you to immerse yourself in her body of work in our current sociopolitical climate? Community<\/strong> figures prominently in her work. She writes, as you cite, \u201cAll of my characters are in a community\u2026or they create one.\u201d<\/strong> While she saw the imperfections of humans, she also saw potential. Why is this framing of hers especially important now, in this political era of pushback? POSITIVE OBSESSION: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF OCTAVIA E. BUTLER, BY SUSANA M. MORRIS<\/p>\n
<\/strong>I suppose it was for somewhat selfish reasons. I wanted to know more about her process and what shaped her. I believe there are many ways to tell Octavia\u2019s story. You could situate her via her travels or through her correspondence with others or via her connection to Southern California. There are so many points of entry. But the more I read in her archive, the more I wanted to excavate Octavia\u2019s evolution as an intellectual deeply engaged with and shaping the politics of her day. That laid the foundation for my path as her biographer.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Going into the archive, I had imagined the Octavia I thought I knew\u2014the bestselling novelist, the MacArthur genius, the respected science fiction pioneer. And she was all those things. But after working on this book for several years, the Octavia I have come to know is less \u201clarger than life.\u201d Doing the research for this book, I felt I got to know a version of Octavia that the public didn\u2019t get to see much. The Octavia that was at once prideful and doubtful, vulnerable and guarded, community-oriented and comfortably asocial. I got a glimpse into her inner world.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>People often label Octavia as a prophet or an oracle, and I can see why. But, at the same time, this kind of language separates Octavia from the rest of us. And while she was a once-in-a-lifetime talent, the patterns that she draws out in her work are patterns that others can see and interpret. She was not a clairvoyant auguring the future for us. She was an ardent student of history, politics, economics, religion, and more. And we, too, can pay closer attention to our own actions and inactions as a society, as a species, and discover our own patterns. When we characterize Octavia as some sort of mystic, it can sometimes invite an abdication of our responsibilities as thinkers and doers. <\/p>\n
<\/strong>I really enjoyed learning about all the research Octavia did for her world-building. I\u2019m the type of reader that enjoys a meticulously rendered world on the page, and Octavia was a master of that. It was great fun reading her notes and going through her newspaper clippings to see the wide range of sources she would engage just to make the worlds she built dance on the page.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Working on this book for the past five years put the scope of what we\u2019re experiencing both here in the U.S. and abroad into clear relief. Like so many others, I just kept thinking, Octavia tried to tell us. Or rather, she told us, but did we listen?<\/p>\n
<\/strong>It is understandably easy to feel resigned in this political moment. I get why folks are wringing their hands about the state of the world. But we don\u2019t have the luxury of cynicism. I never want readers to lose sight of the optimism, as it were, in Octavia\u2019s works. For every Doro, there is an Anyanwu, or a Lilith, or a Lauren. There are characters throughout Octavia\u2019s works that have a long view of history and think that a better future is worth fighting for. That is one reason why we must discuss human potential as much as we shake our heads at our foibles. Octavia illuminated humanity in all our complicated glory.\u2022<\/p>\n
![\"<i>POSITIVE](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1756490103-positive-obsession-susana-m-morris-1024x1024-68b1e8ca56590.jpg\" "\\"<i>POSITIVE")
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