Julie Daum discusses her experience of reading Octavia Butler’s for an exploration of its conflict resolution themes.
In December I went to Munro’s Books in Victoria to pick up a copy of Fledgling by Octavia Butler to read prior to co-hosting the CoRe Book Club with Sharon Sutherland. I enthusiastically agreed to co-host for a few reasons:
- I love to read, especially fiction, and any opportunity to read for work-related reasons is just a good excuse;
- the book selected was science fiction, a genre sadly neglected in my stack of books to read;
- this was a chance to highlight and celebrate a black female author in a genre dominated by white and mostly male authors; and
- Sharon asked, and I have learned that adventure awaits when Sharon beckons.
To be truthful, I was initially a little worried about the book choice, because while science fiction is the perfect genre to push boundaries and allow people to discuss sometimes difficult and complex issues while maintaining (relative) safety in the discussions, I find the dystopian worlds created can be depressing and hard to get excited about. I did not have to worry, Butler immediately captures your attention and through the first-person narrator pulls you into the mind of the fascinating main character, Shori, an amnesiac “vampire” child.
The world of Fledgling is recognizably similar to our own and Shori’s amnesia helps the reader to learn about the differences as we follow Shori in her efforts to piece together who and what she is. We, the readers, are able to easily understand her former life and cheer her on as she figures out how to survive. The author, through Shori, lures us in with developing sympathy for her young, vulnerable and yet powerful protagonist. We are lulled into accepting what are, at first, disturbingly sexualized relationships with the adult humans that Shori needs to survive. We have to confront the issues of free will and control of one race or species over another, no matter how mutually beneficial some aspects might be.
As we learn about Shori and her “people”, we inevitably grapple with sometimes dark themes of race, social structure, possible slavery, power, family dynamics, instinct, and mutualism/reciprocal altruism. These themes offer many opportunities to explore aspects of conflict and conflict resolution.
An even more accessible way to engage in discussion of conflict resolution is the focus of the latter third of the book on the Council of Judgment. This conflict resolution mechanism within the Ina (vampire) culture offers the opportunity to examine justice, truth, punishment, custom and traditions. While in the book, the Council of Judgment was described as superior to contemporary North American/Western justice, it is really a strange mirror that makes us consider the relative importance of neutrality, fairness, objectivity and conflict of interest in the construction of a “truth” seeking process. Although we hold our system up as a model of neutrality and fairness we are, like the Ina, vulnerable to our own human values and interests while attempting to be fair and just on those accused of breaking our laws.
During the book club discussion, which was lively and full of praise for Octavia Butler’s writing, we discussed some of the thoughts and opinions of those in attendance (sorry to the on-line audience!). There was a discussion about the polyamorous sexual relationships in the novel: between the Ina and “their” humans, between human symbionts, and between Ina as mates. That discussion led to observations of the vastly differing norms in understandings of sexual relationship amongst human cultures today. The perception, especially early in the book, that a sexual relationship between a female child and an adult male is occurring led to an interesting discussion. One reader commented that the book presented as a “reverse Lolita”: the young girl had the narrative voice and the power to shape our perceptions of the relationship instead of the adult male. She commented that the use of first-person narration made all the difference to the audience about how to view the relationship between Shori and Wright.
Our discussion ranged over so many challenging topics, and participants brought such different views to their readings that the discussion made clear just how usefully literature can open up discussion on difficult and controversial topics.
One conclusion that everyone could agree on was that Butler’s writing is brilliant and we were all “bitten and smitten” by Fledgling.
On a personal note, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to discuss books, films, and other art with others in similar professions to my own. I think art really does matter, and mediators and other collaborative professionals bring to their analyses of art an understanding of the importance of storytelling.
I am also very glad to have an open environment in which to discuss diversity issues and questions of representation in art and popular culture. I know that some of the discourse around diversity and representation/mis-representation in popular media receives the push-back “why does that matter? Don’t you have more important things to worry about?” I would like to say that representation does matter: our stories can and do change the world, stories are critically important to maintaining visibility, and it is core to the human experience to want to be seen and heard. One way of continuing oppression is to erase people and segments of population, so to buy, watch, read and celebrate diversity in the arts is important for all of us. Thank you to CoRe for this opportunity to share in such a celebration!
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