![]() “If you knew a man was out of his mind, you restrained him. “You controlled both animals and people by controlling their reproduction-controlling it absolutely.” People who poison each other, then disclaim all responsibility.” “That’s what Humans are, too, don’t forget. They keep what experience has taught them-usually-but lose the experience itself.” They know how to speak, for instance, but they don’t recall learning to speak. “Most Humans lose access to old memories as they acquire new ones. I wonder if the same thing wouldn’t have happened eventually, no matter which two cultures gained the ability to wipe one another out along with the rest of the world.” Adulthood Rites ![]() “Human beings are more alike than different-damn sure more alike than we like to admit. “’Down on Earth,’ she said carefully, ‘there are no people left to draw lines on maps and say which sides of those lines are the right sides. “’Yes,’ he said, ‘intelligence does enable you to deny facts you dislike. Us, the children…I never realized how easily people could be trained to accept slavery.” the Xenogenesis series (Lilith’s brood) Dawn Just an ordinary man who sometimes did the monstrous things his society said were legal and proper.” “His father wasn’t the monster he could have been with the power he held over his slaves. “Repressive societies always seemed to understand the danger of ‘wrong’ ideas.” “Sometimes I wrote things because I couldn’t say them, couldn’t sort out my feelings about them, couldn’t keep them bottled inside me.” “As a kind of castaway myself, I was happy to escape into the fictional world of someone else’s trouble.” That’s easier than trying to fix the problems.” kindred Once he’s made everyone who isn’t like him sound evil, then he can blame them for problems he knows they didn’t cause. “…that guy who wants to be President, that Jarret, he would call you all heathens or pagans or something He does seem to enjoy calling people things like that. There was never such a time in this country…” ![]() He wants to take us all back to some magical time when everyone believed in the same God, worshiped him in the same way, and understood that their safety in the universe depended on completing the same religious rituals and stopping anyone who was different. The current state of the country does not suit him. “Jarret insists on being a throwback to some earlier, ‘simpler’ time. “How much of this nonsense does he believe, I wonder, and how much does he say just because he knows the value of dividing in order to conquer and to rule?” Nothing like a war to rally people around flag, country, and great leader.” He seems to be unhappy with certain other countries. Jarret’s supporters are more than a little seduced by Jarret’s talk of making America great again. And there may be even nastier things in that package. The thing is, you can’t separate Jarret from the ‘religious nonsense.’ You take Jarret and you get beatings, burnings, tarrings and featherings. “We have, it seems, a few people who think Jarret may be just what the country needs-apart from his religious nonsense. ![]() To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.” To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. “Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. We can stop denying reality or hoping it will go away by magic.” Whatever touches us touches our writing.” “I began writing about power because I had so little.” Here is a collection of Octavia Butler quotes on writing, sci-fi, and some absolute prescient gems from her books. She covers so many of the problems we’re currently experiencing and watching play out in the news. Reading Butler in the Trump era is a challenge that’s worth the effort. Seriously tuned in to the problems facing our modern world. Octavia Butler: Sci-fi author extraordinaire. Also, she unapologetically judges books by their covers and makes way too many playlists (c'mon, books need a soundtrack too!). Audiobooks and print books get equal love. She works for that Ivy League institution down the street and tries to read as many books as possible in her free time.
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