Quote of the Week

From Octavia Butler's essay “Positive Obsession,” originally published in a 1989 issue of Essence under the title “Birth of a Writer”:

But still I'm asked, what good is science fiction to Black people?

What good is any form of literature to Black people?

What good is science fiction's thinking about the present, the future, and the past?

What good is its tendency to warn or to consider alternative ways of thinking and doing? What good is its examination of the possible effects of science and technology, or social organization and political direction? At its best, science fiction stimulates imagination and creativity. It gets reader and writer off the beaten track, off the narrow, narrow footpath of what “everyone” is saying, doing, thinking -- whoever “everyone” happens to be this year.

And what good is all this to Black people?

My comment:

Of course, the point Ms. Butler makes about science fiction in this quote doesn't apply just to Black people.

One can very well make similar comments about the importance of science fiction to white people. Or Hispanics. Or Asians. Or gays. The list is endless.

I like to think that all humans -- and no doubt some day, all non-humans as well -- have something to learn from the science fiction genre.

Otherwise I wouldn't be so interested in it.