ALH Online Review, Series XI 1. Gerry Canavan .... Octavia E. Butler is the latest volume in the series âModern Master
ALH Online Review, Series XI 1 Gerry Canavan, Octavia E. Butler (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2016), 224 pp. Reviewed by Susana M. Morris, Auburn University Gerry Canavan’s Octavia E. Butler is a timely addition to Butler studies. Interest in the grande dame of science fiction and her work has scarcely waned since her sudden death more than a decade ago. For example, the Octavia Butler Society was founded in 2013 to celebrate Butler’s life and legacy and to support and promote scholarship about her work. Books that honor and that were inspired by Butler, such as Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia Butler and Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, reflect the robust ongoing engagement with her work. Just this year a graphic novel version of her masterpiece Kindred was released and became an instant New York Times bestseller. For years, there have been persistent rumors about Butler’s work being adapted for television and film, so perhaps the current renaissance in black television and filmmaking, evinced by the runaway success of the likes of Ava Duvernay’s Queen Sugar, Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, and Jordan Peele’s Get Out, likely means that Butler’s time either on the small or big screen may come soon. Canavan’s Octavia E. Butler has entered the scene right on time. Canavan describes his method as “seeking to trace [Butler’s] career biocritically and holistically,” largely through a deep and rigorous study of the author’s archive at the Huntington library (10). He succeeds in doing just that. The book is organized chronologically, with the last two chapters covering part of the same time period from differing angles. This makes for a clear, straightforward organization without feeling overly rigid or circumscribed. What is perhaps most compelling about his book’s methodology is Canavan’s emphasis on Butler’s archive, which marks this study as wholly singular in its approach and execution. To call Canavan’s research meticulous is no understatement. Octavia E. Butler is painstakingly detailed, incorporating Butler’s journals, commonplace books, correspondence, working drafts, and unpublished manuscripts. Nor is assembling this combination of documents a small task, since her archive is massive. Indeed, Canavan reports that just the finding aid to Butler’s collection is 500 pages long. Yet despite this voluminous trove, he is able to bring together her materials in a seamless, cohesive way that is nothing less than masterful. In one paragraph, Canavan might include Butler’s notes to herself, information on a series of drafts with varying plot summaries, correspondence with her agent, publisher, and/or other authors, along with a critical assessment of the work. And despite juggling various archival texts in addition to reviews and analyses of Butler’s substantial amount of published writing and interviews, Canavan’s prose remains at once lucid, enthusiastic, and fun to read—a rare combination.
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2 ALH Online Review, Series XI While there is much compelling about Octavia E. Butler, Canavan is perhaps most successful when he discusses Butler’s often tortured process of writing and rewriting both of her beloved classics and her unpublished works. In these moments, Canavan is a detective leading readers down previously darkened hallways and dead ends, illuminating our vision with the bright light of Butler’s own words from the archive. Throughout, he outlines the writing, rewriting, alternative endings, prequels, and sequels of unfinished or unpublished manuscripts that have heretofore never seen the light of day, like the tantalizing novel called Blindsight that is alternately about a dangerous cult leader and a queer polyamorous love triad, and sometimes both (80-85). Another of Canavan’s fascinating discussions concerns the several alternative versions of Kindred placed in the Patternist universe. (Certainly, Cananvan makes a persuasive case that scholars need to take a closer look at Butler’s somewhat neglected Patternist series as a key to understanding her oeuvre more generally.) He skillfully distills the plot points of early versions of Butler’s most successful novel, noting its name changes, plot twists, and unreconciled endings (64-66). In less agile hands this kind of work would be tedious at best, but Canavan handles this aspect of Butler’s archive deftly and with gusto. The book’s biocritical focus is mostly a strength; at times it is a weakness. There are moments when the insertion of biographical information feels gratuitous and, when it does not necessarily advance the narrative of the text more generally, even salacious. Partly this results from Canavan’s choices in discussing Butler’s sexuality, mental health, and other matters as presented in her diaries and journals; partly, it comes with the slipperiness of the genre of the critical biography itself, which holistically incorporates information about an author’s life and analyses of the writings. Butler’s life story is mentioned, at times, with too little edifying cultural or social context that could better shape a reader’s understanding of her experience. Canavan fully admits that he is walking a fine line; in the end, he generally walks it well, but occasionally slips into some not particularly elucidating territory. Octavia E. Butler is the latest volume in the series “Modern Masters of Science Fiction” edited by Gary K. Wolfe and published by the University of Illinois Press. The goal of the series is to amplify the work of individual authors who have greatly advanced science fiction in the modern world. Previous volumes have focused on such writers as William Gibson, Ray Bradbury, and Lois McMaster Bujold. In an era where single-author monographs are often considered passé, this series in general, and Octavia E. Butler in particular, underscores why such work remain necessary. The laser focus on Butler, an author who has only been assessed in her own context as a book-length subject a handful of times, illuminates the ups and downs of her career alongside the nuances and evolution of her work in a way that multi-author focused monographs find it hard to do.
ALH Online Review, Series XI 3 While this is a single-author study that can be nicely excerpted, it is also a book that scholars and Butler aficionados will want to read cover to cover. Octavia E. Butler is groundbreaking, providing a major intervention in Butler studies that should have a deep and lasting impact. It nevertheless marks more of a beginning than an end, as it incites a host of questions about Butler’s career, even as it poses and answers its own questions in provocative and significant ways. This study will prompt other scholars to head to the Huntington library to scour Butler’s immense archive and take up new lines of inquiry. Some will want to publish previously unreleased work; others will explore the significance of Butler’s correspondence; others will pursue interests not yet imagined. Octavia E. Butler ultimately underscores the necessity for scholars who will continue to ask tough questions and generate intriguing, insightful answers about the life and work of one of the greatest minds in science fiction and fantasy.
