interesting when authors' lifelong fixations and neuroses and pain come through their writing

reading a book by Octavia Butler I hadn't read before

note: she was known to be a rather odd woman, never married, intensely isolated

...and a common theme in her books is coerced companionship, people thrown together such that they *must* stay with one another, deep biological imprinting to the point where people die without their bonded companion's presence

she was also a tall, butch looking, black, probably queer woman...and born in 1947

another common theme is people acknowledging but functionally not worrying too much about all of these facts about her characters

and she died young. poor lady.

ok I'm super mad about this I read the Wikipedia section on themes in her work and NOBODY HAS NOTICED THE LONELINESS

am I going to have to write a Literature paper gdi

everyone wants to talk about her feminist themes and her writing as a Marginalized Person but nobody's noticing that these are the self-insert fantasies of a strange, lonely little girl

*that's* fucking dehumanizing

on the topic of marginalized traits

her stories are stories in which they are acknowledged as Important but not defining

(exception is maybe Kindred which I haven't yet read)

her characters acknowledge such traits *exactly the right amount and no more*

these motherfuckers could be having much more interesting conversations about literature if they weren't so concerned w/cramming them into Race and Gender and Queer Experiences

I'm not even saying those themes are bad to talk about I'm just saying you can talk about other stuff

a tumblr mutual had a nice bit about Representation in fiction

how there are more ways to feel represented through writing than just race and sex and sexuality

I don't identify with being a black girl in the 50s but I do identify with being a weird precocious lonely child