![]() ![]() Octavia Butler’s keen understanding of human nature led her to create futuristic visions of worlds that are not that far off from the world we inhabit now. While this text may seem prescient given our current world stopping battle with COVID-19, it is just one of many works of Butler’s that seems to have anticipated a future reality. The journey of Butler’s character asks readers to question what makes us human and whether humanity is worth saving. Butler’s protagonist, Rye, moves through this dystopia alternately resigned, hopeful, and then disillusioned, only to be somewhat hopeful again. People are unable to speak, some have lost the ability to read or write, and communication is only possible through a crude sign language. ![]() The government and public services are barely functional. ![]() Butler’s 1984 short story “Speech Sounds,” she imagines a world where a virus has decimated human populations globally and brought life as we’ve known it to a standstill. ![]()
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