Octavia Butler, born in California in 1947, grew up influenced by her background as the daughter of a domestic worker and a veteran. Through her science-fiction writing, she addressed themes like chattel slavery and climate catastrophe, tying these elements to West African culture and the civil-rights movement. Morris presents Butler's narratives as transformative experiences, not just dark predictions. In another perspective, Vellend proposes a generalized evolutionary theory that applies not just to biology but to broader systems, asserting that new variants evolve across various realms, shaping culture and technology.
"Butler's stories reckoned with chattel slavery, climate catastrophe, and fascism, and were deeply attuned to West African culture and the American civil-rights movement."
"Morris contends that Butler's stories were not nihilistic predictions but a sort of love offering for readers to receive and be changed by."
"Vellend establishes a generalized evolutionary theory to stand alongside physics as a crucial paradigm for understanding how everything came to be."
"Biological evolution is merely one instance of a more fundamental process seen in systems where new variants arise and only some proliferate."
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