Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Butler, Octavia - Rebecca O. Johnson (review date February 1994)

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Rebecca O. Johnson (review date February 1994)

SOURCE: "African-American, Feminist Science Fiction," in Sojourner: The Women's Forum, Vol. 19, No. 6, February, 1994, pp. 12-4.

[Johnson is a writer and activist. In the following review, she traces Butler's portrayal of humanity in her Patternist novels and the Xenogenesis trilogy, and discusses with the author her Parable of the Sower.]

I read to escape. Oh, not as often as when I was twelve years old, but my favorite coping mechanism is reading. Mind candy usually. You know the stuff: mysteries, lesbian fantasy, and occasionally science fiction. But when life gets confusing or I am particularly in need of a vacation or a time of reflection, I turn to books that are more than fluff. Books written by authors whose insights stimulate and challenge me. Octavia Butler's books occupy a secure niche in this last and, perhaps, most important category of comfort reading.

Octavia...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Ruth Salvaggio (essay date Summer 1984)
   2. Octavia Butler with Frances M. Beal (interview date March/April 1986)
   3. Sandra Y. Govan (essay date Spring-Summer 1986)
   4. Adele S. Newson (review date Summer 1989)
   5. Frances Bonner (essay date Spring 1990)
   6. Hoda M. Zaki (essay date July 1990)
   7. Octavia Butler with Randall Kenan (interview date Spring 1991)
   8. Orson Scott Card (review date January 1992)
   9. Michelle Erica Green (essay date 1994)
   10. Rebecca O. Johnson (review date February 1994)
   11. Elyce Rae Helford (essay date Summer 1994)
   12. Hoda Zaki (review date July 1994)
   13. Cathy Peppers (essay date March 1995)
   14. Jim Miller (review date February/March 1996)
   15. Danille Taylor-Guthrie (review date 31 March 1996)
   16. Octavia Butler with Stephen W. Potts (interview date November 1996)
   17. Madelyn Jablon (essay date 1997)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. Octavia Butler