Conversations with Octavia Butler (Literary Conversations Series)

A good look into the life-history and creative processes of a major SF writer, through a collection of interviews with various newspapers, magazines, websites, and radio shows, over a 26-year period.By the very nature of the book, there is some repetition. Interviewers ask the same, or similar, questions and get the same, or similar answers. (There is one vignette, about the genesis of <b><i>Kindred</i>, that reappears with very little variation, at least ten times.It <i>is</i> a good vignette, though.) But every interview has some new nugget, right down to the final interview taken shortly before Butler's untimely and unfortunate death. The (or at least one) original, base intention/inspiration of all her major works is discussed, and she is very forthcoming.She was an articulate interviewee, and seems to have been equally comfortable with academics, fans, local newspapers, and NPR hosts.This book makes me sad for all the books Butler never got to write.

This compilation of interviews with Octavia E. Butler, organized by year, so the reader gets to see her thinking and story evolve over time, is a terrific companion volume for anyone who's a fan of O.E.B.'s fiction. From "the Contradiction" (humans are intelligent but fatally hierarchical) to the religion of Earthseed ("God is change") to ideas about Black vampires, these interviews give the reader the author's-eye-view of her mind-expanding concepts -- and how she thought of them.

I love the author. I added it to my collection.

This is a great oppurtunity to get a first hand look at Ms. Butler. Her evolutionay growth, was very interesting. She is my all time favorite author. I was impressed with her world views and her reflection of her self. This is the kind of person I would have enjoyed spending a whole day with. I seriously felt pain in my soul when I heard this wonderfull human had passed on. Gone to soon.ICU2ONE

Lots of great insight from Butler about her stories and tidbits about herself.

I say intimate in quotation marks, because Ms. Butler was intensely private, but you can find small tidbits here. You can read a little about the fire that burned her grandmother's house down, her mother's off-hand remark that she could be a writer which stuck in her head, when her mother tore up her comic books...I am loving this book!

Learned more than I thought about this incredible lady. I greatly recommend this book..

For anyone really interested in knowing Octavia Butler this book is invaluable.