Octavia Butler: Library of America No. 393

I received the new Library of America volume of Butler's work (no. 393, as they list it -- volume 393, I want to say) yesterday. 

If you're not familiar with the Library of America series, it's a series published by a non-profit with the purpose of keeping works of classical American literature in print. 

This is the second volume of Butler's work they have published. The first contained Fledgling, Kindred, and some short stories, including "Bloodchild," which is probably her most well-known short story. 

Parable of the Sower, in which Butler apparently saw Trump coming (actually, she just took Reagan and the world of the 1980s and extrapolated), is probably her best-known novel at this point. Not her best novel. That's almost certainly Fledgling, though I would be willing to listen to arguments for the Lilith's Brood trilogy, which is what this new volume contains.

I didn't really need to buy this volume, since I already have Lilith's Brood in paperback. But the Library of America volumes are lovely books, and also I wanted to read the extra material -- the notes, some letters from Butler, and the introduction, by Imani Perry. Yes, I'm a nerd. But if I hadn't done it, I wouldn't have come across this note:

Writers have no idea about the quality of their work. None. 

Teaching Octavia Butler

My chair just asked if I wanted to teach Major Authors: Octavia Butler in the spring.

You could hear my shrieks of joy from space.

Bonus information: There's a landing site on Mars named after her.

What I've Been Reading (and Seeing) Lately

I'm still reading so much. It's better for me than Xanax and Vicodin, which if either of those were available, believe me, I'd be gulping them down in pints. Probably both at once.

The kid and I also went to see Lysistrata at the university theater last night. It was a production in modern dress, which made me a little uneasy at first, but turned out to work really well. All student actors, and almost all of them wonderful. Great comic timing, good actors, and did an excellent job bringing the hilarity of the play across the centuries. Walking back to my car, the kid said to me, "Why are the Greeks so modern? That was great!"

(She also loves Euripides, who she's only read.)

What I'm reading:

Jane Steele, by Lyndsay Faye

I'm extremely fond of Jane Eyre now, though I hated it as a child and an adolescent (I was forced to read it in the 10th grade, just as my child was forced to read it last month, in AP English). And I love books that are written in response or as fan fiction, more or less, about books I love, as long-time readers of this blog might have noticed. So no surprise I gave a small squee of glee when I saw a review for this book on NPR.

Also! My library had a copy. Oh boy! I didn't even have to buy it. I put in a request and had it the next day. Then I stayed up all night reading it. (Luckily it was a Friday night.) It's great. I love it at least as much as Jane Eyre, though Jane Steele is not much like Jane Eyre.

The two Janes do live at about the same time, and the rough outlines of their lives -- their general plot, as it were -- are the same. They both have mean-spirited aunts, they both go off to boarding school at nine, that boarding school is run by a vicious headmaster. They both end up as tutors to a small foreign girl, and they both end up in love with her guardian -- Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre's case, Mr. Thornfield, in Jane Steele's case.