Wild Seed [Octavia Butler Book Club]

What ideas inform our conversations about slavery?As a young, white American, my perspectives on slavery are definitely rooted in ideas of white, European supremacy over Africans.  There’s a white/black binary that leaves a lot out of the story, such as Africans that were involved in the Triangle Trade and ideas of slavery in more ancient times that were related to religion as well.  I think this binary shapes the novel, in a generally appropriate way, as it deals with the West right in the middle of the slave trade, but it would have been interesting to see more included about Native American peoples.
What themes inform our conversations about romantic relationships?
Harkening to ideas of “soul mates” etc, I tend to think of how two people complement and benefit each other, more so than just “we’re in love.”  In my family we don’t talk about sexuality and feelings much. It’s kind of contradictory with US culture at large with everything in music and on tv these days, but at the end of the day, when you take someone home to your parents it’s always “What are you studying; what are you going to do with that; how do you keep busy.” But that’s just how I was raised.
Are there places where the themes and ideas overlap?
First thing that came to mind was Thomas Jefferson, haha.  But I suppose when we think about “traditional,” patriarchal family-structures, these two topics overlap.  I think we stick to binaries too.  Slavery is a black/white issue.  Love and romance has moved beyond cisgendered, but it’ll be a long time until we see lgbtq(etc) sexuality a blatantly represented in mainstream culture as heteronormative sexuality is.  

Reading this for the first time, I spent quite a bit of time uncomfortable with the progressive subjugation of Anyanwu.  I identified with her power and her sensibilities.  She was beholden to Doro as soon as she met him, though she didn’t realize until later how much she was like a slave.  The fact that she was offered a more palatable, ‘benign’ slavery was still confining…because she had known freedom.

It’s a little (but only a little) like growing up believing yourself to be white – or believing that racism is a story in history – and coming to reality.  Understanding that you’re not in control.  Understanding that the privilege you *do* have is predicated on your usefulness to someone else, and not necessarily based on you being you.  

Meeting that realization could easily put someone in a vulnerable state for accepting less than they deserve in a relationship.  Could easily cause you to prize companionship over substance and standards.  But Anyanwu doesn’t bend until she is forced to do so.  She maintains as much morality as she can while struggling to survive so close to Doro.  She adapts.  She uses what she can.  She learns at every opportunity.

Anyanwu inspires me because of this.  I am just happy I have so far avoided the relationship Doro.  What a life-sucker.

Ha.

Confession: I just finished Patternmaster. So now I’m finished with all four books, four months ahead of schedule. I really hope everyone is reading quickly, if so I can speed the book discussions up.

I just got the book in the mail from Amazon today. So excited!

Keep reading. You’ll find nearly every binary challenged.

I may be covering ground others have. I’ve purposely not read other’s comments because I didn’t want to spoil any of the story for myself.

Doro’s and Anyanwu’s romance is portrayed in a very troubling way. In some ways, Doro is a character of masculinity: he’s incredibly strong, violent, he takes a parental role over Anyanwu, and is sexually charged. If he can’t have her, the narrator tells us, he’ll likely kill her, but he’s oh so reluctant to do so. Poor guy. 

But he’s also incredibly fulfilling, and in some ways he’s portrayed as “the one” for Anyanwu. He gets her—really gets her. He sees past her disguises, literally. She falls into his arms, and when she attempts suicide, he’s the only one who can comfort her. He gives her attention, allowing her to fully relate her life to someone—finally. He even accepts who she is, and values that. He’s affectionate, in his own way. The way he shows his affection—by murdering children, for example—is barbaric, and frightens Anyanwu, but at the same time, it’s evidence of his “love” for her.

So I get why Anyanwu values the relationship with Doro. It’s very one-sided though. Doro views his relationship with Anyanwu as a tool to further his goal of creating seeds in America. He doesn’t really appreciate Anyanwu. He listens to her and uses that to calm her to ensure that he can continue sleeping with her. He willingly gives her to another man. He doesn’t respond to her questions, not because he doesn’t know the answer, but because he’s being paternalistic.

This is where Butler weaves her thoughts about slavery in with her thoughts about relationships. Doro clearly thinks he’s got the upper hand in the relationship—he’s much older, he’s able to kill at will, he believes himself to be smarter and wiser. He considers himself to be the master of Anyanwu. And I think Anyanwu can’t help but be with Doro. He threatens to kill her children, threatens to kill her, and he reveals all of her secrets. He literally takes everything she’s built up for herself and claims it as his own. She has no secrets, no property, and nothing to call her own anymore beside her internal strength (which, admittedly, is vast and uplifting.)

Anyanwu willingly goes with Doro, but her choice is coerced. She begins to identify with him—she starts to become the house negro rather than the field negro she once was. I predict that she’ll eventually identify with his goals and views on some subjects, even on some murders he commits. Butler clearly sees slavery as a regrettable institution, but she doesn’t comment on it directly. There’s no moralizing “slavery is bad, m’kay?” because we know it. We don’t need to be told it. Rather, there’s a comment on what goes on inside the institution of slavery. We see the relation between master and slave, and how slave can be made to feel obligated to her master.

I agree that she was independent and self-actualized, but wouldn’t being scared of the people around her, or being put her on a pedestal and treated like a goddess or spirit instead of a human, make her feel lonely?  I think that was a big part of why she went with Doro – after her mother, he was the only being she had met that came close to what she was.

Anyanwu as a character makes a point that strikes me as very important about unequal power relationships.  She acknowledges the limits of her situation and the implications of her choices for other people and then seeks to maximize the benefit for herself and others given those limits.  In Butler’s work nobody gets anything for nothing, and this understanding of the reciprocal, if unequal, nature of power relationships is one of the reasons I go to her again and again.

I wrote a piece, it turns out, on this book earlier this year.

http://palaverer.com/2011/04/11/octavia-butler-wild-seed/

I’ll keep following this discussion.

 Octavia Butler is a visionary and apt cultural commentator. Now if some filmmaker were to take her on, now thats one movie I would queue up to see!

Hi, I’m a student at John Jay college and I picked this series to focus on for my senior theses! I love Octavia Butler but she is not well known in Academia, I’m working to change that. One of my  thesis topics (for Wild Seed and Mind of my mind) focuses on the very question  you’re asking! I’m really excited to have stumbled upon this book club!

Growing up white in the US, my ideas about slavery were formed by my white parents (who spoke much less about slavery and much more about the segregated south in which they lived) and by the white faculty in my white college who still articulated the “theory” that the Civil War was about states’ rights and not about slavery. 

Most recently, I was challenged by Dr. Joy DeGruy, who asks us to use different language as a way of reframing slavery.  Instead of “slave,” which is framed from the white slave-owner perspective, consider using “captured freed [wo]man” as framed from the African perspective.  

In the book, I’m intrigued how Ms. Butler is playing with the notion of “soul mates” as Anyanwu and Doro, the two perceived “soul mates” if only because their souls are the only ones around for each other, are so inappropriate as a match.  Why not be alone rather than with someone like Doro?

Thank you for coordinating this book club, Latoya.  I love the reading, I love the conversation.

I’m late to this thread. I’ve been a fan Mama Butler’s books for years and it has been a while since I  read Wild Seed- it was my majestic introduction to Afro-verse speculative fiction .  Recently, I’ve shared the sentiment that no male character that I’ve read has terrified me more than Doro..he is complete and undeniable in his treachery- the worst kind of parasite. Anyanwu is so brave and hopeful in the wake of Doro’s madness..she embodies the perfect resilience and vulnerability of women of color.