小说与文学2016daily.jstor.org
当科幻成为现实：奥克塔维娅·巴特勒的遗产
When Science Fiction Becomes Real: Octavia E. Butler's Legacy
导读
这篇文章回顾科幻作家奥克塔维亚·巴特勒的创作遗产，讨论她如何把种族、性别、权力等现实议题写进科幻，并让“未来”显得可信而紧迫。对写作者来说，她的例子说明类型小说同样可以承载深刻的人性观察，也说明“被拒多年”是打磨技艺的常态。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把现实中的社会议题（种族、性别、恐惧陌生人）放进虚构设定里，让想象世界承载真实的人性观察。
- 02
写反乌托邦时，先让未来显得可信得令人不安，再在黑暗中埋下一条真诚的希望线，读者才会被真正打动。
- 03
不要因为早期被多次拒稿就怀疑方向，巴特勒正是在无人注意的岁月里把技艺磨出来的。
- 04
与其追最热门的题材，不如写“只有你能写”的那一面：把熟悉的类型元素组合成个人化的视角。
HN 评论精选
她最好的作品能把性别、种族、排外等议题写得有层次，而这种成熟来自多年被拒稿中的默默打磨。
我很晚才开始读巴特勒，尽管从小就是科幻迷。真希望早点发现她，如今她稳稳进入我最喜爱的科幻作家前五。《帕拉布尔的种子》及其续集优美而引人深思；《莉莉丝的孩子》系列（从《黎明》开始）远远超前于时代，以细腻而有层次的方式处理性别、种族、性取向和排外恐惧——这些主题在这个类型里向来少见细腻处理。连她早期的“模式主义者”系列也很棒。她仿佛一出道就已是成熟的伟大科幻作家（不过据说她也有过好几年被拒稿的经历，技艺大概是在默默无闻中磨出来的）。我迟迟没读她，可能是因为她最著名的《亲缘》听起来不合我口味（后来读了也喜欢，但不是最爱）。她其他作品更对我胃口：反乌托邦有《帕拉布尔》系列，怪异外星人有《莉莉丝的孩子》，令人毛骨悚然的演化推想有“模式主义者”系列。我实在夸不完巴特勒，强烈推荐每个科幻迷都去读她。
SwellJoe查看英文原文
I was very late coming to Octavia Butler's writing, despite being a huge scifi nerd from a very young age. I wish I'd discovered her sooner...she's easily in my top five favorite scifi authors, today. Parable of the Sower (and its sequel) is beautiful and thought-provoking; the Lilith's Brood series (starting with Dawn) was way ahead of its time, tackling gender, race, sexuality, and xenophobia, in a really thoughtful and nuanced way (in a genre that is not renowned for nuance on any of these subjects). Even her early Patternist series is awesome. It's like she sprung up fully formed as one of the great scifi writers (though, apparently, she had several years of rejection, so I guess she honed her craft in relative obscurity). I suspect I was slow to read her because her best known work, Kindred, just didn't sound like something I would like (I did end up reading it, and liking it, though it's not my favorite of her work, and I don't really get excited about alternate histories or time travel stories). But, most of her other stuff is right up my alley. She's got dystopia covered with the Parable series, she's got weird aliens in Lilith's Brood, and she's got creepy evolutionary speculation in the Patternist series. I really just can't say enough good things about Butler, and strongly recommend every scifi fan check her out. I wish she'd written more, as I've read most of her novels a couple of times, and loved nearly all of them. It's disappointing to have discovered someone so good, and then run out of books by them to read, knowing there will never be another. (Similarly, I never "got" Asimov as a kid, but then read Foundation as a young adult and finally understood it and loved it, only to find he'd died a couple months before...but, at least Asimov wrote enough books to keep one busy for years.)
把可信的黑暗未来与真诚的乐观并置，是这本书既震撼又鼓舞人的关键写法。
谢谢分享。给还没读过的人提一句：巴特勒的《帕拉布尔的种子》是上个世纪最重要的小说之一。它把未来写得既黑暗又可信，让其他反乌托邦显得甜美而像卡通；同时又出人意料地有一种宇宙级的乐观，深到让你为自己是人类而自豪。真是一本了不起的书。
robinsloan查看英文原文
Thanks for sharing this here. FYI for those who haven't read it, Butler's "Parable of the Sower" is one of the most crucial novels of the last century. It mixes a future so dark and plausible it makes other dystopias look sweet and cartoonish with -- incredibly -- a cosmic optimism so deep and hopeful it makes you proud to be human. It's really an amazing book.
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