[Name Redacted]'s review of Wild Seed (Patternmaster, #1) (original) (raw)

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Wild Seed by Octavia E. Butler

Wild Seed (Patternmaster, #1)
by

287915

Butler's sci-fi classic has so much to recommend it. She is a very talented writer, and she creates a mythology and cosmology which are, if not unique, then arguably the best-developed of their kind. "Wild Seed" is beautiful and lyrical and powerful, but the rampant misandry and peculiar romanticization of pre-colonial Africa mar it -- infect it like a virus.

There is neither subtlety nor nuance in Butler's representation of the two sexes. No woman is ever a criminal or a monster or a villain -- those roles are reserved exclusively for the men. And the only men who show any virtuous traits are remarkable because they are explicitly exceptional -- aberrations who invariably die at the hands of other "true" men.

Butler presents the male as mind, male as monster, male as thief, male as predator, male as manipulator, male as sociopath, male as destroyer, male as wanderer, male as slaver, male as arrogant false-god, male as controller and dominator, male as compulsive, incurable rapist.

Butler presents the female as body, female as healer, female as savior, female as settler, female as nurturer, female as victim, female as mother, female as creatrix, female as liberator, female as rebel, female as builder, female as gardener, female as defiant and noble and inherently virtuous.

The sense is often that the male is the rude, brute beast from which the morally, ethically & spiritually superior female has evolved.

And re: her depictions of pre-colonial Africa...Well, i think this novel would have benefited from consultation of the works of Frank M. Snowden cross-referenced with that of Lloyd A. Thompson. It's moving in a Pan-Africanist sense, but it lacks reality.

Again, there is so much of worth here, and it deserves its status as a classic, but its flaws are so glaring, so appalling, that they can eclipse everything that is good about it. I was able to see more of its worth with this re-reading, able to filter out the hypocritical misandry and suspend my disbelief for the African history portions, and maybe next time I'll be able to filter out a bit more. For now I regrettably leave it as a 3 star book.

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Reading Progress

October 15, 2010 – Shelved

September 24, 2012 – Shelved as:sci-fi

September 24, 2012 –4.0% "I read this years ago and remember it mainly as a misandrist text set in an ahistorical, romanticized pre-colonial Africa. We'll see if i understand it differently now."

September 24, 2012 –13.0% "I completely forgot about the "male = cruel mind", "female = nurturing body" dimension of this book."

September 24, 2012 –18.0%

September 25, 2012 –33.0%

September 26, 2012 –36.0%

September 26, 2012 –53.0%

September 26, 2012 –53.0% "I'm enjoying this but I can't get over the misandrist aspects. Someone needs to write a corollary misogynist piece to balance things out."

September 26, 2012 –58.0%

September 26, 2012 –62.0%

September 26, 2012 –70.0%

September 27, 2012 –72.0%

September 27, 2012 –74.0%

September 27, 2012 –78.0%

September 27, 2012 –80.0%

September 27, 2012 –87.0%

September 28, 2012 –89.0%

September 28, 2012 –91.0%

September 28, 2012 – Shelved as:classics

September 28, 2012 –Finished Reading

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