I count myself among the many people saddened that Octavia Butler was taken from us so soon. I have read every book and almost every story (this book let me know about more that I missed.) Before going into Positive Obsession, I had some information about her life, but it was limited. I jumped at the chance to read a biography (and more) about Butler and the effect she had on the larger world.
Susana M. Morris created a stellar tribute with this book. She manages to navigate past all of the things, that can make biography and literary analysis a slog or impossible to read, with great skill. I will caution readers who have not read Octavia Butler's work to either do so before reading this book or skip over the sections where Morris gets into detail about plots of books and stories. The author has taught Butler as a college professor and it shows in her writing. Positive Obsession is highly readable and flows very well. It is not overly jargony or dry. The author's love, respect, and sheer excitement about Octavia Butler and her work shines through.
This book is not entirely biography in the sense that it does not follow the format of "this happened then this happened" that can make bios dry for me. Morris includes a little of herself in this. She discusses her experiences with teaching and how much Butler has touched and influenced her despite the two of them never meeting in person. There is also literary analysis of each book and story that I would say is a bit more than average for a biography of a writer. I found this to be a good thing. By analyzing Butler's books, sharing personal anecdotes, and telling the history and culture that was surrounding Butler, Morris creates a clearer picture of Butler's life than many biographies manage. It is also simply well done. I felt transported back to when I had read each book. I was often in agreement or enlightened by Morris' assessments of what it all meant to both Octavia and the larger world. Reading this book felt like getting to know someone rather than only about someone.
Morris discusses race and gender in ways that are important and complex. She is able to speak about how Octavia Butler being a Black woman affected her work and life without reducing her to those attributes nor tokenizing her- things that many others unfortunately did. For instance, Octavia Butler was not the first "black woman science fiction author" to win the MacArthur Fellowship (aka Genius Grant.) She was the first science fiction author ever to receive the honor. Morris gives a snapshot of Butler as a highly skilled person in community of writers who is also affected by her own identities in the cultural and political climates of the time. It was interesting to learn more about Butler's political views which I am frankly surprised I did not know more about. I also have decided to reread the Parable series soon due to its bananas prediction of the future. I had forgotten that "Make America Great Again" was the slogan of authoritarianism in that book written long before our current fascist regime was in place. Despite Butler not seeing herself as a prophet, the predictions she made of the future are uncanny.
There is a great selection of photos in the center of the book taken throughout Butler's life. I also really enjoyed the design format in general of the hardcover. The cover is beautiful and the book feels "just right" in terms of size and so on. I usually don't end up with tons of page flags when I read biographies, but I marked so many sections of this book so that I could return later to stories I have not yet read, quotes from the author, and many standout facts I had no idea about. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to know more about one of the most important fiction writers in history and especially to those of us who have desired something to fill the gap between Butler's final contributions and today.
This was posted to my goodreads and storygraph.
