Wikipedia talk:Wiki Ed/LaGuardia Community College/ENG103 Octavia Butler's Wild Seed (Fall 2015)/week 09 team1

Themes

Afrocentrism/Afrofuturism

At the time of its publication, Wild Seed was considered groundbreaking, as no other African viewpoint—nor African protagonist—existed in the science fiction genre. Butler’s novel is minimalistic in its West African backdrop, but nevertheless manages to convey the rich ethos of Onitsha culture through its Igbo heroine, Anyanwu. In particular, Wild Seed is concerned with African kinship networks.

In addition to its Afrocentric point of view, Wild Seed has also been classified as an Afrofuturistic text. As Elcye Rae Helford contends, the novel is part of Butler’s larger project to “depict the survival of African-American culture throughout history and into the future.” Indeed, as the origin story of the Patternist series, which follows the exploits of a race of genetically-mutated black superhumans who eventually rule Earth in the 27th century, Wild Seed revises our sense of human history as directed by white supremacy. Preceding unsigned comment added by Jlefish (talk • contribs) 18:36, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

Power Struggles

Wild Seed comments on the dynamics of power through the conflict between its protagonists, Doro and Anyanwu. Doro and Anyanwu are both immortals with supernatural abilities, but represent very different worldviews. As a parasitical entity, Doro is a breeder, master, killer, and consumer of lives while, by being grounded in her body, Anyanwu is a nurturing “earth” mother, healer, and protector of life.

Seemingly destined to become linked as implied by their names (Doro means “east” and Anyanwu means “sun”), they engage in a clash of wills that lasts over a century. Some critics read their struggle as that between “masculine” and “feminine” perspectives with Doro as the patriarch who controls and dominates his people and Anyanwu as the matriarch who nurtures and protects her own. Others see their relationship as resembling that of master and slave. Doro’s first assessment of Anyanwu, for example, is as valuable “wild seed,” whose genes will enhance his breeding experiments and so decides to “tame and breed her.” This master/slave dynamic becomes complicated once Anyanwu refuses to be submissive to Doro’s requests and protects his people against him. Toward the end of the novel, Doro realizes he cannot bend Anyanwu’s will and, admitting her worth, he relents some of his absolute power in order to reconcile with her.

Characters

Anyanwu

Anyanwu is the story’s black female protagonist. Born in Africa with genetic mutations that endow her with immortality and physical strength, she also possesses a preternatural ability to heal the sick and injured, including herself. Anyanwu is a “shape-shifter,” someone who is capable of altering her cells to create a new identity such as a different body, sex, age, or even species− metamorphoses she calls upon when needed to assure her survival. Although she has the ability to do harm, Anyanwu is a highly moral woman with a strong sense of humanity. Important to Anyanwu are family and community, autonomy and companionship, love and freedom, all of which are threatened when she meets Doro.

Doro

Doro is the story’s antagonist. He too is a mutant, born in Egypt during the reign of the Pharaohs. As he approaches puberty, Doro learns quite accidentally that he is a “body snatcher,” his life extended by killing the nearest person to him and subsuming his/her physical body. His immortality, therefore, is fueled by cruelty, and a desire for power and control. Long ago he became singularly fixated on breeding superhumans to form a psionic society that will provide him with the human bodies he needs, as well as sexual partners. Doro’s qualities are god-like, inducing members of his society to simultaneously fear and revere him. However, there is no one on earth that can satisfy his need for companionship, until he meets Anyanwu.

Isaac

Isaac is Doro’s favorite son. Isaac is physically human in all respects, but possesses an unmatchable telekinetic ability that Doro foremost desires for his constructed society. Doro successfully schemes to mate his son Isaac with his wife Anyanwu as the progenitors of a new lineage of superhumans. The near-incestuous couple form a loving and enduring bond and raise a family together.

Thomas

Thomas is a sickly, drunken, angry, sullen psionic who lives a hermit’s life in the woods. A sexual encounter with Anyanwu produces a highly gifted daughter.

Nweke

Ruth Nweke is Anyanwu’s daughter, and is raised in the household of Anyanwu and Isaac. Nweke is a promising psionic whose powers are so sensitive that they pose a danger. The outcome of her intense transition into psionic adulthood is a setback for Doro’s eugenics program.

Stephen

Stephen Ifeyinwa is Anyanwu’s son who lives with her in the South on a plantation. She adores him; he is not a product of Doro’s breeding program.

Minor Characters

Okoye is Anyanwu’s grandson whom she meets in an African slave port.
Udenkwo is Anyanwu’s distant relative. She marries Okoye.
Bernard Daly is Doro’s right-hand man in the slave business.
John Woodley is Doro’s ordinary son and captain of the slave ship.
Lale Sachs is Doro’s “wild” psionic son whom Anyanwu kills in self defense.
Joseph Toler is a malicious agent planted by Doro in Anyanwu’s Louisiana plantation.
Helen Obiageli and Margaret Nneka are Anyanwu’s daughters in Louisiana.
Iye is Stephen Ifeyinwa’s wife.
Luisa is an elderly woman working for Anyanwu’s family on the plantation, Rita is a cook, and Susan is a field hand.

--Jlefish (talk) 19:48, 23 November 2015 (UTC) --Mercefulme! (talk) 19:52, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

Further reading

• Call, Lewis (2001), “Structures of Desire: Postanarchist Kink in the Speculative Fiction of Octavia Butler and Samuel Delany.” Anarchism & Sexuality: Ethics, Relationships and Power. Ed. Jamie Heckert & Richard Cleminson. Routledge, 131-153.
• Hampton, Gregory Jerome (2010), Changing Bodies in the Fiction of Octavia Butler: Slaves, Aliens, and Vampires. Lanham, MD : Lexington Books.
• Smith, Malaika Daneh (1994), "The African American Heroine in Octavia Butler's Wild Seed and Parable of the Sower." Thesis. U of California, Los Angeles
• Whiteside, Briana (2014), Octavia Butler’s Uncanny Women: Structure and Characters in The Patternist Series, Thesis

--UptownHarry (talk) 18:35, 16 November 2015 (UTC) --Cahdee (talk) 18:35, 16 November 2015 (UTC)