User:Serrate13/sandbox

Citation Practice

Octavia Butler was shy as a child.

Journal Entry # 1

Today in class I was introduced to Wikipedia and it's different functions concerning editing. It was a side of Wikipedia that had never crossed my mind. Usually, I just occasionally visit the Wikipedia page to use it as a reliable source for my papers, but now I realize that there's more to just the article, that Wikipedia is a whole whole different world in itself where users can exchange and contribute their knowledge and ideas concerning a certain topic in which they're working on. We learned how to format our own pages in an organized fashion just like it is shown in every Wikipedia article. I think that this assignment that was handed over to my class will be a very unique and interesting experience that will enhance our abilities as researchers and writers so that we can carry on this knowledge throughout our college years.

Journal Entry # 2

Today in class we learned the true meaning of Wiki and discovered that it's a Hawaiian word that means "quick". This is why they use the word wiki in Wikipedia; it's a great and uncomplicated source that people can use to edit things quickly. In other words, it was made to be simple to use at any expense without too much effort. We also learned about paraphrasing and quoting. Professor Gallardo made a huge emphasis on how a pain in the ass quoting can be, and I thoroughly agree with her because of my past experiences with quoting in my essays in other classes. After the professor explained to the class about paraphrasing and the difference between summary, quoting, and paraphrasing; we were able to get into pairs and read and analyze a handout with two interviews. Our task was to read these two interviews and decide what we were going to take out, and what we would quote and paraphrase. Despite not really being able to understand the task at hand, my partner and I managed to complete our classwork after the professor wrote examples that we could use to get us started and inspired. I found this approach very helpful, and with it we were able to build off a great paragraph.

Journal Entry #3

Today in class I learned how to formulate topic sentences for a body paragraph. I learned that a topic sentence must contain the main idea to start off a paragraph. It has to at least introduce the author and what you're going to talk about. The professor put us in pairs so we can critique the group she assigned us. Afterwards, the professor divided us into pairs, to work on a certain theme from Wild Seed. My topic was about Feminism and how it contributed to the book.

Journal Entry #4

Today in class we broke up into groups of three and were assigned to take a look at the Wild Seed Wikipedia article and suggest what should be included to make it better, or what could be omitted from it. We found out that the theme section had to be omitted because the information that was put there by other wikipedians was derived from an original source, and using original sources in Wikipedia is forbidden. Then we had to do a list of critiques with our group and post it on the Wild Seed talk page so that other editors can see our suggestions. Lastly, the professor gave us a handout of three pages in which we were to read it and summarize it in our sandbox.

Journal Entry #5

Today in class the professor gave us a new research assignment to do which I found it to be similar to the second research assignment that she assigned us to do for homework. For this new research assignment we are to look for the article using the Library source from LAGCC to be able to locate the original journal in which the article is found in. After that we read some of the assigned readings and discussed it in class making our own bullet points about what we read so far in the reading.

Journal Entry #6

Today in class the professor talked alot about the concept of feminism and how it evolved throughout time. I honestly had no idea that the concept of a person being considered a woman was bizarre back then, and that initially we were considered incomplete men. The professor told us that the concept of masculinity and feminism was adapted in the 18th century, this is where the concept of femininity was embraced in it's entirety with the image of the characteristics of women like: dresses, earrings, shoes, etc. We also talked about how it is now in the 21st century, that we are basically almost considered to be cyborgs because we have access to so much technology nowadays. In class today we also picked a reading for the research assignment #5. We also worked on finishing assignment #3 and have a head start on assignment #4 today.

Journal Entry #7

Today in class we completed a survey online on what level of importance we had for each theme that was found in the book. We were told to review some topics before writing our research proposal, which was to be considered the first step to writing our first drafts for the actual research paper. Today we also discussed the readings that we chose in our last class for research assignment #5.

Journal Entry #8

Today in class the professor, according to how we did in our proposal she arranged us in three different groups. I was placed in the incomplete group which was group # 2. The first group got the first pick on what they wanted to work on for the wikipedia article. Luckily, when it was my turn to pick the group I wanted to be in, there was one spot left to work on the Characters in group #1. After we met with the six people in our group, we were divided into pairs to work on writing a specific theme for it. The theme me and my partner worked on was "Power Struggles". We managed to polish it nicely, and the professor was satisified and content with our teamwork.

Journal Entry #9

Today in class we revised the corrections that the professor put in our first draft of the team assignment we did last week. My topic was power struggles and we had to take a chunk of it out and replace it with other things. We were also given back our proposals and I still have to work on mine. The topic that I was working on for my proposal was supposed to be concentrated on feminism but today after reading the themes section in Wikipedia about the novel wild seed, I got inspired to rewrite my proposal and change it to focus more on slavery. We were then told to submit our working thesis statement so that we can get feedback on it.

Journal Entry #10

Today in class we looked over the revisions from the second draft that the professor left us. Surprisingly, me and my partner did a pretty good job on it. The only problem was that we had alot of details and the professor was encouraging us to cut off some stuff to get to the main points. The two girls who were working on characters from my group shared their work with the rest of the team and we each exchanged our opinions and points of view about whether or not it was ready to go up on the wikipedia article.

Wild Seed, Chapters 1-4

In chapters 1 through 4 you already can pin point out who are the main characters in this book, which so far in this case are Doro and Anyanwu. From the first chapter it is easily depicted how both Doro and Anyanwu are not just regular people. There is a strange mysterious allure attached to them that later on gets to reveal itself by showing us that Doro is a Spirit who feeds on strong male bodies to survive, and that Anyanwu posesses the power to morph herself into anything she desires along with having the ability to be immune against any type of disease and to heal people. After spending quality time with Doro, Anyanwu’s feelings of uneasiness disappeared and so she accepted to be his wife and to go with him to his seed village; a village in which people that were considered different and too valuable to be casually killed, lived.

Wild Seed, Chapters 5-6

In Chapters 5 through 6 at first you get a real glimpse on how demanding Doro can be. Okoye, Anyanwu’s grandson who was saved from being sent away as a real slave by Doro due to Anyanwu’s pleas; was ordered by Doro to marry Udenkwo despite Okoye resisting this demand. Doro reprimanded him and told him that now he must be forever obedient and grateful to him since afterall, he saved him from being sent away as a slave. That it doesn’t matter if it’s forty years from now, he must always remember that he must be obedient in every way. By being unconditionally obedient, he is to always listen to Doro’s orders no matter the given circumstance, if it’s for good or for bad. Hearing this, Okoye decided that this was not fair and stated that he had the freedom of thinking, to determine if whether or not he was going to be able to do something. Doro at first was reluctant to accept that he had the right to make his own decisions at any given time, but then acknowledged that Okoye was right all along in his decision making. Later on Anyanwu learns from a man named Isaac the truth about Doro’s ways and how he can’t help doing it, but nevertheless there are people that can influence to stop killing and taking new bodies. These people are those whom Doro loves dearly and values above all beings, but there is also a possibility that Doro can stop feeling anything. Which is why Isaac tells Anyanwu that she must prove her worth to Doro so that she can once again be free.

Research Assignment 1

Octavia Butler was born on June 22, 1947 in Pasadena, California where segregation was predominant and around at the time. However, despite her surroundings and circumstances; from an early age she proved and demonstrated to be an aspiring writer. As a child, she really enjoyed reading the books her mother brought for her from the white families that she worked for as a housemaid. This was probably one of the main factors that perked Octavia’s interest for literature at the time. As a child she was awkward, clumsy and had a slight dyslexia that interfered a bit with her homework performances. Nevertheless, in no way or form did she ever let her dyslexia or social awkwardness get in the way of her path to become a successful science-fiction author. Despite being unsure of herself for the first time at thirteen when her Aunt Hazel said something discouraging to her about the harsh realities of segregation and their toll amongst colored people, she still hung onto her dream of becoming a writer someday. Amongst the quality of her many novels, she was the first science-fiction writer awarded with the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship which was and still is a highly prestigious award even to this day. Octavia Butler died on February 24, 2006 just outside of her home in Lake Forest Park, Washington with only merely being the age of 58. She left behind a great legacy attached to her name, and was and still is considered amongst the great black writers of our time, that even after her death a Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship was sponsored by the Carl Brandon Society for the purpose of supporting and encouraging students of color to attend the Clarion West Writer’s Workshop so that they can have the same opportunity like Octavia did thirty- five years ago to enhance their creative writing skills and perhaps become the next great science- fiction writer.

Wild Seed Chapters 7-10

In chapters 7-10 it puts a main focus on Doro’s and Anyanwu’s youngest daughter called Nweke. She’s near transition and she goes and finds her father Doro and is scared about what she is going through. Anyanwu and Doro currently don’t get along so well because Anyanwu strongly feels that Doro humiliated her by making her bear right children and then handing her over to Isaac. Doro considers Anyanwu as the closest thing he has to an enemy at the moment. Being aware of this Isaac feels bad because he loves both Doro and Anyanwu and hates the fact that both of them don’t get along at all. Nweke is undergoing some changes in herself that are overwhelming her. Anyanwu (her mother) is trying to comfort her and helping her out with her transition. However, Isaac is convinced that Nweke is the only one out of all the other children that is undergoing a transition that is very much similar to Anyanwu.

Wild Seed Chapters 11 to the Epilogue

In chapters 11 to the Epilogue,it is seen that there a lot of changes that both of the main characters took a huge part of and it is that Anyanwu couldn’t have everything she ever wanted or desired and Doro couldn’t make something or consider something to be his exclusively by right. She had stopped him from killing innocent people for no reason. She had stopped him from making impulsive drastic decisions concerning the human life, but she had failed at being able to make him do a promise. However, Doro had already banished her from being one of his breeders that he used to make the new wild seed. Doro is able to ask for her help or cooperation but it can only be effective if she actually wants to cooperate with him. He can no longer be able to force her to do anything by threatening the wellness of her children.

Orson Scott Card on Butler's craft in Wild Seed

In "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy", Orson Scott highlights important aspects that the famous science fiction writer Octavia Butler discusses throughout the entirety of her book called "Wild Seed". Scott puts a huge emphasis in making the audience reading the novel realize who is the main character in the story, by making him or her stand out from the rest and mentioning him/her first. He points out how Butler refused to include the name of the woman in her sentence when mentioning how Doro discovered her. This was done on purpose to not confuse the reader from realizing since the very beginning who the main character in the story is. Another writing characteristic that is incorporated and used alot in a science fiction novel that Scott points out is that Butler is being guided by the main character. If the main character is familiar with something, it's the writer's job to continue on with the story and later on incorporate that missing piece of information into the structure of the story later on. The author is always clear and never obscure on purpose. Sometimes writer's put metaphors onto their writing and it's up to the reader to find out the true meaning behind those words, because the author is always relatively clear about what he or she wants to express or say in their piece of writing. Scott mentions how this is the unique reason that differentiates a science fiction audience and a mainstream audience, and it's how they react when reading a strange statement. When both audiences read it they wonder what that strange statement may be with the only difference being that the science fiction audience expects the statement to be taken as it is, while the mainstream audience just automatically assumes that it's a metaphor.Another strategy used in writing science fiction is trying to perk the audience's interest in your writing with mystery and suspense, not giving away any secrets or reveal any information until the very end of the story so that the audience can remain intrigued and want to read more to find out. Orson Scott mentions how Octavia Butler from the very beginning till the end of her story makes it very clear that her story is going to be very interesting and fulfilling to the science fiction audience.

Research Assignment #2

In Elizabeth A. Lynn's analysis, “Vampires Aliens, and Dodos,”:

• Wild Seed begins in Africa in 1690 and ends in the New World just before the Civil War.
• What it means to be human.
• Immortality, shape- changing, psychic powers, the passing of one mind into many bodies.
• Anyanwu's dedication to her own genetic line equals Doro's.
• Anyanwu forces Doro to confront his own weaknesses and to adjust his plans to her choices and to her own moral concerns.

"Butler's prose is spare and sure, and even in moments of great tension she never loses control over her pacing or ocver her sense of story. Her writing is staccato rather than lyrical. Her use of history as a backdrop to the struggles of her immortal protagonists provides a texture of realism that an imagined future, no matter how plausible, would have difficulty achieving, the novel is often grim, but it is never casually brutal."

This quote from Lynn's analysis is true in describing so many aspects of Butler's distinct writing style in which she mixes history with her fictional characters in the story, providing the evidence of realism in a fictional world.

In Pfeiffer's analysis:

• In Wild Seed the struggle is more male-female than black-white.
• In Wild Seed Doro is portrayed as a more heroic and sympathetic figure.
• Lives by taking, one after the other, the living bodies of people he chooses, who yield their consciousness to him when he takes their bodies.
• Doro's condition is a paradox: his immortality requires the deaths of others.
• Anyanwu is genetically self- renewing and a shape shifter in the fullest sense.
• The relationship between Doro and Anyanwu dramatizes a fundamental conflict between the affinity a solitary immortal male and female might feel for one another in a world of mortals.
• Doro is macabre, wearing the bodies of his victims in an impious theft of their lives' energy, and he can never be lovable.
• Doro and Anayanwu seem made for each other, each posesses immortality and each is heroic because of their immortality.
• Doro looms as a symbol of the perversity of male- dominated human history.

"Wild Seed is a combination of Butler's brilliant fable and real history. Her narrative captures the voice of West African storytelling."

This quote taken from Pfeiffer's analysis is true in it's entirety. Butler has an amazing balance between being able to incorporate some real historical facts to the background of her story on fiction, in order to give it the depth needed to capture the reader's attention.

In Bishop, M.'s analysis from Wild Seed:

• Wild Seed treats effectively of the enduring human conflicts between duty and desire, conscience and expediency.
• It touches the tension between our innate longings for power, or for proximity to power.
• Butler's themes reveal themselves in terms of characters and their interactions.
• The humanity of two terribly unlikely near- immortals.
• Doro is an ogbanje, an evil spirit
• Anyanwu is known as the "Sun Woman".
• Anyanwu embodies the metaphorical "Wild Seed"

"Octavia Butler has the ability- and more important, the ambition to use that ability- to become one of the outstanding writers in the field.

From Bishop's point of view and approval we can freely say that Octavia Butler has the full ability of being able to impact the science fictional genre in no way that any other author has come close to doing.

Research Assignment #3

Govan, S. Y. “Connections, Links, and Extended Networks: Patterns in Octavia Butler’s Science Fiction,”:

• Dominant relationships and their effects and consequences on their own individual experiences compared to the existence of normal ordinary people.

• Relationships based on power are carefully detailed and represented by the number of conflicts that bring Butler's characters in the story to life.

• The struggle for power revolves around many different conflicts of will but the legacy of the heroine lives on.

• Doro can sense and track people who have psychic gifts, or who are known to be witches.

• Anyanwu's eternal life, special healing abilities, and her physical strength can strengthen immeasurably and all of this makes Doro think she's the perfect Wild Seed.

• Anyanwu changes Doro's plan and design for her life because of her survival skills, which are none other than having the ability of turning into an animal.

• Doro can maintain his life by always transferring from body to body but he will eventually become alienated.

• It takes a whole entire century for Doro to realize his true vulnerability, that he can't simply take away Anyanwu's life because they are not alike.

Govan, Sandra Y. "Connections, Links, and Extended Networks: Patterns in Octavia Butler's Science Fiction." Black American Literature Forum 18.2, Science Fiction Issue (1984): 82-87. JSTOR. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Govan, S. Y. “Homage to Tradition: Octavia Butler Renovates the Historical Novel,” :

• The genesis and evolution of Homo Superior and his mutated partner.

• The primary purpose of a novel is entertainment, whereas the main purpose and function of a slave narrative was to educate and politicize.

• Slave narratives at the height of their popularity were known as “literary nigritudes”

• Slave narratives focused on the special experience of racial oppression, they were intended to document and record resistance.

• Literary/rhetorical devices that included concrete imagery and diction, understatement, polemical, voice, and satire were commonly used to describe the actual conditions of slavery.

• Two of the main topics that slave narratives focused on were: The burden of blackness in white America, and the loss of innocence of their childhood when a child realized and became aware that he/ she was a slave.

• Detailed descriptions of various phases of bondage, the punishment factor, the resistance motif, the quest for education, abusive sexual misconduct and immoral behavior, the slave’s recognition of religious hypocrisy, adulterated Christianity, the slave’s escape attempts, and finally if the slave was able to escape; the slave’s successful escape.

• The story Wild Seed takes place in 17th century West Africa, in the Niger river in the vast region of eastern Nigeria.

-Doro is his people’s protector and sadly they are the most satisfying kills for him. He gains more sustenance from their psychic energy than he gets from taking ordinary non- mutant human beings.

• In the beginning Doro returns to his original village which has been demolished and destroyed by hunters who looked for slaves, he has a private moment of reflection and seriously considers the idea to track them all down and regroup the remaining survivors.

• Butler’s Anyanwu is partially based on a legendary Ibo heroine, whose name is, Atagbusi, a village protector and a magical “shape shifter” and a woman capable of physical metamorphosis, she can become any animal she pleases but we see in the book that she turns into a leopard, a python, an eagle, a dolphin, a dog and even a man.

• Anyanwu alters her body at a gradual pace so that she can age alongside at the same rate as her many husbands she had married over the years, and as the same people around her so that they won’t notice any particularities that stand out in her. Her natural body is of a beautiful 20 year old woman.

Anyanwu is the village healer, she’s considered to be a doctor for her people, it is her job to be the village healer, an actual doctor for her people.

• Doro manipulated Anyanwu by using her descendants as an excuse have her go with him and accept to be his Wild Seed and away from his homeland.

• Doro takes advantage of her loneliness and vulnerability, promising her a place where there are people that have unique traits as well, promising to have children with her of their own kind, ones that she would never have to see die, for they will have eternal life.

Govan, Sandra Y. "Homage to Tradition: Octavia Butler Renovates the Historical Novel." MELUS 13.1/2, Genre, Theme and Form (1986): 79-96. JSTOR. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Salvaggio, R. “Octavia Butler and the Science-Fiction Heroine,”:

• Strong female protagonists who shape their surroundings to their own ideals.

• Black women heroines who live in societies with lots of racial diversity.

• The heroines yearn for independence and autonomy.

• Marriage is seen as a prevalent feminist issue.

• Different portraits of feminism, in male based tyranny novels.

• Anyanwu posesses lots of determination, courage, bravery, and emphasis on her personal goal which is freedom.

Salvaggio, Ruth. "Octavia Butler and the Black Science-Fiction Heroine." Black American Literature Forum 18.2, Science Fiction Issue (1984): 78-81. JSTOR. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Research Assignment # 4

Holden, R.J. “‘I began writing about power because I had so little’: The Impact of Octavia Butler’s Early Work on feminist Science Fiction as a Whole (and on One Feminist Science Fiction Scholar in Particular).”

• Femenist Utopia, where gender discrimination no longer existed.

• Mainstream Femenism was associated to white women.

• Negative consequences toward embracing technology.

• The term cyborg was used as an identity that allowed all femenists to take advantage of the scientific tecnologies at their disposal.

• Characters break obstacles that are tied to male and female statuses.

• Woman equals nature, this metaphor is largely prevalent amongst African American women.

• Opposition between identity and affinity.

• Material bodies in gender construction.

• The heroines are nuturing, freedom loving women who only practice violence for the sake of survival.

¨Butler´s choice of black female protagonists, emphasis on biological tecnologies and disease, and incorporation of African- American history, forces readers and writers of feminist science fiction to step back and acknowledge historical, cultural, and socioeconomic differences among women.¨

I chose this quote because it briefly describes how Octavia Butler is not only able to balance the genre science fiction, but also able to merge her story with actual historical facts that helps make her point throughout the story.

Duchamp, L.T. “‘Sun Woman’ or ‘Wild Seed?’ How a Young Feminist Writer Found Alternatives to White Bourgeois Narrative Models in the Early Novels of Octavia Butler.”

• Political consciousness and awareness.

• Magic realist elements that opened a path for political revelations.

• Political oppression depicted as a historical reality.

• Full emotional engagement nd participation.

• Negotiation with the oppressor as a way to escape.

• Doro believes he controls the physical, even though he doesn´t take any part of it because he´s a spirit.

• Paranormal talent gives Doro a sensation of pleasure.

• Doro´s and Anyanwu´s oppositions on their views of the world provoked seeing the true differences between the sexes.

• Asserting sovereignty as an individual.

¨As a result, her narratives provide readers with a rich context in which to understand the political issues in play throughout the work, and the choices the characters make, the positions they take, and the values they articulate.¨

This quote explains how Octavia Butler puts alot of detail in her writing that actively makes us imagine how the character is and how their personality makes them who they are and why.

Research Assignment #5

Eugenics Genetic determinism and the desire for racial utopia in the science fiction of Octavia E. Butler

• Eugenics- the set of beliefs and practices which aims at improving the genetic quality of the human population.

• Obsessive focus on the ethics involving human evolution.

• Eugenics is used to achieve racial utopia.

• Revising behavior means altering biology.

• Through molecular level biological changes, humanity can achieve any kind of utopia.

• Through eugenic procedures in altering and changing humans, the human species will continue to exist as a race without destroying itself.

• Clash between eugenic utilitarianism and Christian-based human rights.

• Doro's attempt to control Anyanwu results in a multi-generational power struggle.

• Two immortals locked in a combat of morality.

• Christian moral standpoints and eugenic evolutionary aims.

• Eugenics is used to interrogate ethical concerns regarding race and gender ideologies.

• Didactic allusion to atrocities to which eugenics could lead.

• Intellectual traits such as the propensity to higher learning, and psychic ability is solely found in inheritance and can therefore be strengthened by selective breeding.

• Feminine nature is associated with archetypal mother, healer and priestess.

• A quest to create a master race of witches who treat him as a deity.

• Struggles between matriarchy and patriarchy.

• Manipulation of human evolution through selective breeding.

"Butler invites us to read Doro as a Promethean figure. Doing so reveals that her novel ultimately presents debates about the ethics involved in life and death. Doro resembles Prometheus in more ways than simply mirroring the Titan’s attempt to change the course of humanity. Butler reinterprets the Promethean project in order to examine the difference between evolutionary and Christian ethics"

In this quote from this article, it states how Octavia Butler puts a major focus on two major aspects that encompasses humanity in it's totality. These two aspects are none other than life and death, that end up defining humanity in it's entire form. However she also makes us understand the difference between what is known as normal and moral (Christian ethics) and what is known as strange and the manipulation of nature (evolutionary).