Bloodchild and Other Stories

In this essay, Butler reminiscences on the impact reading and writing had on her life, as well as how she became an author. Because this is a first-person essay that describes Butler growing up, it follows some of the tropes of a typical coming-of-age story, though it is non-fiction. Butler describes herself as a shy, anxious child living in California in the 50s and 60s. She preferred reading and making up stories to typical social interaction. At age ten, Butler saves up five dollars to buy a book. She is nervous that the bookstore would be racially segregated but, to her relief, finds that it is not. Though she comments that she frequents the library, she remarks that she went to the store because she wanted to possess her own book. This feeling of belonging amongst literature and wanting to be part of it persists throughout her life.

At age thirteen, Butler declares to her aunt that she wants to be a professional author. Her aunt points out that black Americans (during that time) were largely not part of that profession. Butler reflects that she had never read a book by a black author. This is the second instance in this essay where the young Butler is confronted with the reality of racial prejudice. Books and writing become retreats for the painfully-shy Butler: “I hid out in a big pink notebook—one that would hold a whole ream of paper. I made myself a universe in it. There I could be a magic horse, a Martian, a telepath […] There I could be anywhere but here, any time but now, with any people but these” (200).

Butler sees her dogged interest in writing and becoming a published author as an obsession; she couldn’t stop, even if she wanted to, which ends up serving her well in the brutal world of professional authorship. She is grateful for this trait, as she begins receiving countless rejections from publishers as early as childhood yet continues to write and submit her stories. By day, she works thankless factory jobs that she hates. Finally, two of her stories are accepted for publication; however, it takes another five years for her first novel to be published. If it wasn’t for her determination, she may have given up before then. Butler returns once again to the theme of race and concludes the essay by ruminating on the nature of science fiction and its relationship to black consciousness. Science fiction, she says, challenges the imagination to think of new modes of thinking and challenging the status quo. She then asks, rhetorically, what good this is for black people.