Mar 022006
Death was definitely not on holiday over the past weekend. Darren McGavin, aka Kolchak the Night Stalker, departed. I’ve only seen a few episodes of that series; incredibly campy but McGavin lent it a curmudgeonly sort of charm. We also lost Don Knotts and Dennis Weaver. But the death that saddened me the most was that of Octavia Butler. One of the few African-American women writing in the science fiction genre, Butler authored some impressive books. Her Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents were two books that transcended the traditional constraints of the genre to explore issues of gender, race, religious fanaticism, and forgiveness. She also wrote a Hugo Award-winning short story back in the 80s entitled “Speech Sounds,” one of those stories that continues to live in my head years after I first read it.
Butler recently published a new book, Fledgling, which was receiving good reviews. It’s a shame that we won’t get the opportunity to read any of the other works that she might have been planning.
Her saddened me as well. Quite a few people I know who also write are just blown away by her death. It is a huge loss.