Octavia E. Butler Plants an EarthseedBy Therese Littleton, Amazon.com  The Earthseed series, which began with Parable of the Sower and continues in Parable of the Talents, tells the story of the genesis of a simple, humanist religion--Earthseed--in a dystopian near-future Earth. One of the central tenets of Earthseed is that humanity's destiny is to leave Earth and become a starfaring race. Butler spoke with Amazon.com's Therese Littleton and Bonnie Bouman about the Earthseed series, how she got started writing, and what it's like to be the "grande dame of science fiction." Amazon.com: How did you get into science fiction? Octavia Butler: By way of a bad movie: Devil Girl From Mars. When I watched it, I felt very put-upon, because it's not a very good movie. I thought, Gee, I can write a better story than that. So I started writing my own novel. I didn't know anything about writing a novel, but it was fun trying. I was 10. And because the movie was science fiction, I started writing science fiction. I think one of the reasons why science fiction appealed to me was my own life was so dull. If you're alone, and socially awkward, and reading a lot, it seems that there are other worlds out there that are much more interesting. And when I went to the Clarion science fiction writer's workshop in 1970, I met other people coming from that same place. Amazon.com: Until recently, you've been identified as the African-American woman science fiction writer. Does that bother you? Butler: In a way, yes. But fortunately now more people are coming in, so I won't have to bother about that much longer. There's a book out called Brown Girl in the Ring, by Nalo Hopkinson; and then there are people like Tananarive Due, who are coming in on the edges--she's writing horror. And whenever I go to a college, there are lots of kids who want to get in, and they're yet to be published, but they're working at it. Amazon.com: You write full-time.... How long have you been able to do that? Butler:  Amazon.com: What keeps you going as a writer? Butler: There's always something new, always something to learn. One of the things that I do with my books is set up problems for myself. In Parable of the Talents , the problem was how to continue this character in a way that would make her the kind of person who might sometime after death be thought a god. How to build a god. And my other problem was how to get her out of that nice little village that she created for herself, because I liked it too much, so I kept writing the same 150 pages over and over trying to find a way to keep her there. You get to like your characters too much sometimes. You don't want to give them any problems. It's finding ways to do things. With the new novel, Parable of the Trickster , I'm going to have to find out a lot more about the possibilities of living on a new world with a lot of microbial help. Because that's what you would need. I've noticed that a lot of the time the help is things, mechanical things. But if you've landed on an extrasolar world, and you're going to live there permanently, you're going to need a lot of help. In the book, the people are going to have all the help they need, and it's still not going to work out for them. I'm going to have to learn a lot that I don't know in molecular biology and microbiology, and I expect to enjoy it. Amazon.com: Tell us a little more about Earthseed, the religion that Lauren Olamina starts. Butler: I wanted something that I could have believed in and joined when I was 18. I didn't want it to be stupid or hypocritical--that happens a lot when you're writing about religion. You're either making fun of it, or it's your religion and you're trying to convert people to it, or they're crooks. And I didn't want to do any of that. So I have a character who, whether she's right or wrong, truly believes in what she stands for, and she's not trying to rook anybody. But she does use people. And her daughter doesn't really like it, but there's no way she could do what she does if she didn't use people. Amazon.com: Does Earthseed come from a personal philosophy that you've developed? Butler: I wanted everything about Earthseed to feel true, mainly because the destiny of Earthseed feels fantastic. So you had to have a lot to build off of before you got there. But I didn't want to put in anything that I was in violent disagreement with. For instance, where she says religions are cargo cults--I've seen what religions can do to people, and they are very powerful motivators. She didn't expect good things to suddenly appear, but she did expect to go to heaven. But I didn't mean it as harshly as my character said it. She says things very boldly, and I would soften them a little if I were to say them myself. Amazon.com: Do you believe that humanity's ultimate destiny is among the stars? Butler: It would be nice if it were, but I don't know if we're going to get there. Progress isn't necessarily a straight arrow. There have been ages of chaos (I use the phrase in deference to Marion Zimmer Bradley) all through history. And we could crash into another one. That was what I had in mind in these books. We're building all these little problems into disasters, mainly by neglecting them. This doesn't mean that we won't get to the stars, in time. Getting to the stars is such a nonlogical thing to do that it almost requires a nonlogical thing like religion to do it. Patriotism isn't quite enough, because it doesn't have quite the long-term push. We got to the moon, and we practically stopped. So religion is a much better prod. It's a dangerous prod, because it can always be misused and get out of hand, but it's useful for keeping people on the straight and narrow. I don't know if we'll ever get there because it's going to be so expensive, and so long term. The people who begin it probably won't even profit from it. I think it will have a lot to do with why we decide to go, if we decide to go. If we decide to go because it's a wonderful adventure, we probably won't get there. Amazon.com: How many books will there be in the series? Butler: I'm thinking about four more--different experiences of people who go out, experiences with the religion, and with settling a new world. I'm thinking about Parable of the Trickster , and then a book for each of the other names of god: Teacher, Chaos, and Clay. In Trickster , they do everything right and something horrible happens, and they've got to deal with it. And if they're on another world, the cavalry is not coming. I think one of the most fascinating things is to write about that with some degree of realism, not treating it as if it were going off to Africa or Antarctica. Amazon.com: You deal with alienness and otherness in a really meaningful way in your work. Butler:  Amazon.com: What's your favorite of your novels? Butler: Oh, it has to be the one that I'm working on. You know, the baby always needs the most attention. 
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