Following a devastating nuclear war, Lilith Iyapo awakens after 250 years of stasis to find herself surrounded by a group of aliens called the Oankali. These highly evolved beings want to trade DNA by breeding with humans so that each species’ genes can diversify and fortify the other. The only alternative they offer is sterilization of the entire human race. Should humanity take the leap into the biological unknown, or hold on to its identity and perish?
在一场摧毁性的核战之后, 莉莉丝·里亚波在两百五十年的 休眠沉睡之后醒来, 发现她自己被一群叫做 欧万卡利的外星人包围。 这些高度进化的生物 想要交易DNA, 通过和人类繁殖, 来让每一种基因都能 更多样化、更强化。 如果不照做, 他们就会消灭全人类。 人类应该要放手一搏, 进入生物的未知领域? 还是为了坚持自己的身份到死?
Questions like this haunt Octavia Butler’s "Dawn," the first in her trilogy "Lilith’s Brood." A visionary storyteller who upended science fiction, Butler built stunning worlds throughout her work– and explored dilemmas that keep us awake at night.
类似这样的问题萦绕在 奥克塔维娅·巴特勒的《黎明》中, 该作是她的三部曲 《莉莉丝的后代》中的第一部。 巴特勒是位有远见的小说家, 她颠覆了科幻小说界。 她在她的作品中建立起了 惊人的世界—— 并探究那些让我们 难以入眠的两难问题。
Born in 1947, Butler grew up shy and introverted in Pasadena, California. She dreamt up stories from an early age, and was soon scribbling these scenarios on paper. At twelve, she begged her mother for a typewriter after enduring a campy science fiction film called "Devil Girl From Mars." Unimpressed with what she saw, Butler knew she could tell a better story.
生于1947年, 巴特勒在加州的帕萨迪纳 以害羞和内向的性格长大。 她从很小的时候就会幻想故事, 很快就开始将这些情境写在纸上。 十二岁时,她在看了一部很奇怪的 科幻电影《来自火星的恶魔女孩》之后, 她恳求妈妈给她一台打字机。 她为这部电影毫不所动, 因为她知道她能讲出更好的故事。
Much science fiction features white male heroes who blast aliens or become saviors of brown people. Butler wanted to write diverse characters for diverse audiences. She brought nuance and depth to the representation of their experiences.
大部分的科幻小说 都用白人男性来当主角, 他们打败外星人 或成为原住民的救星。 巴特勒想要写多元化的角色, 给多元化的读者看。 她把主人公的经验呈现得 更加细致、更有深度。
For Butler, imagination was not only for planting the seeds of science fiction– but also a strategy for surviving an unjust world on one’s own terms. Her work often takes troubling features of the world such as discrimination on the basis of race, gender, class, or ability, and invites the reader to contemplate them in new contexts.
对巴特勒来说, 想像不只是 为科幻小说种下种子—— 也是在不公平的世界中用自己 喜好的方式求得生存的一种策略。 她的作品通常会谈到 世界上让人不安的特征, 比如根据种族、性别、阶级 或能力来进行歧视, 她也启发读者在新的 情境中思考这些问题。
One of her most beloved novels, the "Parable of the Sower," follows this pattern. It tells the story of Lauren Oya Olamina as she makes her way through a near-future California, ruined by corporate greed, inequality, and environmental destruction. As she struggles with hyperempathy, or a condition in the novel that causes her to feel others’ pain, and less often, their pleasure. Lauren embarks on a quest with a group of refugees to find a place to thrive. There, they seek to live in accordance with Lauren’s found religion, Earthseed, which is based on the principle that humans must adapt to an ever-changing world.
她最被人喜爱的小说之一 《播种者的寓言》 就是依循这个模式。 它讲述的是劳伦·欧亚·欧拉米亚的故事, 时间是不远的将来, 她在加州求生存, 那里已经被企业的贪婪、 不平等以及环境毁灭给摧毁。 她饱受超级同理心所苦, 在该书中,这是一种病症, 会让她感受到他人的痛苦, 但很少感受到他们的愉悦。 劳伦和一群难民展开了 一段追寻之旅。 他们寻找能生存的场所, 在那里,他们遵循劳伦成立的 宗教“地球种子”来求生存, 其信条是人类必须要 适应不断改变的世界。
Lauren’s quest had roots in a real life event– California Prop 187, which attempted to deny undocumented immigrants fundamental human rights, before it was deemed unconstitutional. Butler frequently incorporated contemporary news into her writing. In her 1998 sequel to "The Parable of the Sower," "Parable of the Talents," she wrote of a presidential candidate who controls Americans with virtual reality and “shock collars.” His slogan? “Make America great again.”
劳伦的追寻之旅其实 源自真实的事件—— 《加州187提案》, 它试图拒绝无证移民的 基本人权, 后来才被认为违宪。 巴特勒常常会把时事 整合到她的作品中。 她1998年的作品《天赋者的寓言》 是《播种者的寓言》的续集, 内容是一位总统候选人 利用虚拟实境和“电击衣领” 来控制美国人。 他的口号是“让美国再次伟大”。
While people have noted her prescience, Butler was also interested in re-examining history. For instance, "Kindred" tells the story of a woman who is repeatedly pulled back in time to the Maryland plantation of her ancestors. Early on, she learns that her mission is to save the life of the white man who will rape her great grandmother. If she doesn’t save him, she herself will cease to exist. This grim dilemma forces Dana to confront the ongoing trauma of slavery and sexual violence against Black women.
虽然大家已经注意到 她的先见之明, 巴特勒也对于重新 检视历史很感兴趣。 比如,《亲属》谈的故事就是 一位女子不断被拉回到过去, 回到她祖先的马里兰州农场 早些时候,她得知她的任务 是要拯救一个白人的性命, 而这个白人将来会 强奸她的曾祖母。 如果她不救他, 她自己也不会存在。 这无情的两难局面 强迫戴娜去正视 黑人女性因为奴役制度 和性暴力正在受到的创伤。
With her stories of women founding new societies, time travelers overcoming historical strife, and interspecies bonding, Butler had a profound influence on the growing popularity of Afrofuturism. That’s a cultural movement where Black writers and artists who are inspired by the past, present and future, produce works that incorporate magic, history, technology and much more.
通过这些女性找到新社会的故事, 时空旅人克服历史冲突的故事, 以及物种间结合的故事, 巴特勒带来了深远的影响, 让非洲未来主义越来越受欢迎。 那是一项文化运动, 灵感来自过去、现在, 及未来的黑人作家和艺术家 产出整合了魔法、历史、科技 及许多其他元素的作品。
As Lauren comes to learn in "Parable of the Sower," "All that you touch you Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change.”
如同劳伦在《播种者的寓言》中领悟到的: “你触碰的一切被你改变。 你改变的一切会改变你。 唯一永恒的真相就是改变。”