Ergane in Retrograde

The first book I read by Octavia Butler was Lillith's Brood (or Xenogenesis). I got it from Twice Sold Tales. Rye and I were about to go to SC and were looking for reading materials. I got that book and Clive Barker's Books of Blood. You see, I really had no other choice but to totally adore her. I know literature when I am reading it and it is upsetting my entire world! I have read it four times since that fateful day in May 1999. I curled up on my mom's couch and read it. I read it before bed (I LOVE reading before I fall asleep... a habit I don't do much anymore because the light makes Ryan grumpy... TV light my Taurean doesn't mind, but my BearLamp light and silence... and he's tossing and turning and that vein pops out in the middle of his sleep forehead) every night leading up my singing at Natalie and Pam's wedding (where I sang *shudder* Shania Twain's "From This Moment" and then Amel Larrieux's "Makes Me Whole") and even when we got home (Kris' home) drunken and giggly... and when I finished it... I felt, well, changed. That's the mark of a good book, I think.

I tell you all this because of this really stupid kid who pissed me off, but really, nothing can change my love for Butler, alter it, reduce it, limit it -- even some pseudo-intellectual who believes reading two books, one of which he liked, is evidence enough to form an opinion -- an educated and thus valid opinion about La Butler ("La" is a prefix given in true snap-queen, B/black fag Diva style...).

A re-reading is in order.