You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief,

American Malinsky.

Back in 2016, I did an episode called The Legacy of Octavia Butler. Octavia Butler was one of the

great science fiction authors of the late 20th century, and I released that episode on the 10th

anniversary of her death. This year was another milestone. 2022 would have been her 75th birthday,

and there were a lot of media stories about how her writing and her vision of the world

is more relevant than ever. There are also now several TV and movie adaptations in the works,

and the talents behind these projects include Issa Rae, Viola Davis, and Eva DeVernay to name a few.

And the first of these adaptations just came out. It's a new TV series based on Octavia Butler's

novel Kindred. Kindred is about a black woman in modern times who is mysteriously transported to a 19th

century slave plantation, and she keeps going back and forth in time.

You okay? I got up to get a glass of water, and I was here, and I was drinking it, and then

suddenly I wasn't here. I was somewhere else. Where? I don't know. By a river?

Sweet fell asleep? I don't know. I feel like it. Am I crazy? I sound crazy, but it happened.

I like to take part in this commemoration of Octavia Butler by replaying my episode about her,

and after the break, we'll hear a reading from one of her novels. But first, here's the episode,

the legacy of Octavia Butler from 2016.

So when I started this podcast a few years ago, I knew I had a lot of catching up to do when it

came to science fiction literature. And so I've been trying to read as many of the great books that

I've missed out on, and a lot of them have been great. But I hate to admit this, but I often have

trouble suspending my disbelief and losing myself in some of these stories. And I don't know if it's

because I need the visual component of TV or film or comic books. Although one issue I have is

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