TV Solves Our Organizing Problems is an advice column for organizers, using pop culture to solve our issues.

The Question: I just started working with a collective focused on trans art. I am trans, and to me, this is really exciting — I have lacked both artistic community and queer community for a long time. This felt so exciting, but now that I’m going on a regular basis, its hard to connect with other people in the room. No one else seems as excited as I am. What gives? - Bored By Collective Dreams

When you find something that you have in common with another person, particularly something intimate like fiction, it can be beautiful.

But paradoxically, sometimes that commonality can be almost isolating, lonely. 

Consensus can drain the connective tissue from a story, no matter how powerful, emotional, it might be.

Octavia Butler‘s novels are…

Well, what’s left to say? 

A black woman science fiction author who lived in relative but comfortable, self manifested obscurity in the 80s, is now a cultural phenomenon. Beloved by organizers, science fiction and fantasy writers, Afrofuturists, and the Venn diagram of every overlapping part of these intersections. 

Her book kindred is the story of a black woman who travels back in time to the era of slavery. 

The patternist series jumps from historical fiction to far flung distant magical future. 

Parable of the sower portrays a science fiction future that feels like present day 2021, complete with fascist president slogan “make America great again.”

Its a guiding text for those determined to understand how to survive the end of the world, which is also the name of Adrienne Maree Brown’s read along podcast about it. 

Here’s the thing about Octavia Butler:

I never stop wanting to talk to people about her books, and yet: her best books? 

So many people have said so many things about these books, covered them from so many different angles that… it feels like everything* I could say has been said.

So even though I love her, and I get really excited to talk to people who also love Octavia Butler, particularly organizers, I go kind of quiet when I discover we have that in common. 

The only time I feel like I have a conversation with someone that’s engaging, that connects us?

Well, for better or worse, it’s usually about her weirdest book.

the one she wrote right before her death: Fledgling.

last week I talked to an awesome organizer about their interest in sci fi.

When we got to Octavia Butler?

the conversation dropped off.

we kind of started just saying the names of titles. 

The patternist series? Yeah. 

Parable of the sower? Oh yeah, great.  

Our thoughtful and meaningful conversation came to a standstill. 

Until she asked “wait… did you read her vampire book?”

Fledgling, Butler‘s last book before she died, was planned to be the first in a trilogy. It is the story of an ancient vampire that looks like a young black girl, who wakes up one morning with no memory of her past life.

(Sarah Geis posted a pdf from Butler describing obsession as a tool like archery, which requires honed target practice. Of all her books, Fledgling makes it clear she was always working on target practice.)

I had read fledgling. 

Suddenly, our conversation resumed like it had never stopped.

We were off to the races again. 

Why? 

Because fledgling is bonkers.

A large proportion of the book is devoted to vampire council politics. another big chunk of the book is depicting a romantic relationship between an older white man and a vampire who, as I said, is also a young black girl.  It reminds me of twilight, not just because it is about vampires, but because it’s weird as hell.

I loved Fledgling, I’m gonna be honest.

But unlike say, parable of the sower, there are large parts of fledgling I am conflicted about.

Somewhat concerned out by.

And that makes it way more fun to talk about.

We love agreement.

But when it comes to intimacy, consensus can be really boring.

So, next time you’re struggling with someone, before assuming there’s something wrong, check for something else. 

Check to make sure there’s not something more interesting, something more contentious, you haven’t explored together.

• H*Afrofuturists? Black organizers? Black women and femmes? Many have said Octavia Butler‘s work is just a starting point: her work begins the real conversations they want to have in the world. When I say “everything‘s already been said” I mostly mean when it comes to looking at her work as a model for thinking about organizing. So as always, YMMV.