Octavia Butler wrote science fiction stories. Her story "Sensory Sounds" was especially interesting in that it was based mostly about communication and how our society is slowly growing away from human interactions and lacking in the communication department. She came up with an interesting scenario in which the reader had to ponder what would be worse: not being able to read and write, or not being able to speak. This is an interesting dilemma, in that losing either would be a major handicap when trying to converse with others. On the one hand, not being able to speak would mean that one would not be able to express tone and differences in pitch to express meaning. If one could not write or read, then sending messages over long distances or passing a message widespread would be impossible. This phenomenon brought up interesting class discussions with how people in their situation could adapt to the sudden change in how the world had to work, in order to keep communication similar between people. Sign language, for example, could be a possibility, as well as pictographs or glyphs that could be used to portray meaning.
Her stories are very thought provoking and she writes in such a way that the lesson she is trying to discuss is very subtle and well woven into her fiction.
Allison Weening, Post 7
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