Discussion Post #1: "Speech Sounds" and the Difficult Miracle of Language

Comment below by Fri @11:59.

In the afterword to Octavia Butler’s 1984 short story, she recalls the mood that inspired her writing: “Speech Sounds was conceived in weariness, depression, and sorrow. I began the story feeling little hope or liking for the human species, but by the time I reached the end of it, my hope had come back. It always seems to do that.” (12) Butler wrote the story after witnessing a violent fight on a bus in Los Angeles. The first line of a possible story sprung to mind: “There was trouble aboard the Washington Blvd bus.”

While this class has mainly covered poetry and poetics, I’ve asked you read the short story “Speech Sounds” because it returns us thematically to the building blocks of poetry, or of any literature: language. I want us to think about the importance of speech and of literacy (defined in this story as the ability to read and write, though there is more to it)—as forms of human connection, especially in perilous times. 

When the story begins, the protagonist Rye is en route from Los Angeles to Pasadena, CA (where Butler was actually from.) when her trip is derailed, perhaps indefinitely. This is no average commute, as we soon become aware of a strange illness that afflicts the inhabitants of what is left of Los Angeles (and we assume, the rest of the country as well.) If you are familiar with dystopian films or fiction, you’ll know that global pandemics are a pretty common plot. But Butler does not choose to represent for instance, a flesh-eating disease or an illness that “zombifies” its victims. Rather, the illness in question impairs the part of the brain that controls verbal expression and literacy, and in some cases erodes reason: the very things which maintain the order of modern cities. Our first clue to this comes on the first page,  where we find characters communicating through grunts and gestures rather than regular speech: “Two young men were involved in a disagreement of some kind, or, more likely, a misunderstanding. They stood in the aisle, grunting and gesturing at each other, each in his own uncertain T stance as the bus lurched over the potholes” (1). But as this scene shows us, another “side effect” of the disease is the “senseless violence” that follows misunderstanding. In the absence of verbal communication, brutality and disorder become just as contagious as disease. 

Butler has always been prophetic, but today her work bears a more-than-usual resemblance to our present times, though the circumstances she describes are far more extreme. I’ve had you read “Speech Sounds” not to depress you, but because by the end of the story, as Butler writes, “my hope had come back.” That is, I think the story explores devastating loss while also suggesting alternate ways communicating, of showing kindness, and of being together that might be useful to think about in our suddenly changed reality. 

What Good is Science Fiction?

Octavia Estelle Butler was an African American science fiction writer who began writing at the age of 10 to escape “loneliness and boredom.” She went on to write 12 novels and several short stories, and became one the few black women to achieve major notoriety in the genre of science fiction. She won Nebula and Hugo awards (including one for “Speech Sounds” in 1984) as well as a Macarthur genius grant. Despite her success, she still remembered being asked a strange question during interviews and at readings: “what good is science fiction to black people?” 

"Still I'm asked, what good is science fiction to Black people? What good is any form of literature to Black people? What good is science fiction's thinking about the present, the future, and the past? What good is its tendency to warn or to consider alternative ways of thinking and doing? What good is its examination of the possible effects of science and technology, or social organization and political direction? At its best, science fiction stimulates imagination and creativity. It gets reader and writer off the beaten track, off the narrow, narrow footpath of what 'everyone' is saying, going, thinking - whoever 'everyone' happens to be this year.?" - Octavia Estelle Butler, "Positive Obsession," 1989

We certainly get “off the beaten track” in “Speech Sounds,” envisioning a possible future where society is only a pale imitation of what it once was. But the story also urges us to think about the past. The theme of literacy runs deep in American history. Recall that enslaved people weren’t allowed to read or write, often under the threat of physical violence or death. But many did so in secret anyway.  Think of Phyllis Wheatley learning to read, and eventually picking up her pen to write poetry. In the context of U.S. history, literacy is a “difficult miracle” (June Jordan’s phrase to describe Wheatley) as well as a dangerous act of creation. (Check out Butler's most popular novel Kindred, a time-travel novel in which a black woman from 1976 Southern California is transported back to the violent days of slavery before the Civil War.)

If we keep those historical echoes in mind, Rye’s loss of literacy in “Speech Sounds” becomes even more devastating: “She had lost reading and writing. That was her most serious impairment and her most painful. She had taught history at UCLA. She had done freelance writing. Now she could not even read her own manuscripts” (6). We learn that the disease affects everyone differently, and some have retained to the ability to read and write while others have not. When she learns that Obsidian can still read, an almost uncontrollable wave of envy consumes her: “she had never experienced such a powerful urge to kill another person” (7).

By the very end of the story there is reason for, which I’ll leave room for you to discuss in the comments.  For now, I’d like to point out that Rye develops other “literacies” that are important to her survival in a changed world. We might think of literacy not only as ability to read and write, but to have proficiency in alternate forms of knowledge or new ways of thinking. If you go back to the story, you’ll notice the subtle new forms of literacy that Rye has developed to “read” her surroundings and to interpret the behavior of other people.

To name an example that is close to home, in the loss of face-to-face communication, many of you, your professors and your peers are building your web literacy by testing new platforms online, or putting old platforms to new uses. In this class we’ll practice the (now seemingly ancient) art of blogging, a form of writing that is more casual than a critical essay but more formal than, say, a tweet. (Forgive the outdated reference to twitter, I don’t know what the kids are using nowadays. I recently googled “How do I TikTok?”) At any rate, these are new uses of web tools to adapt to new realities and to craft flexible modes of communication, existence and survival. 

Unlike many of the characters in “Speech Sounds,” we actually CAN communicate verbally. If there were any moment to be grateful for language, it is now. 

Finally,  as a complement to “Speech Sounds,”  Pablo Neruda’s poem “Keeping Quiet” reminds us that there is value in stillness and silence, too:

“Keeping Quiet” by Pablo Neruda: 

Now we will count to twelve

and we will all keep still

for once on the face of the earth,

let's not speak in any language;

let's stop for a second,

and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment

without rush, without engines;

we would all be together

in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea

would not harm whales

and the man gathering salt

would not look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,

wars with gas, wars with fire,

victories with no survivors,

would put on clean clothes

and walk about with their brothers

in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused

with total inactivity.

Life is what it is about...

If we were not so single-minded

about keeping our lives moving,

and for once could do nothing,

perhaps a huge silence

might interrupt this sadness

of never understanding ourselves

and of threatening ourselves with

death.

Now I'll count up to twelve

and you keep quiet and I will go.

Discussion Questions: Leave two comments in the comment section below. (You can submit them at separate times). Comments should be 1 paragraph or more. These questions are just conversation starters. Your first comment should respond to ONE of them, OR you can raise your own concerns about a specific aspect of the story. Your second comment should respond to and *extend* a comment another student has made, which means you'll probably need to visit this post more than once. Bonus for quoting the reading in either of your comments.

1.     Comment on the relationship between “Speech Sounds” and our current situation.  (Feel free to also reference Neruda’s poem “Keeping Quiet.”)

2.     In the absence of language, what alternative forms of literacy does Rye develop to “read” her surroundings and/or the behavior of other characters?

3.     Even though traditional language is gone, sound is still important in “Speech Sounds.”  Give an example of Butler’s use of sound (or silence) in the story. 

4.     Give an example of the ways that gender or economic status affects the lives of characters in the story.

5.     Comment on the ending of the story. What alternate future does the ending suggest for Rye, and how is it different from the future Rye had imagined just moments before? 

6.     If there are other dystopian stories you’d like us to think about in relation to this one, drop those in the comments. I also strongly recommend Butler’s novel Parable of the Sower.