Sowing Utopia: Feminist Community in Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed

Abstract

The oeuvre of Octavia Butler refutes the notion of a stable, wholly equal utopia. Rather, she demonstrates in book series such as Patternist, Xenogenesis, and Parables that self-interested groups or individuals tend to manifest self-interested utopias for themselves and dystopias for the out-group. Despite the dystopian possibilities of utopian visions, Butler shows that utopianism, or “social dreaming,” is necessary for the betterment of society. To herald the better world, Butler frequently uses maternal, feminist, empathetic, community-seeking female leaders to positively influence society: I affectionately name these characters Butler’s Mostly Utopian Mothers, or, MUMs for abbreviation. Butler’s quintessential MUM is Anyanwu of Wild Seed, part of the Patternist series. Anyanwu builds a utopian commune based on maternity, feminism, satisfying work, and decency. Though Anyanwu’s utopia crumbles due to a parasitic, patriarchal immortal named Doro, the haven that Anyanwu creates is a guiding path for resistance, hope, and bettering lives through utopianism.