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In the science-fiction world, death doesn't necessarily mean The End. Resurrections, cryonics and all kinds of other scenarios conspire to keep hope -- and characters -- alive.
So although Octavia Estelle Butler, 58, died Feb.24, her spirit was very much alive at a memorial service held at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame Thursday night.
Judging by the outpouring of grief and love at the ceremony, it is a world that does not want to let go of her, not just yet, and probably so long as her books are read.
More than 100 people sat quietly inside the auditorium at the museum and paid tribute to the award-winning social science-fiction author, the only one in the genre to ever receive a "genius grant" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She was also on the Advisory Board of the museum, where she talked to school kids and allowed the museum to tape an interview with her for an oral history.
She liked to call what she did "Save the World" fiction, using that mirror of alternate realities as a way to shine the light on intolerance, greed, vengeance and other flaws of humankind. But she never stopped believing that there was hope for people to do better.
Butler's family flew in from Los Angeles for the service and expressed their gratitude to the community that embraced Butler.
"Junie -- that was a childhood name for her -- was a force to be reckoned with in every way," said Ernestine Ruth Walker, Butler's first cousin. "We loved her greatly, beyond words...There is an African proverb: 'As long as you speak my name, I live.' I think her name will not be forgotten or her life."
Butler cultivated a reputation as a recluse, but the memories shared Thursday reflected more of the curious and gregarious (with the right company) person who flashed a beaming smile on a slideshow playing behind those who spoke at the podium. Here was Butler at Mount Rainier, breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the woods that sparked her move to Seattle in 1999. Here was Butler at one of many Clarion West writing workshops she taught. Here was Butler cradling Luke, a poodle Butler called Baby belonging to dear friend Leslie Howle.
Howle and Butler spent a lot of time hiking, shopping at Whole Foods and Costco and just generally, doing things good friends do. Howle took Butler to see her last movie, "King Kong," a film Butler enjoyed.
"The 12-year-old girl in her was grinning," Howle said, referring to the age that Butler discovered science-fiction writing, inspired by how bad "Devil Girls From Mars" was and how she could do it better.
"The thing I think I'm missing the most is she was so much fun," Howle told the audience.
Her sudden death took its toll on speakers, many of whom shook and trembled as they took turns at the podium. The tribute line included local sci-fi luminaries such as Vonda McIntyre, Greg Bear, Eileen Gunn, Vonda McIntyre, Brian Herbert and L. Timmel Duchamp. Harlan Ellison also spoke via phone, calling Butler a King Kong to his Fay Wray, a woman he said possessed "a sonorous voice" and "remarkable talent" -- "a natural born writer."
Although Ellison made the crowd chuckle with recognition of the Butler they knew -- to him she was Estelle -- it wasn't until Jacqueline Harris told her story that they allowed themselves to laugh, really laugh in a much-needed cathartic release. She flew in from Laurel, Md. to say goodbye to her friend, who she met seven years ago over the phone. She had gone online to look up Butler's address to write her and tell her how much she liked her books.
"A telephone number popped up. I thought it was an agent," Harris told the crowd. "She told me, 'I am not on the Internet.' I told her, 'Would you please give me her address, I want to write my favorite author.' She said, 'You are talking to Octavia Butler. You have called my home.' I thought, life is not that easy. She spent 30 minutes trying to convince me who she was."
Thirty minutes turned into a five-hour conversation. Years later, Butler visited Baltimore for a sci-fi convention and took Harris around the city to places she researched for her well-known "Kindred", a time travel novel that takes readers on a journey with a modern-day black woman trapped in pre-Civil War Maryland, a Dixie- leaning state sheathed in Yankee colors.
"Who knew this phone conversation would bloom into a friendship?" Harris said.
Even those who did not know her personally felt as though they did, so powerfully did her words speak to them.
Kathie Townsend, a self-professed "science-fiction fanatic" at 54, said she only discovered Butler last year after finding out there was a black woman who wrote sci-fi -- someone she felt she could relate to. She read all her books after checking them out from the Seattle Public Library.
"I keep hearing, 'Dead, dead, dead.' There's no way Octavia's dead," Townsend said. "She's gonna be here way after the rest of us."
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