I'm a pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a Black,...an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the complexity of human identity and emotions, showcasing the interplay of contrasting traits.
In this quote, Octavia Butler presents a nuanced view of identity by acknowledging the various and often contradictory aspects that make up a person. She highlights how attributes such as ambition and laziness, along with her identities as a feminist and a Black woman, coexist within her, suggesting that individuals are complex and multifaceted, characterized by a blend of opposing qualities.
In practice
During a panel discussion on gender and race, one might use this quote to illustrate the complexities of identity.
What I'm working on now - I'm back to fantasy, although considering that it's me, I'm turning it into a kind of science fantasy. It's a vampire story - but my vampires are biological vampires. They didn't become vampires because someone bit them; they were born that way.
Slavery was a long slow process of dulling.
Here I was into astronomy, and here into anthropology, and there I go into geology. It was much more fun to be able to research and write about whatever I wanted to.
There is no end To what a living world Will demand of you.
You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.
Better to stay alive," I said. "At least while there's a chance to get free." I thought of the sleeping pills in my bag and wondered just how great a hypocrite I was. It was so easy to advise other people to live with their pain.
It is in vain to dream of a wildness distant from ourselves. There is none such.
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Eternity is not an everlasting flux of time, but time is as a short parenthesis in a long period.
Everywhere you will find that the wealth of the wealthy springs from the poverty of the poor.
Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?
Part of the oncoming demise (of New York during its terrible fiscal crisis) is that none of us can simply believe it. We were always the best and the strongest of cities, and our people were vital to the teeth. Knock them down eight times and they would get up with that look in the eye which suggests the fight has barely begun.
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