Speech Sounds

Use these links to supplement and complement students’ reading of the work and to increase their overall enjoyment of literature. Challenge them to discern parallel themes, engage through visual and aural stimuli, and delve deeper into the thematic possibilities presented by the title.

Recommended Texts for Pairing

 Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements

• a collection of science fiction stories that engage with fundamental themes at the core of Butler’s speculative fiction: inequality, power, and the re-imagination of political systems

 "Amnesty" in Bloodchild

• a short story in Butler’s collection Bloodchild (2005) that centers on a woman’s efforts to bridge the differences between human beings and an alien species
• explores themes of communication, political hierarchies, and survival

Vox by Christina Dalcher

• a speculative novel published in 2018 about a near-future US in which females are compelled to limit their speech to just 100 words each day
• connects to the themes of communication, feminism, and inequality

Other Student Resources

"Afterword"

• In her “Afterword” to “Speech Sounds” (scroll past the story to find it), Octavia Butler recalls how the story “was conceived in weariness, depression, and sorrow” during the terminal illness of a close friend.