Speech Sounds

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What do you think sets science fiction apart from other types of fiction? As a genre, what themes do you think science fiction emphasizes? Can you name any female science fiction writers? Do you know of any Black science fiction writers?

Teaching Suggestion: Traditionally, the science fiction genre has been dominated by white male authors, such as H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov. (Indeed, “Speech Sounds” was originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine.) Conflict between humans and alien species—including xenophobia—is a common theme in classic science fiction, as is the colonization of other planets and the development of the male protagonist into a world-saving hero. Ask students to think about what a more diverse field of science fiction writers might mean in terms of the themes and issues with which the genre wrestles.

• Briefly introduce Afrofuturism and discuss why Octavia Butler has been called the “mother of Afrofuturism.”
• For additional information about Afrofuturism, see  An Exploration of Afrofuturism.

2. The 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes believed that selfishness drives human behavior, so life in a “state of nature”—without the law and order a social contract imposes—would be “nasty” and “brutish.