Prompt: As renowned science-fiction author Isaac Asimov writes in his brief introduction to “Speech Sounds”:
“Science fiction is committed neither to marvels nor to disasters. It deals with possible situations. It tries to
draw a rational and self-consistent society, different from ours, which may be better, even much better, than our
society; or worse, even much worse; or better in some respects and worse in others. The point of the story,
then, is how people live and react in such societies.” In your post, do the following:
1) Explain how the protagonist of “Speech Sounds” reacts to the society that Octavia Butler imagines.
2) Find one credible outside source about Butler, or about this particular story, or about science fiction as a
literary genre. Cite the source and briefly explain how it helps you understand something about the story on a
deeper level.