The (I’m)possible

Before going into the reading, we must know what an epigraph is. According to the Lexicon, epigraphs are short quotations or sayings at the beginning of a book or chapter that suggests its theme. Many books have used them and some of us would not think twice about it. The epigraphs are the author’s way of conveying something such as a theme or tone for the readers. The epigraphs get me to think about the connection between the books to society. An epigraph that could represent this is from Octavia Butler’s book Dawn, “Learn and Run!”. The connection that could be seen is that in society, some jobs would ask the interviewees for a couple of experiences before being employed. However, the interviewee might not have the experiences needed to meet the requirements. So what they would do is to learn while they work and to run with the job position. To me, Butler has wanted people to connect in a way so that they could try to understand their surroundings and perceive the world through a different lens of life.

The previous epigraph reminds me of a section from the same book, Dawn. It states that “The Oankali had removed her so completely from her own people–only to tell her they planned to use her as a Judas goat” (Butler) In the story, they have seen how humans reacted when they are confronted by the OanKalis’. They tried to kill them and to escape the room that feels like a cage to them. This also could be connected to the situation that we are living in this modern time. I am talking about the coronavirus pandemic. Being in a time where citizens would look up to the person that they believed to be getting the situation under control, (for example, the president of the US) only to have the person that they trust to say or show something that could lead them to their doom. For example, being told from higher-ups that science is fake or that masks do not prevent the virus from spreading. Then to have seen all over the news or hear from neighbors that people are suffering and dying from this new virus that some citizens just do not show any unity or support to delay the spread to anyone from a young child to an elder.

Another way that the epigraphs get me to think is by the connections to me. Another epigraph is from Butler’s other book Furor Scribendi; it states,  “First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not….Habit is persistence in practice. Forget talent. If you have it, fine. Use it. If you don’t have it, it doesn’t matter. As habit is more dependable than inspiration, continued learning is more dependable than talent.” This means to me that inspiration is useless to have. To have inspiration is a shot in the dark, and sometimes it probably is not going to be used completely throughout. This relates to me, as someone who gets side-tracked, the inspiration(s) that I may already have received in my lifetime weren’t always seen to the finish of whatever I have been inspired to do. Which led to me forgetting what I was doing then doing something else. For talents, they can let you go as far as you can but only if it correlates to the talent(s). While with continued learning, it could bring you much further and could bring you much more success and more paths to walk along on. Also, it helps develop a habit for the person. For example, when I was in high school my English teacher taught my class how to further our explanation by using these simple sentence starters, This means…This shows…This proves. This became wanted by us in all our essays to come. This led to it becoming part of my habit whenever I write an essay for anybody. Due to that, I have allowed others to understand my way of thinking whether it short or thought out.

I am not the one who likes to ask questions, nevertheless critical questions. In terms of goals, I would say that a goal I have is to find more connections that could make books more related, even though Butler is already doing a good job making us think about the smallest reaction and subconscious thought that anyone of us could have when reading the stories.

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