Speech Sounds

by Octavia E. Butler

Published in 1983, “Speech Sounds” tells the story of a world divided by disease. Those who survive the affliction are left without the power of speech, or else without writing, cut off from friends and neighbors by the profound inability to communicate.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction, School, Dystopia, Classics, Speculative Fiction

38 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Octavia Estelle Butler was an American science fiction writer, one of the best-known among the few African-American women in the field. She won both Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, she became the first science fiction writer to receive the MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Grant.

After her father died, Butler was raised by her widowed mother. Extremely shy as a child, Octavia found an outlet at the library reading fantasy, and in writing. She began writing science fiction as a teenager. She attended community college during the Black Power movement, and while participating in a local writer's workshop was encouraged to attend the Clarion Workshop, which focused on science fiction.

She soon sold her first stories and by the late 1970s had become sufficiently successful as an author that she was able to pursue writing full-time. Her books and short stories drew the favorable attention of the public and awards judges. She also taught writer's workshops, and eventually relocated to Washington state. Butler died of a stroke at the age of 58. Her papers are held in the research collection of the Huntington Library.

Reviews

[Valerie Book Valkyrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Speechless Stars!
I encourage you to listen to this, sorrowful yet sanguine, superlative short story here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZFlP...
Enjoy 💛🧚‍♀️🙋🏼👍!

[Hirdesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Valerie Rye !
What a woman my goodness !

[Rishi Raj Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I sat where I was, more depressed than ever, hating the whole hopeless, stupid business and wondering whether the human species would ever grow up enough to learn to communicate without using fists of one kind or another.”

~ Octavia Butler

Summary:

The story is set in a Dystopian world, where humanity has gone more impulsive and aggressive due to an illness. A disease, that takes away a person's ability to communicate/language, contributing to misunderstanding and aggression in people.
The loss of language and communication, as well as the emergence of the inner aggressiveness of people led into the division of people in two kinds - The impulsive aggressors and The seemingly superior, calmer, practical people (left-handed people were implied to be of this kind).
The narrative of the story is from the point of view of a well aged lady, Rye. She encounters raging humans in the bus she was traveling in, and some interesting events unfold.

Review:

The whole story rotates around points regarding human impulsiveness and emotion, such as:-

-> Proper communication and language are essential part of human society. This can further be narrowed down to clear interpersonal communication for a healthy relationship.
-> Jealousy & Hatred are dangerous for not only the person possessing them, but also to everyone around that person. These traits are also contagious, as indicated in the story by some events that led to a cascading spread of violence.

I really enjoyed the enthralling narrative of the story from Rye's perspective and the afterwords by the author describing how the idea of this story came to her mind.

I disliked how the narrative had a drastic shift from the crowd being aggressive, to Rye having some intimate moments with Obsidian. But then again it ended on a considerable good note.

Overall, a really nice story. Somewhere between 3.5-4 stars for me.

[MANISH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked Obsidian, the way he committed himself to restore order in an order less world with his life at stake

[Marion Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if you lived in a society where speaking is a threat to the social order?

Octavia Butler speculated on the aforementioned question in her Hugo Award-winning short story, Speech Sounds. I came across this story when it was discussed on the Novel Pairing Podcast. The discussion was interesting, and I had to read the story for myself.

The story takes place in a post-pandemic Los Angeles and a woman named Rye is on the city bus heading home.  A fight breaks out, causing commotion and panic amongst the passengers. Few moments later, a mysterious man in a car (which is rare in the story's world) gets out to stop the fight.  He shows a LAPD badge (the police are non-existent in this world) and uses tear gas to end the fight.  The mysterious man connects with Rye and offers to take her home.  She agrees to the offer and leaves with him.

They have only communicated by facial and hand gestures. The two make an instant connection and it leads to amorous encounter.  After being together, they noticed a man getting ready to attack a woman on a street corner.  The mysterious man known as Obisidan stops the car to save the woman from her attacker.  The story takes a dark turn and Rye is left with the aftermath.

Butler provides some thought-provoking ideas in the story. Those who can speak are special and have a higher social status. Speaking provokes jealousy from those who can not speak and creates a division that can lead to violence. On the surface, Speech Sounds comes across as a bleak story, but Butler provides hope by the end of it when Rye interacts with two children after the attack on the woman at the street corner.

The story makes me realize how much we can take speaking for granted.  Also, the society treats reading only for the privileged. That hits home for me as one who loves stories. Reading needs to be for everyone and never for a select group of people.

I'm not a big short story reader but Octavia Butler is one of my favorite authors and her stark prose is prescient. Speech Sounds is in her Bloodchild and Other Stories collection. I highly recommend this story and she says a lot within twenty pages.

[Charlotte Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent piece of literature. Chilling. I pictures this all taking place on Commercial Drive in Vancouver, I used to take the bus down Commercial every day for work and in the early days of Covid-19 it became quite terrifying. This story hit very close to home.

[ljhauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

meh

[Glenn Armstrong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Speech Sounds is a 1980’s short story. I listened to the audio version at the recommendation of a GR friend. It is set in a dystopian future which only becomes apparent as the story unfolds. Information is slowly drip fed by the author which allows the reader to put together a picture of this dystopian world and know what is occurring and why. This is a unique take on the dystopian story. It would appear that a virus has swept through the world causing widespread death. Those that survive lose the ability to communicate through speech, reading and writing. Communication with each other is basically done with hand gestures and grunts. I enjoyed this story. It is clever and thought provoking. I liked how the author wrapped things up.

[Panos · Rating 3 out of 5]

big concepts in small forms. The way that Octavia Butler uses the form is spectacular. She holds so much information but gives it to the reader very delicately. She does not spit at us the information but gently gives it to us. We get to know this universe easily despite not understanding a lot of things (for example how it all started or how exactly did the people lose their sense of language) it does not matter because the crux of the story is so concrete that in a way covers up all the "holes". For me, it is really hard to do a plot twist in short fiction without being cheap but on this occasion worked. It seemed that when the reader thought that there wasn't any concrete way to tie this loose story Octavia managed to make the perfect ending. While I now understand that science fiction and or fantasy short stories are not for me, I do not regret reading this.

[mims ₊ ⊹ · Rating 5 out of 5]

just realized i could log a few short stories i’ve read in class for goodreads !!! this made me want to read butler’s full length novels (finally parable of the sower i will read you)

by far one of the most poignant short stories ive ever read. adored it.

[˗ˏˋ janet ˊˎ˗ · Rating 3 out of 5]

eh

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting take on language and the idea that language (whether spoken or written) is what makes human... human.

[Emma Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read this short story a handful of times now for a couple of school assignments and I love it more and more each read - Definitely going to check out some of her novels.

[Esther Hong · Rating 4 out of 5]

"'Speech Sounds' was conceived in weariness, depression, and sorrow. I began
the story feeling little hope or liking for the human species, but by the time I
reached the end of it, my hope had come back. It always seems to do that."

It always seems to do that.

[Melisa Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Butler's backstory and this is one of my favorite of her work. We read this around the dinner table with our teens. It sparked great conversation.

[ana]

read 11 pages for school and those 11 pages will be going on my goodreads

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this story from the Goodreads profile of my mute friend who passed away. If she were still alive, I'm almost certain that we would agree that living in this story wouldn't be such a bad idea (well except for the possibility of losing reading comprehension). Not speaking was the norm for us. I'm used to seeing muteness displayed as a tragedy in media. I want people to read this and realize that they take speaking for granted.
In this story, there is rage, aggression, and violence. I kept thinking about my friend and I. We were never like that. We were jealous but we became resourceful and found ways to communicate. Yes, this story is unsettling and horrifying to imagine, but people from marginalized and minority communities in the real world adapt.
I wouldn't say that humanity falls apart without verbal speech. I just think that society would be a lot better if people listened to each to other in whatever forms they can, rather than being consumed by anger.

[marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 ⭐️ - i think this is a very interesting dive into the usage of language and human dependancy on communication in personal identity. without being able to tell people your name, your name is no longer useful. its no longer a definition of you. if you cant tell people your deceased kids names, your kids nearly cease to exist. self-doubt and an animalistic sort of living overtakes. you have no personality to show beyond body language and no stories to tell.

this paralleling the erasure of voices, language, and identity within radicalized and minority groups is also a very intriguing perspective. it shows, on a larger and more visible scale, the damage of such erasures. the collapse of culture.

even with the very good points presented, i think this short story holds its faults in voice and style, or more so didn’t fit my enjoyed writing style.

[AoiBerny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was recommended this short story by a friend who, just like me, is part of a community of people that stutter.

The feelings portrayed here hit like a truck. A society that is a byproduct of a terrible sickness that affects communication, comprehension, and causes death aplenty.

"Rye glanced at the dead murderer. To her shame, she thought she could understand some of the passions that must have driven him, whomever he was. Anger, frustration, hopelessness, insane jealousy ... how many more of him were there — people willing to destroy what they could not have?"

The final message of hope in the face of such despair is touching.

As a short story, it has a wide range of emotion and meaning. A story that will surely stay with me for a long time.

[⟢ Neph · Rating 5 out of 5]

i'm surprised there isn't a short film adaptation for this. Something about speech sounds struck pleasantly inside me. I loved it. I keep thinking about it. I feel like i know the story intimately with how often ive thought about it since reading it (it is now early may, and i read this in late march, skimmed over it again for a school project). The post apocalyptic feel of it makes me think it needs to be filmed much the same way that early "the walking dead" was filmed. i just love it, and it feels like i cant explain why i cherish it so. My brain is just obsessed with it. I would love to see what happens to rye going forward. That would be amazing

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

From my reflection for class: "Butler’s work, I feel, asks us to consider not solely the loss of language but what happens when honest and unobscured communication, in general, becomes unattainable. Perhaps, in this sense, the story can function as a broader metaphor for contemporary society. While we maintain the ability to form coherent sentences and articulate beliefs, that does not mean anything without a reciprocated commitment to understanding one another. Though obviously more severe, the problems faced by those in Rye’s world bear some resemblance to our own–one in which people speak but fail to listen, where ideological barriers replace linguistic ones."

[taylor alcorn]

(book for my class) when i started reading this short story i was confused as to where it was going and what the purpose of it was. in this society there was a disease that caused everyone to lose their ability to read a write. thus, making it difficult for them to communicate and understand one another. the theme or purpose of this story in my eyes was to portray how important communication is for people and how inhumane and animalistic we become when we are unable to understand one another. the entirety of their world and society collapsed when they lost this ability, what does this mean for the prevalence of using our voices and conversing with one another?

[Hannah Lynn]

Even though Speech Sounds is a short story, I’m logging it on here because last semester I read ~30?ish short stories for a fiction class and now I’ll have random flashbacks to some of them and have no clue what they were 😔

[Norren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't even know how to articulate how good and how layered this story is.

[ari · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh my god

[Alexander Song · Rating 3 out of 5]

比较普通的短篇小说，讲述人类失去语言能力之后的世界，感觉一般般。

[Macarena Villarroel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Qué buen cuento!

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

A frightening, almost Orwellian commentary on the ways in which censorship, anti-intellectualism, and social isolation systematically strip us of our humanity.

[sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting world building, kept me on my toes for sure

[Jonah Gold · Rating 4 out of 5]

global virus leaves humans with either impaired ability to speak and interpret speech or with impaired ability to write and read. interesting concept kinda crazy short story