Doro is dead.

Doro is actually dead.

After four thousand years of living by taking others’ bodies and trying to build an empire, Doro finally met his match. He always thought that he would never die, that nobody could ever be more powerful than him. I believed this myself. As I read that Mary was going to stand up against him, I had no hope that she would survive his attack. And after reading two books about him and his plans, I found that when he actually failed, I was partially relieved.

Continue reading My Reaction to the Character Doro →

Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed and Mind of My Mind examined through the lens of the feminist perspective gives an equal representation of Doro and Mary. Arguably, Doro and Mary are masters to those around them. Doro breeds only the strongest. Mary brings in latents to help them transition.

In class, we spoke of Doro’s death as a sympathetic event within the text.

Continue reading The Feminist Perspective of Wild Seed and Mind of My Mind →

Wow, this novel had me on the edge of my seat as it came to a close. Will Doro win or will Mary dethrone him? Back and forth they fought in the one body and at last, Mary triumphs and becomes the Queen. But is Doro really dead? Initially, at the moment of conclusion, I believed he was, but something tells me, he is still around, still alive, somewhere lurking in the shadows, trying to figure out how he will come back and seek revenge on Mary. But perhaps he may even return unprepared because Clay is about to be introduced more in-depth. And what about the child of Mary and Karl – August? Will he be the one branded as the Patternmaster? Continue reading Victories in the Web →

The ending of Mind of My Mind was epic. Doro is finally killed in a battle with Mary. We assume Doro has the upper hand, but soon we realized that his imminent downfall has come. Not only have Doro’s fears of Mary been realized, but also has the realization of a new beginning unfolds. Yet, the remains of Doro’s oppression and subjection of his people have left a lot remaining turmoil that needs to be stabilized.

The concept of a new beginning in Mind of My Mind reminds me of an article I read for one of my education classes. In the article the author Kirkland discusses what is known as New English Education. New English Education pushes incorporation of more cultural contemporary literary works. One of the said works is hip-hop because of relevancy to youth and more modern appeal. In the context of the battle between Doro can be viewed as the standard literary canon. Doro in reminds me of the classical literary canon because like the classical canon he is fully established in his society, and has created a society were only his notion is plausible.

Furthermore, anyone who is outside the canon or in this case Doro’s control is a treat. Mary is similar to New English Education because it is starting to gain momentum and power. Doro and the classical canonical critics have a fear of this new movement due the fact creates a defocus from the old canonical regime. We see two conflicts one being that of Doro and Mary, and the other is a canonical clash between what Kirkland deems “Official Space” and “Unofficial Space.” In the ending of Mind of My Mind will we are left with numerous expectations from Mary. Conversely, many expectations lay within the idea of New English Education.

Here’s the article: Kirkland (2008) New English Education

            This is mostly just a mixture of wishful thinking and denial, but I want to believe that Doro is still kicking. I felt a bond with Doro. Whether it was because he’s been with us from the beginning, or whether I sympathized with his cause, I came out of Mind of my Mind refusing to believe that his death was true. After today’s group discussions I learned that at least some of us share that same sentiment. Continue reading Doro ain’t Dead →

Since evening I stumbled upon a clip of my favorite childhood cartoon – Dragon Ball Z (DBZ). About forty seconds into the clip, the purple villain whose name is Bills told Vegeta (pun on vegetable) that he would die with honor in his death. Vegeta’s wife then shows up and directs her anger at Bills by slapping him for interrupting her party. He slaps her back to which Vegeta gets riled up and bawls out “that’s my Bulma.” At first, I thought he said “that’s my woman.” Continue reading Mine To Protect? →

After reading Sikivu Hutchinson’s post, “Policing Our Girls, Taming ‘Topsy,’” on “The Feminist Wire,” I took a few moments to look through the various hyperlinks in the text. One hyperlink eventually lead me to a Harvard study about race and perceived innocence; conducted in February 2015, the study (which surveyed solely white women) found that at the young age of 10 years, black boys begin to be perceived as less innocent than children of any other race—regardless of age. Not only is 10 years the threshold age for black boys to be perceived as less innocent, but they are also “more likely to be mistaken as older,” and more likely to “be perceived as guilty and face police violence if accused of a crime.” Possibly worse, the study also found that when shown an image of a boy with a description of a crime he committed, subjects of the study overestimated the age of black boys by an average of 4.5 years, and found black children to be more deserving of blame for their crimes than boys of other races. Continue reading Theorizing Innocence in Wild Seed →