Butler's works feature principally women of nonwhite races as protagonists, mostly African American. She has in her stories followed the history of the United States and of western civilization from the past into the near future. In her prospectus, America is never politically or culturally stable. It is instead precarious in the past and doomed in the future. The causes of this are the use of slavery and its heirs, capitalism and monopoly capitalism by America's founders. In this setting of disintegrating nations Butler's stories propose that sex remains a powerful drive. The lust for power precipitates a maelstrom of violence. Nevertheless, in this chaos hope persists, and those who hope with strength find endurance and love. All of Butler's stories are testaments that love is at the center of human meaning.

1. How persuasive is Lauren's Earthseed philosophy? How is it like and different from the...