Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [2239]

“We’ll bury your dead tomorrow. I think you’re right to want to do it. And I think we should bury our dead as well. Most of us have had to walk away—or run—away from our unburned, un-buried dead. Tomorrow, we should remember them all, and lay them to rest if we can.” — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 2239

Note

The compound adjective ‘unburned, un-buried’ is the passage’s whole argument: it names a specific, historically grounded horror (bodies left in the street, pyres never lit) that polite language like ‘loss’ would erase. Note the self-correction ‘walk away—or run—away,’ which refuses to let the group’s flight sound dignified. The ritual is proposed not as healing but as the minimum owed.