Title: The Parable of the Sower
Author: Octavia E. Butler
The first science-fiction writer to win a MacArthur Fellowship, Octavia E. Butler, who died in 2006, is finally having her moment. Her novel Kindred, which transports the protagonist to an 1815 plantation where she must grapple with the horrors of slavery, is now available to view as a dramatic series on Hulu. The novel Fledgling is in development by HBO.
Called "remarkably prescient" by the New York Times, Butler's works combine issues like global warming, wildfire, and rising sea levels with speculative elements like time travel, human super powers, and supernatural possession.
Whether or not this novel can be defined as science fiction is debatable. As Butler herself said "I write about people who do extraordinary things. It just turned out it was called science fiction."
A Brief Synopsis
From the publisher:
"Lauren Olamina and her family live in one of the only safe neighborhoods remaining on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Behind the walls of their defended enclave, Lauren's father, a preacher, and a handful of other citizens try to salvage what remains of a culture that has been destroyed by drugs, disease, war, and chronic water shortages. While her father tries to lead people on the righteous path, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that makes her extraordinarily sensitive to the pain of others. 
When fire destroys their compound, Lauren's family is killed and she is forced out into a world that is fraught with danger. With a handful of other refugees, Lauren must make her way north to safety, along the way conceiving a revolutionary idea that may mean salvation for all mankind."
Insights and Opinions
+ Butler published this book in 1994, writing about a civilization in collapse in the year 2024. To her, this must have seemed impossibly far into the future. To us, it's right around the corner, which made Chris pose the question "how close are we to actually being there?" In Butler's story, few people work, there is little food, homeless people are the majority, everyone is armed, and there are no safe places. Lois, Steve and Linda all feel we are not far from this point. Others were more hopeful.
+ Lauren, the main character, is a 15-year-old girl, but this is by no means a YA novel. Like most YA protagonists, Lauren is smart, resourceful, and faced with an overwhelming task only she can solve. But there is no happy ending here.
+ Lois pointed out that Lauren's Earthseed is a gospel for a new way of thinking and living. She writes this while her family is still intact. And despite the fact that her father is a Christian preacher, Lauren's is a gospel more tied to Naturism. To her, God is change. Hers is the seed of a new belief system. Lauren is motivated by this God who is Change, and this becomes a driving force in the book. Lauren is also literally carrying seeds which will be the future nourishment for her growing flock of followers.
+ We wondered about Lauren's hyper-empathy and whether it was important to the story. Much is made of it in the early pages, but it seems to recede to the background as Lauren's diaspora begins.
+ Butler is a talented writer whose sentences are strong, spare and clean. She tells this story with dispassion, as Lauren resolutely places one foot in front of the other, picking up strays along the way, sharing her food, building a new family. By the time she reaches her destination, the reader understands that she has formed what is essentially a new religion, formed around her gospel. But the story itself is relentlessly grim -- so much so that we all wondered whether Lauren's colony would survive in its new-found haven. There is a subsequent book that has the answer, but none of us wants to read it to find out.
What's Next for Us?
Having read three dystopian novels in a row, we have all packed our bags and are leaving Dystopia, maybe even for good. We've all decided we need a palate cleanser.
March: Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Steve will host but will call around first to see who can attend as some of us will be off doing our various things.
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