Parable of the Sower

In the 2020s, global warming has created an ecological disaster, and post-peak oil resource shortage threw most of the United States into Third World-like poverty. California is a very dangerous place to live in, far more so than even modern-day Brazilian favelas; in modern-day Rio de Janeiro, the homicide rate is 40 per 100,000, but through this novel, so many people are killed that I am surprised that the population of California still numbers in the millions. A teenage African American girl, the daughter of a college professor who is also a Baptist minister, grows up in a gated compound in the suburbs of L.A. Her brother becomes a drug dealer and is murdered, then her father is apparently kidnapped and murdered, then thieves and arsonists break into the compound, burn it and kill most of its residents. The main character, aged 18, escapes from the compound with two other people, a white man and a black woman. They trek north in search of a place to get a job and settle; the main character invents a religion, a pastiche of Buddhism and Taoism, and preaches it to her trekmates. They are joined by a mixed-race couple with a baby, two prostitutes who escaped from a bordello and killed the pimp, who was their father, and a 57-year-old black man, who becomes the main character's lover. The man rescues a 3-year-old boy whose mother was murdered by gangsters; the boy is adopted by one of the prostitutes; they are joined by a woman who escaped from a job in slavery-like conditions with her small daughter. Through the trek, they confront robbers, who murder one of the prostitutes, and kill a few of them. At last they come to the 57-year-old man's sister's farm, only to discover that she and her children have been murdered months ago. The group tells the police, buries the bones, and settles there. There is a sequel about the group's life on the farm, but I don't feel like reading it. I only read this novel because it was assigned to my stepson by his 11th-grade English teacher, an African American woman who belongs to a writers' circle that celebrates racial authenticity.

Post-apocalyptic literary scenarios have been a dime a dozen since well before [[ASIN:0790731932 Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome]], and these days it takes something quite remarkable - like Cormack McCarthy's sublime [[ASIN:B001OV2GRE The Road]] - to raise even a flicker of interest in this genre from all but the dullest sci-fi fanboy. Octavia Butler's essay on the same theme is now getting on for 20 years old, and stands up well - indeed, it so closely anticipates McCarthy's novel that you have to wonder whether he was aware of it. That is not to suggest plagiarism, however, for the similarities are general indeed: an un-described catastrophe has caused the total breakdown of society and forced a family unit on the road, where they fend for themselves against allcomers in vain hope of a promised land.

While Butler employs a couple of nice devices - the [[ASIN:0194792226 P.K.Dick]]-eque hyperempathy condition is a neat literary device - much better in fact than the hokey "Earthseed" concept which gets unwarranted prominence in the story - but Butler doesn't do nearly enough with it to make it worthwhile. In other aspects, the novel is a little flat. There's not a much in the way of a plot arc - it's more linear: things sort of episodically muddle along to a fairly uninvolving conclusion - and nor do the characters get well fleshed out or developed. Like her protagonist Lauren, Butler throws quite a lot of "seed" about which then appears to fall on stony ground: Lauren's father disappears, presumed dead but unresolved - to no effect. Likewise, Lauren's original sweetheart is introduced, developed, and disposed with for no discernible plot-functional reason.

My hunch is that Butler was more interested in developing a quasi-religion than writing a science fiction novel, yet 20 years later, the post-apocalyptic road story is the only part that really holds up. But, all the same, it pales in comparison with Cormack McCarthy's bleaker, more eloquent visualisation, and ultimately I couldn't recommend this novel over, or even really as a complement to, The Road.

Olly Buxton

her two books of parables, written nearly 20 and 25 years ago, are remarkably prescient

"The [apparent didactic] function of the dystopian: sound the alarm of where we're likely heading, make it as horrible as humanly possible and steer us in a course correction from plunging over a social/political/scientific cliff (metaphorically speaking). Or, at least the sheer satisfaction of saying: "I told you so!"

Octavia Butler extrapolates from current events circa 1992-3 a brutal world ravanged by a slow-motion apocalypse (meaning: revelation). A post-globally warmed world well beyond the "tipping point," where the haves have walled compounds and standing armies to protect them from the mindless, bewildered hoards that merely survive via a fire phillic drug called "pyro" (which they pursue literally like moths attracted to flame), cannibalism and hints of slavery.

Lauren Olamina is an anti-heroine, writing verses in her "Earthseed: Book of the Living," formulating a new faith totally apart from her Baptist Minister father. She has "faith" in the Destiny of Earthseed to "spread among the stars." Hints that the USA still exists, we've made it to Mars, but destroyed what we now call the "middle class." When a catastrophic raid destroys her compound, Lauren and a rabble of survivors start walking...north, picking up survivors as they go. This includes her husband - Taylor Bankole - old enough to be the father that she lost tragically. Lauren proves to be resourceful and charismatic, the kind of traits you'd expect of a spiritual leader. Earthseed has parallels with Buddhism, purposefully designed by the author for reasons of continuation of the new faith in "Talents." It ends with the budding beginnings of a community, trying to survive in a third-world country called America.

Octavia Butler is one of my all-time favorite authors! I bought this as a gift and I'm sure the recipient will be quite please

Excellent book, Ms. Butler did a fantastic job once again.

A new book with a small remainder mark on the bottom. Otherwise perfect. Arrived 6/4. Looking forward to a really good read on my next cross-country flight.