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"I imagined the United States becoming, slowly, through the snowballing effects of lack of foresight and short-term self-interest, a third-world country" - Octavia Butler
"Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler is a powerful glimpse into one of the very real and possible futures of the United States. Written in 1993 but set in Los Angles in 2024, this is now but not! As you read, it becomes clear that this version of the world has still a real possibility of becoming real, and begs the question whether this novel is pessimistic inevitability or a prophecy to inspire change? Reading the book this year was particularly poignant, with the devastating fires in LA and the presidential slogan of "Make America Great" - images and facts a little too close to the present for comfort.
Butler's America is a hollow landscape, filled with fear and chaos, and yet also the practicality of living. For me the power of the novel is not in showing the world in disintegration, as we never really find out why it is like that, but it is about what happens to real people and how they endue existing and especially how they continue to "live" in such a world! How do they work, find joy, love, learn, and keep going.
Pessimism, and Prophecy
I first read the novel a few years ago, and honestly found it deeply confusing and disruptive to my mental model. It was hard to grasp this world in my mind. This is both it's power and pain. So many dystopian novels have a clear societal structure still visible that gives the framework to either the rebellion against it or the blueprint for change. The world of Parable just exists, it is recognizable and alien at the same time. It is this familiarity and aversion that makes it unique and important.
This time I read the graphic novel adaptation and found that the images and story layout greatly enhanced my experience. Seeing the violence and chaos, and feeling the interactions between characters more through their visual speech, I connected to it in a more visceral way and it had more impact. I especially found the layout out of Lauren's Earthseed religion writings more compelling, seeing them depicted on scraps of paper in amongst the narrative. It helped connect her ideas and constructs to the world.
"One of the central frustrations of youth is being able to clearly see what the world is doing wrong while chafing at adults' apparent unwillingness to fix it" - Nalo Hopkinson (Introduction to Graphic Novel)
The 15-year-old protagonist, Lauren Oya Olamina, creates the Earthseed religion, based on her worldview and experiences. Different from her father's Baptist faith of stability and security, Earthseed embraces the need for change and adaptation. Lauren settles on a name for her new God-is-Change belief system: Earthseed. She wants to prepare herself, and others, to be seeds that will carry humanity to wherever life take them. It is following Laruen on her travels to find a better community, creating this view of the world while surrounded by hopelessness, deep divides, and destruction that particularly spoke to me this time - the reflection on the need to embrace change was profound. How do we continue to live in hope, when the present is so wrapped up in dealing with the past or ignoring the future. Parable of the Sower is such an importance read for right now and once again the power of the prophecy of fiction can help shape the promise for a better future.
“When apparent stability disintegrates, As it must— God is Change— People tend to give in To fear and depression, To need and greed. When no influence is strong enough To unify people They divide. They struggle, One against one, Group against group, For survival, position, power. They remember old hates and generate new ones, They create chaos and nurture it. They kill and kill and kill, Until they are exhausted and destroyed, Until they are conquered by outside forces, Or until one of them becomes A leader Most will follow, Or a tyrant Most fear.”
Next Meeting is Wednesday, March 12th, 7:00-8:30pm
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