Parable of the Sower

If you like slow, thoughtful, complex dystopias... you’ll like Parable of the Sower.

Octavia E. Butler’s story of a world fallen to ruin feels like something that could still be in our near future. Those types of stories – the ones that are close enough to reality you get chills – are the best kind. They’re the sort you can indulge in and fear simultaneously. And they’re familiar enough not to feel outlandish. Butler’s world building is sublime in this way.

The characters are all fantastic and, for a change, mostly diverse. Parable of the Sower made a point of that diversity. It highlights the higher levels of violence Black and POC characters are likely to come across. In the presence of Harry’s character (who is perfectly nice), we also see the complexity of distrust for white people, particularly white men, as Harry must prove himself an friend over and over again as the group grows. This world also features indentured servitude, which essentially is slavery under a more palatable name. We can see in a lot of ways how the world has fallen to the worst of all people, trampling the poor beneath it. And, like any world with so many levels of in-built systemic racism, most of the people walking the barren highways and being killed are people of color.

In short, this story feels terrifyingly possible. It is the sort of thing we can expect to befall the United States if hate is allowed to continue its reign. If things do not change both in the hearts and laws of this country, this is the fallout we can expect. It’s terrible and I hate it but this book is really fantastic so read it and be angry at the possibility with me.

Storytelling-wise, the book moves slowly. It is a journey book, with most of it spent on the road. Although leisurely, the pacing is good and Butler breaks up sequences with outbursts of fire and violence, as one would expect in a world such as this. It is not a “nice book”. Not a flowery dystopia with heroes and hope. Be ready for that, going in. Be ready for a thoughtful novel, filled with warnings. Most the story is spent world building and laying the foundation for Earthseed, Lauren’s religion. It’s not preachy, not really, but compelling in its thoughtfulness. Parable of the Sower is a good book to read slowly, both to savor and best understand.

I honestly recommend this book, but it is not your-popular-mainstream-dystopia. This is definitely an adult dystopia. There are upsetting scenes rife with gore and violence. There is death. There is also a good amount of sexual content, though not shared in great detail. Parable of the Sower will appeal to fans of classic dystopias like 1984, and Fahrenheit 451, but also to fans of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. It’s very good, very interesting, and worth adding to your TBR. ( )

A lot of the dystopian stories I have read feel ‘safe’ because what triggered them doesn’t seem like it’ll happen. Often because it involves some technology we don’t have. And, even though Butler doesn’t tell us the how or why the world has reached its current point, it feels like we could be there. That makes reading this so much more poignant and at times difficult to keep reading. Though, that is precisely the reason to read it.

Not everything that happens makes sense, but, not because of poor storytelling, but it feels like purposeful choice to make it feel real. ( )

Just before I read Parable of the Sower, I read John Barne's more recent Daybreak Zero. In both books, American civilization is falling apart, as the technical infrastructure dies and mobs of crazy painted types attack and kills the small communities that remain. But the difference in the handling of this basic setup was night and day. Barnes' novel was a mix of adventure and horror. Butler's novel was one of challenge and growth. While chapters in both were painful to read at times, and there are no simple resolutions in either, with Butler there was an arc in the story I wanted to follow. The writings of Earthseed never convinced me, but I did believe in the young woman who created them.

Highly recommended, even if you're sick and tired of post-apocalyptic fiction. ( )

Set in the near future (Butler published the book in the 1990s, but it's set in the 2020s), Parable of the Sower is a dystopian science fiction novel about the societal collapse caused by climate change, peak oil, and corporate greed. Things are in a bad state already when the novel begins but conditions gradually deteriorate for the characters in the story much like they do for the mythical boiling frog. Butler also makes it clear that the dystopian state affects some people far earlier, much like they do in our real world, with the homeless and addicted gathered in the edges of the community.

The narrative begins in a walled community in Southern California. The novel is written as the journal of Lauren Oya Olamina, a teenage girl as the novel begins and the daughter of a minister. Lauren has a condition called empathy which causes her to feel the pleasure and pain of people near to her, a condition that can be crippling. She also develops a belief system called Earthseed based on the concept that God is change, and thinks that Earthseed could be a means to saving humanity.

As Lauren grows into young adulthood, she faces tragedies in both her family and greater community. But she also shows great resilience and leadership as she pulls together a group of allies (or as she would call them, the first Earthseed congregation). The novel is a grim depiction of a world that doesn't seem as far removed from our own reality of the 2020s as I would like. But it is also a novel that offers a lot of humanity and hope.

Favorite Passages:
“No. No, Donner’s just a kind of human banister.” “A what?” “I mean he’s like … like a symbol of the past for us to hold on to as we’re pushed into the future. He’s nothing. No substance. But having him there, the latest in a two-and-a-half-century-long line of American Presidents make people feel that the country, the culture that they grew up with is still here—that we’ll get through these bad times and back to normal.”

"That's all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don't know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won't matter if we don't survive these times."

Freedom is dangerous but it's precious, too. You can't just throw it away or let it slip away. You can't sell it for bread and pottage. ( )

One of the most upsetting dystopias I've encountered, perhaps because it describes no great calamity but merely the changing climate that seems at this point inevitable, and humans at their very worst: greedy, short-sighted, oppressive, and cruel. Lauren is one of those protagonists you cannot help but get heavily invested in, and I gotta say, I find her religious philosophy pretty enticing… ( )