Parable of the Sower

Which feels like a cheesy thing to say in a review about dystopian fiction, but I genuinely didn't realize this book was published in the year 1993 until I read Butler's biography at the back and realized she passed away in 2006. It feels... pertinent

Others have said this is a pretty grim novel. I agree. It hurt to read, quite often. I feel like I've mostly moved out of my dystopian fiction era but this one hooked me a lot harder than most I've read. I haven't finished a book this quickly in quite a while.

I think Parable of the Sower has a lot to say about eco-fatalism, as well as the many "fatalisms" of neoliberalism in general, which it delivers on very well. I also felt like it would have a lot to say about the value of religion, divorced from the way people in my life and I suspect many others in the west tend to equate religion with Christianity. It delivered on the former part, but not so much the latter in my opinion. Still very compelling, and very well written nonetheless.

Cuando estaba más joven la ficción y la ciencia ficción eran espacios que me hacían sentido para conectar con la imaginación y con la posibilidad de pensar y sentir la vida fuera de límites que percibía en mis presentes.

Como estos ámbitos de la literatura no resonaban tanto en algunas de mis redes cercanas, me alejé un poquito de éstos por algunos años y me metí a libros más teóricos y "serios". Pero desde que empecé a leer a Octavia Butler, por recomendación de una amiga, volví a interesarme en textos de (ciencia) ficción.

Octavia reflexionó sobre la ausencia/invisibilización de mujeres negras en un contexto donde predominaba una ciencia ficción de escritores hombres y blancos. También propuso escenarios que abordaran los pasados-presentes-futuros y que estimularan la imaginación y la creatividad como posibilidades ante las crisis que seguimos viviendo.

En Parable of the sower, Octavia tejió temas como: sensibilidad hacia otrxs seres; críticas al capitalismo, a las desigualdades socio-económicas, a la explotación y hacia la crisis climática; formas de construir relaciones y comunidades basadas en el reconocimiento mutuo; cercanías y comprensiones diversas con la tierra y la sostenibilidad de la vida (entre muchas otras cosillas).

Algo que me parece muy curioso, es la manera en que Octavia toma aspectos del libro, que como lectora me estuvieron haciendo cierto ruido de forma muy sutil, y los hace evidentes en la secuela (Parable of the talents). Creo que no es sencillo plantear todo un imaginario y luego construir una narrativa que lo replantee o que muestre sus matices, al menos de forma convincente. Por eso, aunque Parable of the sower es un libro que aprecié haber leído, verlo de la mano con Parable of the talents fue aún más apreciable para mí.

This was the first of what will certainly be many books by Octavia E. Butler in my TBR list. My copy (2019 reissue with great foreword by NK Jemisin) was a gift from @leahlove@mastodon.world and I thank her for it!

Like Jemisin, I'm sure this book will mean different things to me each time I read it, but two things fascinated me on this read. First, the view of a belief system at its origin reminds us that before such beliefs are collective or cultural, they are individual. Ultimately, their essence and purpose is to help each of us make sense of the world, so in truth, there are as many religions or belief systems as there are people (and probably more, in truth).

Second, I love that Butler endowed the protagonist with a quality that could be a superpower or could be a disability. Through Lauren, Butler explores with us how it can be both -- which can lead us to reflect on other qualities (in ourselves and others) that we assume to be one or the other.

Comparing the art to the Kindred adaption, obviously the artist is the same, but I didn't find it quiet so overwhelming visually. My negative side wonders if this has to do with reading it frame by frame digitally, rather then parsing it page by page physically, but I don't know. My gut says it is a bit more parred down and more pleasing to my eye. Which is obviously super important - not. As the story does revolve around Lauren's religious speculation there is a lot of quotes and excerpts included alongside the art. As always, re-reads and digital comics are both a bit hard for me, but that is a me problem not a book problem. It's a super timely read not only for the actual timeline of the book being in the 2020s but also just because of how prescient it feels. This does fall into my appreciated sub genre of the "hippies" kind of winning, or at least that might does not make right at the end of the world. I feel like the past few months of mutual aid and caremongering has perhaps shown us that humanity can be even more compassionate, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see...?

Gender and race are both pretty central to Lauren's mission with Earthseed. She talks several times about needing to create a diverse community of people. That said, things end up feeling pretty heterosexual.

My biggest complaint is the extreme drug stigmatisation that goes on. I mean, it's not unique to her, but it is unfortunate. Maternal drug use is also the reason why Lauren is disabled and that certainly brings up a lot of bad connotations.

Class is less of a monolith, and all the characters do rough it, but it does feel like there is judgement there. Kind of hard to untangle from the general fear of the outsider that is part of the sub-genre.

It's set in a post-collapse world, but as it goes along it shows us that there can be different degrees of post-apocalypse when it comes to individuals. The first third shows the main character in the context of her family trying to do everything they can to safeguard their home, and the remainder shows what happens as it ends up failing for them. What saves Lauren is her ability to think for herself and look beyond what was immediately in front of her, though it is abundantly clear that a lot of it is a matter of luck too. By the end, she has assembled a sort of replacement community from people who were once strangers, who all have come to accept her ideas on the reasons for human existence. It becomes a sort of picaresque novel by then as the group encounters different challenges walking the California freeways to a hazily defined destination up north.
Lauren is a Sharer too, experiencing the emotions and feelings of those she sees whether for good or ill. It is almost as if this is a separate aspect of the story, it influences the character's behavior in situations but doesn't really play a fundamental role in driving the plot I think. Maybe if the author were able to write the later volumes in the series this condition would have been more deeply integrated as an element.
This edition of the book includes the first three chapters or so of Parable of the Talents. I expect to finish that book also later this year to find out how this near-future depiction of the US plays out. There has been a lot of talk recently about how prescient Butler was in discussing topics which are currently hot in the real world and I do want to know how far this extends.