Review of Parable of the Sower

Book Link: https://smile.amazon.com/Parable-Sower-Octavia-Butler-ebook/dp/B008HALO4Q/

Not only is this book very well written, it somehow portrays the current and upcoming crises of global warming, wealth inequality, police state, fascism, and the struggle to survive in the world incredible accuracy despite being written in the 1990s. The story follows the main character who is a "Sharer" - a condition where she physically feels the pain of others as they do. She develops a new form of religion (in the loosest sense) called "Earthseed" that is based on the fundamental concept of God Is Change. The only consistent and dependable thing in the world is change so embrace it and try to shape it the way that you need. It's a powerful message and narrative during dark times as it takes the active voice to improvements, not passively waiting for things to improve. I read this book at a great time as these are similar to thoughts and ideas that have been rattling around in my brain. There is a sequal to this book where the entire United States decends into facism and I think that will be coming up soon on my reading list.

Some highlights from my reading: 1. All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. 2. He has always pretended, or perhaps believed, that my hyperempathy syndrome was something I could shake off and forget about. 3. A lot of people seem to believe in a big-daddy-God or a big-cop-God or a big-king-God. They believe in a kind of super-person. A few believe God is another word for nature. And nature turns out to mean just about anything they happen not to understand or feel in control of. Some say God is a spirit, a force, an ultimate reality. Ask seven people what all of that means and you’ll get seven different answers. So what is God? Just another name for whatever makes you feel special and protected? 4. “Bread and circuses,” my father says when there’s space news on the radio. “Politicians and big corporations get the bread, and we get the circuses.” 5. My God doesn’t love me or hate me or watch over me or know me at all, and I feel no love for or loyalty to my God. My God just is. 6. At neighborhood association meetings, Dad used to push the adults of every household to own weapons, maintain them, and know how to use them. “Know how to use them so well,” he’s said more than once, “that you’re as able to defend yourself at two A.M. as you are at two P.M.” 7. I felt on the verge of talking to her about things I hadn’t talked about before. I’d written about them. Sometimes I write to keep from going crazy. There’s a world of things I don’t feel free to talk to anyone about. 8. If you can think of ways to entertain them and teach them at the same time, you’ll get your information out. And all without making anyone look down.” “Look down … ?” “Into the abyss, Daughter.” But I wasn’t in trouble any more. Not at the moment. “You’ve just noticed the abyss,” he continued. “The adults in this community have been balancing at the edge of it for more years than you’ve been alive.” I got up, went over to him and took his hand. “It’s getting worse, Dad.” “I know.” “Maybe it’s time to look down. Time to look for some hand and foot holds before we just get pushed in.” 9. 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.” 10. It isn’t enough for us to just survive, limping along, playing business as usual while things get worse and worse. If that’s the shape we give to God, then someday we must become too weak—too poor, too hungry, too sick—to defend ourselves. Then we’ll be wiped out. 11. All successful life is Adaptable, Opportunistic, Tenacious, Interconnected, and Fecund. Understand this. Use it. Shape God. 12. Moral: The weak can overcome the strong if the weak persist. Persisting isn’t always safe, but it’s often necessary. 13. People are setting fires to do what our arsonist did last night—to get the neighbors of the arson victim to leave their own homes unguarded. People are setting fires to get rid of whomever they dislike from personal enemies to anyone who looks or sounds foreign or racially different. People are setting fires because they’re frustrated, angry, hopeless. They have no power to improve their lives, but they have the power to make others even more miserable. And the only way to prove to yourself that you have power is to use it. 14. There was little other trash. Anything that would burn, people would use as fuel. Anything that could be reused or sold had been gathered. Cory used to comment on that. Poverty, she said, had made the streets cleaner. 15. “Change is ongoing. Everything changes in some way—size, position, composition, frequency, velocity, thinking, whatever. Every living thing, every bit of matter, all the energy in the universe changes in some way. I don’t claim that everything changes in every way, but everything changes in some way.” 16. “Your God doesn’t care about you at all,” Travis said. “All the more reason to care about myself and others. 17. “From what I’ve read,” I said to him, “the world goes crazy every three or four decades. The trick is to survive until it goes sane again.” 18. taking care of other people can be a good cure for nightmares like yours and maybe hers.” “You sound as though you know.” I nodded. “I live in this world, too.” 19. “So what do you want her to do?” Allie demanded. “Get on her knees and say she’s sorry?” “I want her to love her own life and yours enough not to be careless. That’s what I want. That’s what you should want, now more than ever. Jill?” 20. Create no images of God. Accept the images that God has provided. They are everywhere, in everything. God is Change— Seed to tree, tree to forest; Rain to river, river to sea; Grubs to bees, bees to swarm. From one, many; from many, one; Forever uniting, growing, dissolving— forever Changing. The universe is God’s self-portrait.