Book Discussion | Parable of the Sower

The Environmental Team of the Justice Committee has selected Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler as its next book. You’re invited to read it and join us for a discussion on Thursday, August 25, 7 pm, led Nancy Heastings and Penn Hackney online via Zoom. For more details, please contact Nancy Heastings.

Published in 1993, this climate sci-fi is set in 2024 California. The story’s lead character is a 15-year-old Black girl whose father is a preacher. Global climate change and economic crises have led to social chaos. Global warming has brought drought and rising seawater. The middle class and working poor live in gated neighborhoods, where they fend off the homeless with guns and walls. Fresh water is scarce and is as valuable as money. Fires are common. Public schools are being privatized, as are whole towns. In this atmosphere, a Presidential candidate named Christopher Donner is elected based on his promises to dismantle government programs and bring back jobs.

The book has had a resurgence and second-read reviewers comment, “But for sheer peculiar prescience, Butler’s novel and its sequel (Parable of the Talents) may be unmatched.”

For some writers, science fiction serves as means to delve into fantasy. But for Butler, it largely served as a vehicle to address issues facing humanity. It was this passionate interest in the human experience that imbued her work with a certain depth and complexity. Her books blended elements of science fiction and African American spiritualism.