Parable Of The Sower Octavia E Butler by Octavia E. Butler B008HALO4Q instant download after payment.

Octavia Butler's sci-fi novel Parable of the Sower was published 30 years ago, in 1993. This Afrofuturistic book about a dystopian America set in our time now seems positively prophetic. 

Parable of the Sower is set in 2024. There's a climate crisis driving people out of their homes. Gun violence & drug use are rampant. In the sequel, Parable of the Talents, an authoritarian politician promises to "make America great again." (It's a phrase that Butler observed Ronald Reagan using on the campaign trail during his successful 1980 presidential run.)

Against all this chaos, the main character, Lauren Oya Olamina, hungers to shape a very different reality. Lauren was born with a disorder that makes her feel extreme empathy. She feels everyone's pain. It exhausts her. The words the chorus sings are the building blocks of a new religion that Olamina has envisioned, called Earthseed. 

Octavia Estelle Butler was born in Pasadena, Calif., in 1947. As a child, she experienced debilitating shyness. She spent hours in the local library, escaping into fantasy & science fiction novels. Butler was 12 when saw a film, Devil Girl from Mars, & thought to herself, "I could write something better than that." And so it began. What Butler saw in our future matters more today than ever. She saw a world headed toward collapse. She saw a Black, female prophet who understood that nothing was inevitable, that we have the power to change things & change course. 

On some level, as a 13-year-old, I understood that Butler's work was not just a warning but also an invitation. It invites us to let go of the conventions that can lock us into a destructive future & to embrace our greatest power, to change. She introduces us to a humanist vision for the future that makes space for metaphysical spiritualit