George Bass: A 1993 dystopian novel imagined the world in 2024. It’s eerily accurate. Octavia Butler’s ‘Parable of the Sower’ predicted devastating climate change, inequality, space travel and ‘Make America great again’
"The effects of climate change are reshaping America. Those with sufficient resources retreat inside protected communities. Those with even greater resources finance an exploratory Mars mission, presumably in an attempt to one day escape Earth’s destabilization.
In the political realm, a populist presidential candidate denounces claims made by scientists, promising the electorate that he’s going to “return us to the glory, wealth, and order of the twentieth century.”
“Choose your leaders
with wisdom and forethought.
To be led by a coward
is to be controlled
by all that the coward fears.
To be led by a fool
is to be led
by the opportunists
who control the fool.
To be led by a thief
is to offer up
your most precious treasures
to be stolen.
To be led by a liar
is to ask
to be told lies.
To be led by a tyrant
is to sell yourself
and those you love
into slavery.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents
Ich habe jetzt endlich angefangen, Octavia Butlers «Die Parabel vom Sämann» zu lesen. Omg, es ist einfach so realistisch, und es spielt in 2024, und es ist so toll geschrieben, und ich will es einerseits wegwerfen und ganz schnell vergessen und andererseits so schnell wie möglich fertig lesen (und dann alle anderen Bücher von Octavia Butler).
Also auf jeden Fall eine grosse grosse Leseempfehlung 🥺
I finally started reading Octavia Butlers «Parabel of the sower». Omg, it hits very close to home, it is so realistic, it's set in 2024, it's beautifully written, on the one hand I want to throw it away and forget it very fast and on the other hand I want to finish it as fast as possible (and then go on to read all other books by Octavia Butler).
I just finished listening to Parable of the Sower, and...jesus christ, you guys. I thought I'd read it before, long ago, but I didn't remember any of it. What an incredible and prescient book.
“Lake Forest Park actually did something. And it's impressive. And Seattle should wonder why it hasn't done something similar for, say, August Wilson, the greatest Black American playwright to ever walk this one and only world of ours …”
“I didn’t make up the problems. All I did was look around at the problems we’re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.“
— Octavia E. Butler, who would've been 76 today, on not being a prophet
“…inviting her readers to … immerse themselves in worlds more disturbing and complex than our own, she asks readers to acknowledge the costs of our collective inaction, our collective bowing to depravity, to tribalism, to easy ignorance and violence.
Her primary characters refuse all of that. … They insist on embracing tenderness and empathy, and in doing so, they invite readers to realize that we might do so as well. Butler makes hope possible.”