Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American Science Fiction writer and a multiple recipient of the Hugo and Nebula Awards. She was born in Pasadena California, the daughter of Octavia Margaret Guy, a housemaid, and Laurice James Butler, a shoeshiner. Her dad died when she was seven, and she was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother. Butler suffered from shyness as a young child, and slight dyslexia, that made her the target of bullies, which affected her self-esteem and led her to believe she was “ugly and stupid, and socially hopeless”. This lead to her spending most of her time inside the Pasadena Central Library and writing in her “big pink notebook”. She convinced her mother to buy her a Remington typewriter at the age of 10 and by age 12 she drafted what would become the basis for her Patternist novels. Unaware of the obstacles black female writers faced; it was at the age of 13 when her well-intentioned aunt said “Honey…Negroes can’t be writers” that she first doubted herselfl.

She graduated from John Muir High School in 1965 and attended Pasadena City College at night. She won a college-wide short-story contest, earning her first income as a writer. She also got the idea for her novel Kindred (1979). She graduated from PCC with an associate of arts degree with a focus in history.

She continued to attend writer’s workshops and participated in Open Door Workshop of the Writers Guild of America West, a program designed to mentor minority writers. She impressed noted science-fiction writer Harlan Ellison and this led to several other opportunities; for the next five years, Butler worked on the Patternist series: Patternmaster (1976), Mind of My Mind (1977), and Survivor (1978).

During the 1990s, Butler worked on the novels that solidified her fame and are the focus of this megathread: Parable of the Sower (1993) and Parable of the Talents (1998). She had intended to write four more Parable Novels but she admitted that her research and writing of the parable novels overwhelmed and depressed her.

Parable of the Sower

Butler described Parable of the Sower as the culmination of a broken society. It is set in America in 2024 and told through the diary of Lauren Olamina as society crumbles due to unchecked climate change, social inequality, corporate greed, and corruption. Olamina is an African-American teenager that suffers from “hyper-empathy” or “sharing” the sensations she witnesses in others. She grows up in the remnants of a gated community in Robledo, California. The community struggles to survive but it is far better off than the numerous homeless and mutilated individuals struggling outside the gates. Lauren Olamina sees the writing on the wall and starts to prepare for the collapse of her own community. Throughout her reading and research she privately develops her own belief system based on the idea that “God is Change” and that humanity should “shape God” in order to aid themselves. She calls the religion Earthseed.

In 2027 the community security is breached by outsiders, her family is separated or murdered, and she travels north disguised as a man with the remaining survivors from the community. Society has totally collapsed, mixed-raced relationships are stigmatized, women fear sexual assault, and slavery has returned in the form of indebted servitude.

In her journey north she gathers people and begins to share the Earthseed religion, and collects her texts into Earthseed: The Books of the Living.

Parable of the Talents

It’s the multi-point of view sequel to Parable of the Sower. The novel consists of journal entries by Lauren, her husband, and her daughter. Five years after settling into a peaceful community called Acorn. The novel is set against the dystopian United States which has come under the grip of a Christian Fascist Fundamentalist denomination called “Christian America” led by President “Andrew Steele Jarret seeking to restore American power and prestige and using the slogan (I kid you not) “Make America Great Again”. The President embarks on a crusade to clean America of non-christian faiths and slavery has resurfaced with advanced shock collars being used to control slaves inside of “re-education camps” while the Alaska-Canada war of 2036 rages on. Virtual reality headsets known as “dreammasks” are popular since it enables wearers to escape reality.

Lauren survives the ordeals of the Crusaders and searches for her family. In the process she spreads the religion of Earthseed and grows a international, and then global community set on sending humans to space.

On Hope

The books are not just a warning and indictment of American fundamentalist Chrisitians, corporate greed, white supremacy, and unchecked climate change; but a manual for surviving in world with collapsing institutions. Examples of mutual aid, democratic organization, proper education, and stewardship of land and resources abound in the book; Octavia Butler acknowledges and references indigenous practices throughout the book for sustainable living. The book also acknowledges the importance of self-defense and anti-fascism.

It is a moving and brave attempt to stare at the hopelessness of Climate Change and try to imagine a better world.

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