Review: Parable of the Sower
Parable of the Sower, originally written in 1993 by Octavia E. Butler, arguably the most renowned black female science fiction author, is an unsettling dystopian novel set in a decaying United States in the year 2024.
Environmental collapse and the erosion of democracy has led to the slow disintegration of human society. Corporate greed and political collusion has led to the reduction of workers' rights to near zero, creating a new class of slaves. The sick and starving roam the streets along with feral dogs. Most areas are prey to criminal gangs and bands of marauding pyromaniacs (the "painted").
Teenager Lauren Oya Olamina is the daughter of a Baptist minister living with her family in a gated community. Within its walls people live on a level of basic subsistence, growing crops and bartering goods and services. They fear the horrors outside, to which Lauren is particularly susceptible due to hyperempathy syndrome; she physically feels the pain and pleasure of anyone she sees, as if it were happening to her own body.
In the news an expedition to Mars ends in tragedy for one astronaut who dies on the surface, her last words a plea to be buried on the red planet she has dreamed of all her life. Most people see the space program as a waste of precious resources, but Lauren believes that the future of humankind lies among the stars...
She has secretly rejected the religion of her father, developing her own understanding of God, which she sees as an impersonal natural force that governs human existence but can also be shaped by human actions. She calls this knowledge Earthseed and begins writing down her thoughts in the form of esoteric poetry.
The darkness beyond the walls of her compound refuses to stay there. Neglect, abuse and suicide are common. Scavengers break in, steal supplies, kill people who try to stop them... Lauren's brother gets involved with a gang outside, seduced by its glamour and danger. Gradually the horror creeps in on her... Her father goes missing. One night the compound is overrun by the painted who slaughter and burn with abandon. The next day looters pick over the ruins and Lauren flees with a couple of friends, heading north towards the uncertain hope of safety. But in a world devouring itself in a orgy of insane violence, is anywhere safe?
Like Kindred, her novel of a black time traveller stranded in the era of slavery, this is not a comforting piece of escapism. The reader is drawn into the chilling world of the scared and vulnerable heroine and her fellow survivors, with horror mounting steadily upon horror as they fight to keep one step ahead of the many perils stalking them. Like the proverbial car crash, the relentless blows feel like an ordeal dragging out page after page.... but you are as helplessly trapped as Lauren because you cannot turn away from it.
Despite everything, Lauren keeps hold of her vision for the human race, sharing Earthseed with whoever will listen, hoping to attract followers and build a community that will live on beyond the rotting corpse of their home planet. She is met with derision at first, but in time some people in her growing band of refugees begin to take an interest. Can they find a safe haven to build a new society and create a new future for the species?
Artist John Jennings renders the characters and scenes with raw colour and energy, not shying away from the grotesque. However he also captures the dogged serenity of the protagonist and the fragile noble qualities of her companions. Here are ordinary people: flawed, conflicted, totally unprepared for the apocalypse raining down on them, but bearing up and holding each other together despite everything.
Not an easy journey for them - or for the reader - but it is one you will be determined to see through to the bitter end.
Zak Webber
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