The Parable of the Sower

Octavia Butler has been one of Shelfari's featured authors. I hadn't heard of her and the reviews of her books looked interesting. I added The Parable of the Sower to my wish list. I was thrilled to find the book at our local, small library.

The story is classified as Science Fiction(SF). Perhaps, I am a SF snob. Or, perhaps I don't get out enough, but I wouldn't have classified this book as SF. My understanding (or limited understanding) of the genre is that SF books tell the story in a setting very different than our own world, a setting in which science and technology have combined to create a much different world. In The Parable of the Sower, Butler envisions a dysfunctional America -- science and technology didn't allow us to continue our forward progress toward a future Utopia. Government has either failed or become so corrupt that society no longer functions. Crime and inflation rule the day. Food water and basic needs are in short supply and, in many cases, only available to the rich. Humans have reverted to animalistic, survivalist lifestyles. The story is told through the journal entries of the novel's heroine, Lauren Olamina, a black young becomes the leader of a small band of people determined to survive.

This book would be an excellent book to begin a discussion of worldview questions. Is there a God? What does God look like? How do we relate to God?" The god of the Parable of the Sower, really is the same god that is presented in the Star Wars movie, a pantheistic impersonal god who is subject to continuous change. A god who can be changed by the humans who interact with it. I couldn't help but think that Olamina's god was Evolution (with a capital E) -- the god of change. And, I am not talking just about biological evolution; I am speaking of evolution in the broadest sense of the word -- biological, social, cultural, political, etc.

I can't seem to get away from my life. I moved my book review blog away from my personal blog so that I could disengage from my real life when I read. After all, reading is supposed to be an escape from your real life. I wanted my reviews to be about the book and not about me. Yet, on my first review since my Official First Entry, I find myself reflecting about an idea from the book that perhaps wouldn't catch anyone else's attention. Lauren Olamina's was prenatally affected by drugs that her biological mother took during her pregnancy. Because of this she is an empath, a sharer, Lauren feels the sensations, emotions and pain of others.

My oldest daughter was prenatally affected by drugs and alcohol. She has partial fetal alcohol syndrome. The truth about her brain is almost the opposite of what is described in this novel. To some my daughter isn't capable of understanding that her family, peer group and other have plans, thoughts, and ideas of their own; she can't get inside their brain. Through a series of special education classes and negative encounters in social environments, she has learned that she is supposed to "look outside herself." And, she is "capable." If you put her in a sterile environment and ask her specific questions about how other's might be thinking or feeling, she can come up with the "right" answer. Through therapy, correcting and negative peer response, she has come to view everyone with suspicion and distrust. Social settings are often a burden rather than a pleasure. The added stress of "responding rightly" has caused anxiety that wasn't there in her early life. Anxiety that is crippling and makes her appear odd to some, withdrawn to others, snobbish to some of her peers. Is it any wonder that 80% of adults who were prenatally affected by alcohol are mentally ill?

And, like Lauren Olamina, she has learned that the damage done to the brain before birth is a horrible burden to bear.

"Anyway, my neurotransmitters are scrambled and they're going to stay scrambled. But I can do okay as long as other people don't know about me."

And, I wonder how often I make my daughter feel the way the father in this book did? "You can beat this thing..." My daughter wants to "pass." I want her to pass. I want her to be seen as normal and I am never quite sure how much to push. So, I have to wonder, does the term mental illness say more about my daughter or the culture in which she lives?

Anyway, I enjoyed this book and I am anxious to read the next book in the series, The Parable of the Talents. Oh, I think I just failed the first rule of writing a book review -- bottom line is supposed to go up front. Oh well, so far I have had exactly 0 visitors to this blog. I suspect that no one cares if I am a poor writer. I am a Christian. Many of my eventual readers may be too. So, I will warn that the characters in this book have sex. The depiction is not graphic. Just a sentence or two that it occurred.