An important day
A Substack newsletter by Alexander Chee* alerted me to this date. It’s the day Lauren Oya Olamina starts her diary in Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler. I pulled the book off my shelf and remembered what I could from the first time I read it. The violent neighborhood at the beginning, terrifying. The anxieties of being on the road and not knowing who to trust. The themes of leadership and survival, survival through leadership. Constructing a life on the land. The strange religion, Earthseed, and whether I could accept its tenets.
Reading books like this helps me digest the craziness of the times we’re living in. I’m very grateful to Octavia Butler and visionary writers like her for this gift.
*Chee’s newsletter is titled “The Novel That Tells You How To Survive America.”
Ohhhh my. That gave me a chill down the back of my neck… I read this over 20 years ago. At the time I remember thinking this could actually happen if things go horribly wrong, if we somehow go way too far down the wrong path. And given things that are happening now, how little progress we have made on curbing the climate crisis, the animosity in the political scene. Well, yeah, it is chilling. Maybe time for a re-read? And then again, maybe not… Thanks for calling attention to the date.
It did feel like a very solemn day. I read it recently maybe last year? I thought about reading it again but I don’t read much lately.
Late last night, I was here, but could not find words. Today I came back to share the link below. I still don’t have words. I’ve so far not read this book, as I thought it would be ‘too much’ when I first learned of it. Personal life stuff, ya know. Anyway, here it is popping up again. 7/20 is also the day my dad died, 24 years ago.
xo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud_Oh4UM8ZM
1:13:20 timestamp
I’m not sure the link came through right , Nancy. Is it Mary Trump media? It’s ok not to have words. I definitely don’t have words a lot of the time!
Yes, it was Mary Trump’s LIVE post.
Alyssia wanted me to read Butler for years, i resisted, couldn’t, finally did 2 years ago maybe 3 read it but resisted reading it as i read it
it’s out there on that vast “dash board” of the minivan i have in what i refer to as the Evac Library Whenever i go anywhere i see it there,
then look away turn away in my mind
it’s time to re read. Slow. Accepting what i read…..acknowledging Butler’s Vision
What you posted about this book inspired me to read it. By then, I had learned a little about Octavia Butler, so I could tolerate the dystopian qualities with some sense of distance. I still get the feeling about our reality that “no this can’t be happening, it must be a nightmare.” I think reading the book helped me feel stronger but certainly would affect everyone differently.
Grace, you introduced this book to me. Soon after, my sister gave me a copy, saying she couldn’t read it. I wanted to read it, because of your introduction…but then I couldn’t either. It felt like too much. I not only resisted, I gave it to the library, thinking I could never read this on top of everything else. I think I am still resisting, but kinda thinking maybe I shouldn’t. sigh.