Parable of the Sower (novel)
.jpg) Cover of first edition (hardcover) | |
| Author | Octavia E. Butler |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Parable trilogy |
| Genre | Dystopian, Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Four Walls Eight Windows |
Publication date | 1993 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 299 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | 0-941423-99-9 (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 28255529 |
| 813/.54 20 | |
| LC Class | PS3552.U827 P37 1993 |
| Followed by | Parable of the Talents |
Parable of the Sower is the first in a two-book series of science fiction novels by American writer Octavia E. Butler. It was published in 1993.[1]
Plot
Set in a future where government has all but collapsed, Parable of the Sower centers on a young woman named Lauren Olamina who possesses what Butler dubbed hyperempathy – the ability to feel the perceived pain and other sensations of others – who develops a benign philosophical and religious system during her childhood in the remnants of a gated community in Los Angeles. Civil society has reverted to relative anarchy due to resource scarcity and poverty. When the community's security is compromised, her home is destroyed and her family murdered. She travels north with some survivors to try to start a community where her religion, called Earthseed, can grow.
Proposed third Parable novel
Butler had planned to write a third Parable novel, tentatively titled Parable of the Trickster, which would have focused on the community's struggle to survive on a new planet. She began this novel after finishing Parable of the Talents, and mentioned her work on it in a number of interviews, but at some point encountered writer's block. She eventually shifted her creative attention, resulting in Fledgling, her final novel. The various false starts for the novel can now be found among Butler's papers at the Huntington Library, as described in an article at the Los Angeles Review of Books.[2]
Awards and nominations
Nominated: 1994: Nebula Award for Best Novel – Parable of the Sower
Adaptations
Parable of the Sower was adapted as Parable of the Sower: The Concert Version, a work-in-progress opera written by American folk/blues musician Toshi Reagon in collaboration with her mother, singer and composer Bernice Johnson Reagon. The adaptation's libretto and musical score combine African-American spirituals, soul, rock and roll, and folk music into rounds to be performed by singers sitting in a circle. It was performed as part of The Public Theater's 2015 Under the Radar Festival in New York City.[3][4][5]
In popular culture
Parable of the Sower was referred to in hip hop artist Talib Kweli's song "Ms. Hill" off his mixtape Right About Now: The Official Sucka Free Mix CD. In the song, which is about Lauryn Hill, Kweli references how Lauryn Hill used to come into Nkiru (A bookstore Kweli owns in Brooklyn, New York) and liked to buy Octavia Butler books, namely Parable of the Sower.[citation needed] "We used to chill at Nkiru / her moms was a customer / she used to love to buy the books by Octavia Butler / Parable of the Sower, the main character's name was Lauren",[6]
In Lauren Beukes' 2013 novel The Shining Girls, the body of one of the victims, Jin-Sook Au, a social worker, is found with a copy of Parable of the Sower.
Part of the central verse of Earthseed "All that you touch you change, all that you change changes you" is included in track 2 and 6 of Sugar Candy Mountain's album 666.
References
- ^ Fox, Margalit (March 1, 2006). "Octavia E. Butler, Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 58". The New York Times.
- ^ Canavan, Gerry (June 9, 2014). ""There's Nothing New / Under The Sun, / But There Are New Suns": Recovering Octavia E. Butler's Lost Parables". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
- ^ Moon, Grace. "Toshi Reagon's Parable." Velvetpark: Art, Thought and Culture. 14 January 2015.
- ^ "Under the Radar 2015 Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower: The Concert Version" The New York Times. 18 January 2015.
- ^ "BK Live 1/14/15: Toshi Reagon." Brooklyn Independent Media. 16 January 2015.
- ^ "Ms. Hill". Anysonglyrics.com.
