In chapter 5 of Parable of the Sower Lauren is talks to Joanne about how serious their situation is and how it will/could progress and get worse. Joanne doesn’t seem to think it as serious as Lauren is saying it is.
(Lauren) – I frowned. How could I reach her. “This isn’t a joke Jo”.
“What is it then?” She ate her last section of orange. “What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to be serious. I realize I don’t know very much. None of us knows very much. But we can all learn more. Then we can teach one another. We can stop denying reality or hoping it will go away by magic.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
I looked out for a moment at the rain, calming myself. “Okay. Okay, what are you doing?”
She looked uncomfortable. “I’m still not sure we can really do anything.”
—
Later in chapter 6, Lauren says “This is just more denial: A dumb little game of “If we don’t talk about bad things, maybe they won’t happen.”
As sustainable development students, many of us have likely found ourselves in Lauren’s position when talking to friends, family, and others. We have likely seen others and also ourselves experienced feelings of denial in regards to issues of climate change and sustainable development, the issues seems so vast that they can be overwhelming to think about.
How can we as students learning about sustainable development topics combat feelings of hopelessness and frustration when they feel too complex or when other people don’t feel the same sense of importance and urgency surrounding an issue? How do we get people to “talk about the bad things”? Sometimes people don’t feel confident supporting an issue if they don’t know a lot about it, and information surrounding climate issues is constantly changing and updating as we go. How can we create an environment where people feel more comfortable being wrong and then being willing to learn from others and continue to keep an open mind?
Throughout the first half of the book the concept of space travel has been discussed, as seen in these quotes.
Pg 17. “People here in the neighborhood are saying she had no business going to Mars, anyway. All that money wasted on another crazy space trip when so many people here on earth can’t afford water, food, or shelter.”
Pg. 20. “‘Space could be our future,’ I say. I believe that. As far as I’m concerned, space exploration and colonization are among the few things left over from the last century that can help us more than they hurt us.”
Pg. 78. “I am Earthseed. Anyone can be. Someday, I think there will be a lot of us. And I think we’ll have to seed ourselves farther and farther away from this dying place.”
Pg. 77.
“We are all Godseed, but no more or less
so than any other aspect of the universe,
Godspeed is all there is–all that
Changes. Earthseed is all that spreads
Earthlife to new earths. The universe is
Godseed. Only we are Earthseed. And the
Destiny of Earthseed is to take root among
the stars.”
Pg. 151
“We are Earhtseed. We are flesh–self aware
questing, problem-solving flesh. We are that
aspect of Earthlife best able to shape God
knowingly. We are Earthlife maturing, Earthlife
preparing to fall away from the parent world.
We are Earthlife preparing to take root in
new ground, Earthlife fulfilling its purpose,
its promise, its Destiny.”
I can understand the appeal of space travel especially in the circumstances that Lauren is living in. However, personally I cannot get on board with it. The concept of space is terrifying and it feels like a quick climate fix rather than truly dealing with the consequences of our own actions. Space travel could potentially continue the cycle of destruction from one planet after the other. Like the book says space travel is also incredibly expensive and that funding could be used for other means and other climate solutions. I like how change is very embraced throughout the book and I think it’s very important to start to accept that we might not be able to restore the Earth as it was before, the Earth has been changed, and that’s okay as long as it’s not completely gone too far. Is space travel a type of change we are going to have to accept? I am curious how this topic will progress throughout the novel.
Discussion Question: Do you think space exploration or colonizing mars is a feasible and probable climate solution? Would you personally want to go into space and colonize another planet? Why do you think Lauren’s character is thinking about this possibility? Do you agree with Lauren’s thoughts about the space program? Do you agree with Lauren that the destiny of Earthseed is to travel to space in order to survive? How do you think the concept of space will progress throughout the book?
Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower is meant to take place during a dystopian future, and just so happens to begin this year, in 2024. Something from the first six chapters of her book that I found interesting was the distrust in governmental institutions like the police and the fire department, both due to the fact that they now charge fees and are unlikely to do their jobs. There is also a hearty distrust in politicians. Here are some pieces of textual evidence regarding this matter:
“Of course, no one called the fire department. No one would take on fire service fees just to save an unoccupied garage.” (32)
“The police investigated, collected their fee, and couldn’t find a thing.” (19)
“The family has spent money it could not afford to get the police involved to try to find the killer. I suspect that the only good this will do will be to chase away the people who live on the sidewalks and streets nearest to our wall. Is that good? The street poor will be back, and they won’t love us for sicking the cops on them. It’s illegal to camp out on the street the way they do—the way they must—so the cops knock them around, rob them if they have anything worth stealing, then order them away or jail them. The miserable will be made even more miserable.” (51)
“Most people have given up on politicians. After all, politicians have been promising to return us to the glory, wealth, and order of the twentieth century ever since I can remember.” (20)
Considering that this story is meant to be taking place during the present decade, would you say that these feelings of distrust towards police and politicians are far off from the present truth? Do you think that the actions of the police in this story resonate with how they act today?
The thought of the fire department charging a fee for saving lives turned my stomach, but then I remembered that our healthcare system does exactly that. Would you consider the reality of the costs of our healthcare system to be dystopian?
In chapter three of the book parable of the shower goes over the last Mars expedition and how an astronaut died and Lauren’s thoughts on her dads church. This chapter also goes over a lot of the problems that Laurens community is facing. On page 21 one of the quotes that best helps describe how bad the problems “mars is a rock-cold, empty, almost airless, dead yet it’s heaven in a way. We can see it in the night sky, a whole other world, but too nearby, too close within the reach of people who’ve made such a hell of life here on earth.” I think this quote really helps describe the problems with the community that Lauren lives in that they look at a lifeless rock as salvation. My question is what else does this quote say about the world that Lauren is living in.
The first thing that drew me into this book is the fact that it is set, at least in the beginning, in 2024, the year in which I’m reading it.
I see several things that I agree with as a sustainable development student, and plenty of things that Octavia Butler’s fantasy dystopia accurately portrays, severel decades early.
After the astronaut died on Mars, Lauren writes that “People here in the neighborhood are saying she had no business going to Mars, anyway. All that money wasted on another crazy space trip when so many people here on earth can’t afford water, food, or shelter” (20).
“Secretaries of Astronautics don’t have to know much about science. They have to know about politics” (23).
““The police,” my father told them, “may be able to avenge you, but they can’t protect you” (39).
““We can’t live this way!” Cory shouted. / “We do live this way,” Dad said” (74).
“How in the world can anyone get married and make babies with things the way they are now?” (85)
What events in the book were accurately predicted? Do you think the world might be head towards the extremes we see in the first couple chapters?
This week’s reading, of the Parable of the Sower written by Octavia Butler, has a futuristic timeline that is split in chapters but also split up in a diary entry format. This future that it refers to is one that took a turn for the worst and the people that back earthseed are getting robbed by the people that want money. “Our thieves didn’t steal all that food because they were hungry…They’re not desperate. Just greedy and dangerous”(69) and this affected a lot of the people living in the neighborhood and made them create an official neighborhood watch. The neighborhood people are almost all close with one another because of them being earthseed. They have a strong relation to god, no matter what god, and pray and meet for church together. The preacher, who is also a father, uses sermons that are aimed at what is going on around their community. Does having a god give the people a sense of safety from outsider threats? Or is it more that the community meeting at a common ground around having a god allows them to not be threatened by their neighbors? The use of guns seemed to be pretty common among this community of people, and they are used for safety. What could be the significance of having almost every individual carrying a gun in this version of the future and everyone still getting robbed? Does this future in this book relate to any part of the world today?
The book Parable of the Sower that we started this week, while it was published in 1990, funnily enough, takes place in 2024. So far it has been interesting to read the author’s vision for the future of this book and compare it with our reality. A quote that stuck out to me in chapter three says, “And what about those suspended laws? Will it be legal to poison, mutilate, or infect people—as long as you provide them with food, water, and space to die?” (p.27).
This quote was regarding Lauren’s concern about the recent election of the new president Christopher Charles Morpeth Donner. “He hopes to get laws changed, suspend ‘overly restrictive’ minimal wage, environmental, and worker protection laws for those employers willing to take on homeless employees and provide them with training and adequate room and board” (p.27).
These two quotes immediately made me think of migrant agricultural workers. How they often work in horrible, dangerous conditions for very little pay and communal workers’ housing. They are exposed to hazardous substances because they are often not made aware of what they are working with, or the effects it can have on the human body; while also not having the appropriate personal protective equipment that could prevent negative health impacts in the future.
Do these quotes differ at all from the current treatment of migrant workers within the states? If so, what would look different if the changes in the book happened in today’s society?
It is definitely interesting to read a book that’s set in our present but about the future, reading about the state of this world is concerning and too reminiscent of the concerns we have for the future. In chapter five of “Parable of the Sower” Lauren is talking to her friend about the state of the world they live in. On pages 54 and 55 Joanne and Lauren discus what will happen in the future “‘We can’t do anything about it.’ ‘We have to’”. This is a familiar discussion especially for people in sustainable development. The concern for the trajectory of the climate, what that means for us, and what we can do to stop it are all topics that are regularly discussed. Joanne’s argument of what can an individual or a few people do when it would take everyone to change things. While Lauren wants to prepare and act even if it’s just her. This is a question that I’ve been grappling with: are we as individuals able to create change in the world? Or can we just prepare for what might happen?
Throughout the book, it is harped on how relationships with those of differentiating features are a dangerous activity. Oftentimes, race and belief are utilized as a tool to solidify this point. This is often shown in community and group coalitions sticking with those who are most alike. In Laurens community, except for the Bakers and Garfield’s everyone else is white. Other groups often have monolithic beliefs, but their community comes together regardless as Lauren’s father serves as the religious leader for those who vary in belief. These are overarching themes presented in this world, influencing social organization. Social organization is also heavily influenced by economic status which determines what moves will be made in the future and who you live with.
For Lauren- she is fixated on time. Many believe if they ride out the storm of their reality they can return to a better time. Many people continue to have children, get married, then try to make the best decision they can for the next generation. Lauren sees people either trying to flee to northern states or into Canada yet this viable dangerous option. Another choice is to become a domestic servant to the rich to provide for your family. Many people in our world today question whether we should have children or not. The main character loves children and is an excellent teacher too them, but would rather be dead than have children and remain in poverty.
“I like Curtis Talcott a lot. Maybe I love him. Sometimes I think I do. He says he loves me. But if all I had to look forward to was marriage to him and babies and poverty that just keeps getting worse, I think I’d kill myself” (pg 75).
“Three books on survival in the wilderness, three on guns and shooting, two each on handling medical emergencies, California native and naturalized plants and their uses, and basic living: log cabin-building, livestock raising, plant cultivation, soap making— that kind of thing” (pg 49).
Our main character is not opposed to being an adult. Quite the contrary she cannot wait to be older. Time continues to march forward, day in and day out everyone is stressed, and forced to live a life of deprivation. Lauren is ready to be older, she wants to be ready to make a new world for herself and others. We all sit in the present, the future has an infinite amount of paths to be held, and it is our job to be prepared for them- make it the best path we can. The issue is that is built on the here and now, the seeds of the present will be reaped in the future. The path taken may be one not in our purview or out of the purview of others. How do we engender the change we would like to see in this world for a maintainable future along with our needs to live in the present? Our present and future self needs to work together. For a better here and now-we cannot know the future. In the future we must answer to ourselves how we behaved in the past: are we doing what we should be doing right now? Is it preparing us for a better path? and did we do the best we could do with what we knew? Lauren is biding her time for the future… learning lessons that may be applicable in her future aka education and self-evaluation of what god is that will be applied to her religion to make a better path. How can we do this in Sustainable development?
Early on in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, we learn that protagonist Lauren is hyperempathetic. Lauren explains that “Hyperempathy is what the doctors call an “organic delusional syndrome”‘ and she can feel what she sees others feeling (Butler 12). We get to see an example of this when Lauren and others from the neighborhood venture outside the walls to get baptized. She describes the gory scenes they see on the way, “There was a naked little boy whose skin was a mass of big red sores; a man with a huge scab over the stump where his right hand used to be; a little girl, naked, maybe seven years old with blood running down her bare thighs. A woman with a swollen, bloody, beaten face” (Butler 13). As expected, Lauren is very bothered by this, but wouldn’t anyone be? It seems as though her reaction to the terrible things she sees is a reaction that anyone with a beating heart would have. So why is she considered so different from everyone else, even so far as being diagnosed with a disorder? And why does she have to hide the way she feels? I wonder if her being hyperempathetic is a symbol for something else? By making Lauren hyperempathetic, what do you think Butler was trying to say about Lauren vs her peers?
Parable of the Sower focuses on the future which is in 2024. Readers discuss the distrust in governmental institutions, economic disparities, and social organization depicted in the novel. There is also contemplation on individual agency in creating change and the looming climate crisis.
How does the portrayal of governmental institutions and societal structures in Parable of the Sower reflect current realities and concerns, particularly regarding economic disparities and distrust in authorities?
“But this thing (This idea? Philosophy? New religion?) won’t let me alone, won’t let me forget it, won’t let me go. Maybe…. Maybe it’s like my sharing: One more weirdness; one more crazy, deep-rooted delusion that I’m stuck with. I am stuck with it. And in time, I’ll have to do something about it. In spite of what my father will say or do to me, in spite of the poisonous rottenness outside the way where I might be exiled, I’ll have to do something about it. That reality scares me to death”. (Chapter 3, page 26)
In this quote, Lauren grapples with an insistent and transformative idea or belief that consumes her thoughts. She questions whether this “thing” is an idea, philosophy, or even a new religion taking root within her consciousness. Despite feeling overwhelmed and somewhat frightened by this “weirdness” or “crazy, deep-rooted delusion,” Lauren acknowledges that she cannot shake it off; it has become an integral part of her identity. She recognizes the inevitability of having to act upon this belief, regardless of the opposition she might face from her father or the hostile world around her. The quote encapsulates Lauren’s inner conflict between personal conviction and external pressures, highlighting her fear of the unknown yet underscoring her resolve to confront and act upon her truth, even in the face of daunting challenges and potential exile. Ultimately, this passage foreshadows Lauren’s journey of self-discovery and resilience as she navigates a dystopian landscape while seeking to realize her profound sense of purpose and faith.
How does Octavia Butler’s depiction of internal conflict and personal conviction in “Parable of the Sower” resonate with the challenges faced by college students in asserting their individual identities and beliefs within societal pressures? How do the themes of authenticity and resilience explored in the novel parallel the experiences of modern-day students navigating academic, social, and familial expectations?
In Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, we learn of the protagonist, Lauren, and her family in an imagined future taking place in 2024. Lauren, due to her mother’s drug abuse, was born with hyperempathy. She has a complex relationship with God, further complicated by her pastor-father’s beliefs and influence on Lauren’s life. Throughout her existence, Lauren has grappled with a complicated understanding of what, and who, God is. She feels that she has finally come to a proper conclusion, “But we can rig the game in our own favor if we understand that God exists to be shaped, and will be shaped, with or without our forethought, with or without our intent.” (Butler 25). Later, Lauren mentions, “My God doesn’t love me or hate me or watch over me or know me at all, and I feel no love for or loyalty to my God. My God just is.” (Butler 25). This understanding of a metaphysical being simply existing contradicts traditional Judeo-Christian understandings of God as an omnipotent, all-knowing being capable of creating the world and imposing His will. This understanding of Lauren’s God just being reminded me of our discussion of Bill Neidjie, in which the world was meant to be left no better or worse than it was found. Rather, Earth and its beings were meant to be allowed to just be. Can these traditional Western understandings and the beliefs of Lauren or people like Neidjie coexist? Can their be a God that just is and a God that guides the lives of Earth’s beings? Or does it matter at all? Lauren mentions what prayer can do for people, and how God exists in the ways that we shape it. Can God be whatever we need it to be? Or would this be unappealing to someone like Lauren’s father or Neidjie? What would a conversation between someone like Neidjie and Lauren’s father look like? Where are the spaces for understanding God as well as the Earth as dynamic and ever-evolving? In some sense, it seems that only Lauren’s understanding of the metaphysical leaves room for dynamism. Can understandings of the metaphysical and what “God” is vary from person to person in Butler’s imagined world? Or would understandings like Lauren’s cause too much of a spiritual and cultural upheaval?
“The only lasting truth Is Change. God Is Change.”
Said in chapter one and seven
One main theme of this book is religion. It seems to be something that brings the community members together in the crises they are facing. I like the quote saying “God is change”. Both of the quotes above are hinting at the need to accept the changes they are facing and change with them. How does religion bring people together but also separate them in this book? Will religion become more or less popular as climate change persists?
What are other ways this book highlights that it is important to put community needs over your individual needs?
Consider Lauren’s claim that her hyperempathy is a “delusion” as seen in chapter 2. This is to say, she can’t physically connect with other people’s pain or pleasure, but that by perceiving their pain or pleasure, she herself is affected either positively or negatively. The syndrome is described by Lauren’s father as something that she can overcome or “beat.”
What is the significance of this disease and its application to our world today? Why do you think the author chose to make this disease something tangible, rather than something mystical or magical? Could we learn from the power that Lauren holds to feel with other people?
Beyond that, why do you think this is seen as a detriment in the world described in Parable of the Sower? How could being able to intensely feel other people’s pain or pleasure be a place of power for Lauren in the dark world she inhabits?
So far I have been really loving this book and I find myself drawing parallels to our world because it’s just so ironic. I also find it interesting to be reading about a post apocalyptic world that takes place in the year in which we live. The themes of wealth inequality and corporate greed are prevalent throughout the text and very much relevant today. I wanted to examine a piece of text from chapter 3 that talks about space travel and the space trips to Mars. Lauren is reflecting both her and her fathers feelings about space travel as a remedy to their problem and both have contrasting views.
“Dad just looks at me and shakes his head. “You don’t understand,” he says. “You don’t have any idea what a criminal waste of time and money that so-called space program is.” He’s going to vote for Donner. He’s the only person I know who’s going to vote at all. Most people have given up on politicians. After all politicians have been promising to return us to the glory, wealth, and order of the twentieth century ever since I can remember. Thats what the space program is about these days, at least for politicians. Hey, we can run a space station, a station on the moon, and soon a colony on Mars. That proves we’re still a great, forward looking, powerful nation right?” pg 20.
This made me think of American in its modern state and the priorities of the government. Rather than fixing the existing problems we have the government likes to pump money into other sources of the future, and I mean we do know the government is looking at space travel as an alternative currently. What do you think some of the reasons that Butler drew these parallels? How do you think Laurens perspective will change throughout the text, do you think she will continue to see space travel as a problem solver to their current situation, or will it change as she grows more into Earthseed?
Throughout the beginning chapters of this book I was drawn to the similarities that can be seen between our current socio-political state and the portrayal of the United States government in the novel. On page 27 the entry by Lauren discusses the promises of the newly elected president, Donner, and his plans for increasing employment. Donner’s ideals take an extremely capitalist approach in advocating for the further deregulation of an already loosely regulated economy and for dismantling “overly restrictive” laws which protect employees from workplace exploitation, in order to increase employment. Stemming from this deregulation, employers who provide food and “adequate” room and board for employees will be compensated by being allowed the freedom to overlook environmental and health regulations in conjunction with suspending minimum wage pay for workers. Lauren ponders the morality of this plan by questioning who determines the criteria for what food and shelter is deemed “adequate.”
Lauren states, “And what about those suspended laws? Will it be legal to poison, mutilate, or infect people—as long as you provide them with food, water, and a space to die?” (p. 27)
This quote perfectly sums up the way in which politicians of wealthy, capitalist societies view marginalized people, as machines who’s value is reduced to their ability to do work. As a reward for their labor they are granted only the basic necessities for sustaining life as it is defined biologically. These actions are driven by the capitalist obsession with GDP being the only indicator of a nation’s success, thus erasing the intrinsic value of human life.
A couple sentences prior Lauren states, “Won’t they be seen as bad investments?” (p. 27) referring to human life and labor as something that can be bought by businesses with the promise of granting basic human needs.
This reminds me of Appalachia’s extractive and exploitative history with coal mining operations throughout the 1800’s and early 1900’s. Company-owned coal mining towns forced miners to work in extremely hazardous conditions, all the while paying them miniscule wages of a currency that can only be exchanged within the company town itself. Similarly, the treatment of migrant farmworkers in the United States further illustrates the paradigm in which vulnerable communities of people are exploited for difficult and hazardous labor, often exposed to unethical living conditions, and paid the bare minimum.
How do these examples, both in the text and in real life, portray the viewpoints and biases of neoliberal American politicians regarding economic and societal development? How do we begin to address these socio-political inequities and injustices through SD to prevent Butler’s dystopian novel from becoming more of a reality in the U.S?
“If hyperempathy syndrome were a more common complaint, people wouldn’t do such things. They could kill if they had to, and bear the pain of it or be destroyed by it. But if everyone could feel everyone else’s pain, who would torture? Who would cause anyone unnecessary pain? I’ve never thought of my problem as something that might do some good before, but with the way things are, I think it would help. I wish I could give it to people. Failing that, I wish I could find other people who have it, and live among them. A biological conscience is better than no conscience at all.” (118)
This quote highlights how empathy is an essential part of our existence as humans that is often misunderstood. Applied to a post apocalyptic world, we’ve seen how it can be used in negative ways to manipulate people, cause internal conflict, but also shed light on individuals who have never been given that light. We see how if we were all more empathetic, this issues may not arise as often.
How can Lauren’s condition give us insight onto the benefits of greatly understanding and feeling empathy? What sort of a role should empathy play in our society? How do we healthfully exercise empathy to better our society, ourselves, and others?
In my time reading Parable of the Sower, I’ve noticed some traits of Lauren Olamina which stand out as direct corollaries to the climate-anxiety which exists in our modern day. The first of these is that Lauren is young, she’s 15 years old and is still in a position where She has to navigate around her mother and father, and the rest of the older members of the community which restricts her agency and limits her ability to prepare for the future. In chapter 5, we see that she acknowledges that the way her community is organized is unstable, because it’s one of the few safe places in California, and is exposed to thieves and earthquakes and climate disasters on all sides:
“‘Sure’, she said.’More shootings, more break-ins. That’s what I meant.’
‘And that’s what will happen for a while. I wish I could guess how long. We’ll be hit and hit and hit, then the big hit will come. And if we’re not ready for it, it will be like Jericho…
In L.A. some walled communities bigger and stronger than this one just aren’t there any more. Nothing left but ruins rats and squatters.” p.105
She urges her friends, family, and her community To do anything about it, but this talk scares them so they don’t listen. In this way she’s reminiscent of climate change activists who face opposition and denial from other people and policy makers because they don’t want to acknowledge the reality of climate change.
Finally, Lauren’s hyper empathy might be some sort of standing for how people today are exposed to the Tragedy and Injustice that face people all across the world. Though I haven’t read enough to be convinced of this interpretation.
My question is: what is Butler trying to say about the role and challenges of young climate change activists through the character of Lauren?
In Chapter 11, we learn about the privatized city of Olivar. Some people, like Lauren, her father, and Curtis, are distrustful of company towns and their tendency to exploit the people who live and work there. Others, like Cory and Joanne, are hopeful that moving to Olivar could provide safety and security. There is a growing acceptance among everyone that they cannot stay in their neighborhood forever– as Joanne says on page 126, “I have to go. What else is there for me– for anyone. It’s going to be hell here. You know it is.” This sentiment is one that Lauren has held all along, but her solution is very different. Lauren would rather choose uncertainty (going north and pursuing her Earthseed vision in a dangerous environment) over security (and the potential loss of freedom in a company town). I can understand both Joanne’s and Lauren’s perspectives. There is the fear of losing your life and the fear of losing your autonomy. I wish I could be as brave as Lauren, but in this extreme of a situation, the fear of a gruesome death might win out- I might be more like Joanne. What would you do in their shoes?
I finished this book within three days. It was so powerful, scary, informative, and inspiring. The Parable of the Sower follows Lauren, a 15-year-old who lives in a world where disease has spread, crops and water are no longer abundant, and addiction is spreading, causing fires, crime, and death to rise. Lauren was raised Baptist but never felt connected to it, which is when she created Earthseed: Book of the Living, which describes God as being changed “God is neither good, nor evil, neither loving nor hating. God is power. God is change. We must find the rest of what we need within ourselves, in one another, in our Destiny.” (245) This quote describes the theme within the book of looking inward and relying on oneself and that building connections with others can help you navigate through the challenges you may be facing.
How does this concept of god as a force of change and transformation challenge the traditional beliefs about god and religion? Further in today’s society do you think this concept of the Earthseed to be beneficial to bringing about change within society or sustainable development?
As we continue to read Parable of the Sower, I am extremely interested in the parallels made between the book and our current world. The book takes place in 2024, set in Los Angeles, and is a very dystopian version of our current world. Lauren is the main character in the story, and as she discusses the world around her we learn a lot about the environmental crisis taking place, and how it is affecting people.
“Peddlers are being found with their throats cut and their money and their handtrucks stolen. Dad says water now costs several times as much as gasoline. But, except for arsonists and the rich, most people have given up buying gasoline. No one I know uses a gas-powered car, truck, or cycle. Vehicles like that are rusting in driveways and being cannibalized for metal and plastic” (Butler).
There isn’t enough water to go around, and people hurt/kill others for it. She also mentions how being clean is a safety issue, and it will draw attention to oneself. She highlights how only the ultra-rich can buy gasoline at this point, yet water costs multiple times as much. How does she use this example of resource disparity and inequality to show the power dynamics playing out within society? Also, how does her hyper-empathy shape her view of the world, and how does it differ from the people around her, especially her dad?
“Every one knows that change is inevitable. From the second law of thermodynamics to Darwinian evolution, from Buddhism’s insistence that nothing is permanent and all suffering results from our delusions of permanence to the third chapter of Ecclesiastes (“To everything there is a season”), change is part of life, of existence, of the common wisdom. But I don’t believe we’re dealing with all that that means. We haven’t even begun to deal with it.
We give lip service to acceptance, as though acceptance were enough. Then we go on to create super-people—super-parents, super-kings and queens, super-cops—to be our gods and to look after us—to stand between us and God. Yet God has been here all along, shaping us and being shaped by us in no particular way or in too many ways at once like an amoeba—or like a cancer. Chaos.”
pg. 26
Once of the core motifs of the book is “God is change.”
One strategy to achieve Sustainable Development goals involves appealing to our governmental leaders for change. This correlates with the concept of “super-people” Lauren writes about, politicians serve as gods “to look after us” and “stand between us and God.”
This paradox of politicians serving as representatives of the people, ostensibly as change-makers, while standing between us and meaningful change is played out globally in the world’s handling of climate change. As an example, in the United States, even politicians that acknowledge the threat of climate change operate under the framework of preserving the general status quo. Instead of shifting larger patterns of development to prioritize public transit and walkable cities, billions of dollars are invested in subsidizing electric cars which allow our current (unsustainable) patterns of development to perpetuate. Standing between us and “God” (change), politicians continue to subsidize nonsense policies like ethanol fuel production and swine CAFO biogas methane and Enviva biomass.
Change is constant and inevitable. As an alternative to creating these “super-people,” how can we democratically take control of change, of God? How can our change look like an amoeba shaped by the people and not like a cancer shaped by the rich? How can movements of mutual aid and solidarity economies become predominant?
This half of the book is making me introspective and nostalgic in a sad way. I think it is some kind of twisted empathy for it.
There is so much conversation about change. God is ever-changing according to earthseed, “God is Clay.” Maybe that’s why so many people believe in it, because humans don’t change.
“Is that the way it’s going to be, I wonder? Is that the future: Large numbers of people stuck in either President-elect Donner’s version of slavery or Richard Moss’s.”
but before this,
“Dad decided not to vote for Donner after all. He didn’t vote for anyone. He said politicians turned his stomach.”
But they do, a lot during this book. It’s so interesting to see how slow or fast a change can occur, like miss sims killing herself. She was self-declared holier than thou. Why did she change and kill herself?
Maybe we have a piece of god in ourselves?
It’s late and I’m tired and kind of broken up about this book.
There is so much change yet static energy here, how god is everlasting yet ever-changing in a hopeful way, somehow being human is too, in a fucked-up way. What is the difference? Would the difference even matter here? Here as in the narrator’s world.
One of the most notable things for me in the first few chapters of Parable of the Sower was the extreme disconnect from government institutions and the public, just trying to survive. Lauren describes distrust and lack of faith in policing, fire services, and general politics that is felt community-, and surely nation-wide. We hear about presidential elections, but few people have consistent access to radio or TV news broadcasts, and even thoughtful and engaged citizens like Lauren’s father ultimately neglect to vote. It is impossible to not draw parallels between this situation and reality. There is massive distrust of police, and an unimaginable disconnect, especially among young voters, in electoral politics. I know that for myself and my peers, there is no real political representation, and the illusion that politicians are beholden to the demands of their constituents has never been more see-through. I do find it interesting that there had yet to be a complete collapse of state infrastructure in Lauren’s world. While Parable of the Sower has left me with more ruminations than questions, for this week I would ask, how do you find strength in community? Do you share Lauren’s concerns? I am very interested in how this book made everyone else feel.
The Post apocalyptic setting that we are introduced to in Parable of the Sower is one of the most unique and interesting I’ve been able to explore in a long time. As Lauren questions her dads idea of religion it seems interesting that she doesn’t seem to understand him even though she has a condition known as hyper-empathy. The way Lauren understands that the current world has no space for the Baptist church is a very fitting conclusion to the apocalyptic setting but compared to everyone else it makes her look cold. She also ironically has a calloused disregard for the less fortunate people that live outside of Robledo’s walls even when she can feel their pain. The social classes are clearly marked in chapter 3 and something that seems like an important theme of the novel. The have and the have-nots are distinguished by their access to resources and material goods.
How can religion be a tool for community building rather than exclusion?
Does the duality between rich and poor go beyond human society as a natural law or is that simply a human construction?
SD 3800 Voices in Sustainable Development 
Alena Dastur
In chapter 5 of Parable of the Sower Lauren is talks to Joanne about how serious their situation is and how it will/could progress and get worse. Joanne doesn’t seem to think it as serious as Lauren is saying it is.
(Lauren) – I frowned. How could I reach her. “This isn’t a joke Jo”.
“What is it then?” She ate her last section of orange. “What do you want me to say?”
“I want you to be serious. I realize I don’t know very much. None of us knows very much. But we can all learn more. Then we can teach one another. We can stop denying reality or hoping it will go away by magic.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
I looked out for a moment at the rain, calming myself. “Okay. Okay, what are you doing?”
She looked uncomfortable. “I’m still not sure we can really do anything.”
—
Later in chapter 6, Lauren says “This is just more denial: A dumb little game of “If we don’t talk about bad things, maybe they won’t happen.”
As sustainable development students, many of us have likely found ourselves in Lauren’s position when talking to friends, family, and others. We have likely seen others and also ourselves experienced feelings of denial in regards to issues of climate change and sustainable development, the issues seems so vast that they can be overwhelming to think about.
How can we as students learning about sustainable development topics combat feelings of hopelessness and frustration when they feel too complex or when other people don’t feel the same sense of importance and urgency surrounding an issue? How do we get people to “talk about the bad things”? Sometimes people don’t feel confident supporting an issue if they don’t know a lot about it, and information surrounding climate issues is constantly changing and updating as we go. How can we create an environment where people feel more comfortable being wrong and then being willing to learn from others and continue to keep an open mind?
Winifred Rhea-Unruh
Throughout the first half of the book the concept of space travel has been discussed, as seen in these quotes.
Pg 17. “People here in the neighborhood are saying she had no business going to Mars, anyway. All that money wasted on another crazy space trip when so many people here on earth can’t afford water, food, or shelter.”
Pg. 20. “‘Space could be our future,’ I say. I believe that. As far as I’m concerned, space exploration and colonization are among the few things left over from the last century that can help us more than they hurt us.”
Pg. 78. “I am Earthseed. Anyone can be. Someday, I think there will be a lot of us. And I think we’ll have to seed ourselves farther and farther away from this dying place.”
Pg. 77.
“We are all Godseed, but no more or less
so than any other aspect of the universe,
Godspeed is all there is–all that
Changes. Earthseed is all that spreads
Earthlife to new earths. The universe is
Godseed. Only we are Earthseed. And the
Destiny of Earthseed is to take root among
the stars.”
Pg. 151
“We are Earhtseed. We are flesh–self aware
questing, problem-solving flesh. We are that
aspect of Earthlife best able to shape God
knowingly. We are Earthlife maturing, Earthlife
preparing to fall away from the parent world.
We are Earthlife preparing to take root in
new ground, Earthlife fulfilling its purpose,
its promise, its Destiny.”
I can understand the appeal of space travel especially in the circumstances that Lauren is living in. However, personally I cannot get on board with it. The concept of space is terrifying and it feels like a quick climate fix rather than truly dealing with the consequences of our own actions. Space travel could potentially continue the cycle of destruction from one planet after the other. Like the book says space travel is also incredibly expensive and that funding could be used for other means and other climate solutions. I like how change is very embraced throughout the book and I think it’s very important to start to accept that we might not be able to restore the Earth as it was before, the Earth has been changed, and that’s okay as long as it’s not completely gone too far. Is space travel a type of change we are going to have to accept? I am curious how this topic will progress throughout the novel.
Discussion Question: Do you think space exploration or colonizing mars is a feasible and probable climate solution? Would you personally want to go into space and colonize another planet? Why do you think Lauren’s character is thinking about this possibility? Do you agree with Lauren’s thoughts about the space program? Do you agree with Lauren that the destiny of Earthseed is to travel to space in order to survive? How do you think the concept of space will progress throughout the book?
Opal Napier
Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower is meant to take place during a dystopian future, and just so happens to begin this year, in 2024. Something from the first six chapters of her book that I found interesting was the distrust in governmental institutions like the police and the fire department, both due to the fact that they now charge fees and are unlikely to do their jobs. There is also a hearty distrust in politicians. Here are some pieces of textual evidence regarding this matter:
“Of course, no one called the fire department. No one would take on fire service fees just to save an unoccupied garage.” (32)
“The police investigated, collected their fee, and couldn’t find a thing.” (19)
“The family has spent money it could not afford to get the police involved to
try to find the killer. I suspect that the only good this will do will be to chase
away the people who live on the sidewalks and streets nearest to our wall. Is
that good? The street poor will be back, and they won’t love us for sicking the
cops on them. It’s illegal to camp out on the street the way they do—the way
they must—so the cops knock them around, rob them if they have anything
worth stealing, then order them away or jail them. The miserable will be made
even more miserable.” (51)
“Most people have given up on politicians. After all, politicians have been promising to return us to the glory, wealth, and order of the twentieth century ever since I can remember.” (20)
Considering that this story is meant to be taking place during the present decade, would you say that these feelings of distrust towards police and politicians are far off from the present truth? Do you think that the actions of the police in this story resonate with how they act today?
The thought of the fire department charging a fee for saving lives turned my stomach, but then I remembered that our healthcare system does exactly that. Would you consider the reality of the costs of our healthcare system to be dystopian?
Alex Smith
In chapter three of the book parable of the shower goes over the last Mars expedition and how an astronaut died and Lauren’s thoughts on her dads church. This chapter also goes over a lot of the problems that Laurens community is facing. On page 21 one of the quotes that best helps describe how bad the problems “mars is a rock-cold, empty, almost airless, dead yet it’s heaven in a way. We can see it in the night sky, a whole other world, but too nearby, too close within the reach of people who’ve made such a hell of life here on earth.” I think this quote really helps describe the problems with the community that Lauren lives in that they look at a lifeless rock as salvation. My question is what else does this quote say about the world that Lauren is living in.
The first thing that drew me into this book is the fact that it is set, at least in the beginning, in 2024, the year in which I’m reading it.
I see several things that I agree with as a sustainable development student, and plenty of things that Octavia Butler’s fantasy dystopia accurately portrays, severel decades early.
After the astronaut died on Mars, Lauren writes that “People here in the neighborhood are saying she had no business going to Mars, anyway. All that money wasted on another crazy space trip when so many people here on earth can’t afford water, food, or shelter” (20).
“Secretaries of Astronautics don’t have to know much about science. They have to know about politics” (23).
““The police,” my father told them, “may be able to avenge you, but they can’t protect you” (39).
““We can’t live this way!” Cory shouted. / “We do live this way,” Dad said” (74).
“How in the world can anyone get married and make babies with things the way they are now?” (85)
What events in the book were accurately predicted? Do you think the world might be head towards the extremes we see in the first couple chapters?
Sam Platt
This week’s reading, of the Parable of the Sower written by Octavia Butler, has a futuristic timeline that is split in chapters but also split up in a diary entry format. This future that it refers to is one that took a turn for the worst and the people that back earthseed are getting robbed by the people that want money. “Our thieves didn’t steal all that food because they were hungry…They’re not desperate. Just greedy and dangerous”(69) and this affected a lot of the people living in the neighborhood and made them create an official neighborhood watch. The neighborhood people are almost all close with one another because of them being earthseed. They have a strong relation to god, no matter what god, and pray and meet for church together. The preacher, who is also a father, uses sermons that are aimed at what is going on around their community. Does having a god give the people a sense of safety from outsider threats? Or is it more that the community meeting at a common ground around having a god allows them to not be threatened by their neighbors? The use of guns seemed to be pretty common among this community of people, and they are used for safety. What could be the significance of having almost every individual carrying a gun in this version of the future and everyone still getting robbed? Does this future in this book relate to any part of the world today?
Karissa Scott
The book Parable of the Sower that we started this week, while it was published in 1990, funnily enough, takes place in 2024. So far it has been interesting to read the author’s vision for the future of this book and compare it with our reality. A quote that stuck out to me in chapter three says, “And what about those suspended laws? Will it be legal to poison, mutilate, or infect people—as long as you provide them with food, water, and space to die?” (p.27).
This quote was regarding Lauren’s concern about the recent election of the new president Christopher Charles Morpeth Donner. “He hopes to get laws changed, suspend ‘overly restrictive’ minimal wage, environmental, and worker protection laws for those employers willing to take on homeless employees and provide them with training and adequate room and board” (p.27).
These two quotes immediately made me think of migrant agricultural workers. How they often work in horrible, dangerous conditions for very little pay and communal workers’ housing. They are exposed to hazardous substances because they are often not made aware of what they are working with, or the effects it can have on the human body; while also not having the appropriate personal protective equipment that could prevent negative health impacts in the future.
Do these quotes differ at all from the current treatment of migrant workers within the states? If so, what would look different if the changes in the book happened in today’s society?
It is definitely interesting to read a book that’s set in our present but about the future, reading about the state of this world is concerning and too reminiscent of the concerns we have for the future. In chapter five of “Parable of the Sower” Lauren is talking to her friend about the state of the world they live in. On pages 54 and 55 Joanne and Lauren discus what will happen in the future “‘We can’t do anything about it.’ ‘We have to’”. This is a familiar discussion especially for people in sustainable development. The concern for the trajectory of the climate, what that means for us, and what we can do to stop it are all topics that are regularly discussed. Joanne’s argument of what can an individual or a few people do when it would take everyone to change things. While Lauren wants to prepare and act even if it’s just her. This is a question that I’ve been grappling with: are we as individuals able to create change in the world? Or can we just prepare for what might happen?
McKinzie Sturgell
Kobe Early
Throughout the book, it is harped on how relationships with those of differentiating features are a dangerous activity. Oftentimes, race and belief are utilized as a tool to solidify this point. This is often shown in community and group coalitions sticking with those who are most alike. In Laurens community, except for the Bakers and Garfield’s everyone else is white. Other groups often have monolithic beliefs, but their community comes together regardless as Lauren’s father serves as the religious leader for those who vary in belief. These are overarching themes presented in this world, influencing social organization. Social organization is also heavily influenced by economic status which determines what moves will be made in the future and who you live with.
For Lauren- she is fixated on time. Many believe if they ride out the storm of their reality they can return to a better time. Many people continue to have children, get married, then try to make the best decision they can for the next generation. Lauren sees people either trying to flee to northern states or into Canada yet this viable dangerous option. Another choice is to become a domestic servant to the rich to provide for your family. Many people in our world today question whether we should have children or not. The main character loves children and is an excellent teacher too them, but would rather be dead than have children and remain in poverty.
“I like Curtis Talcott a lot. Maybe I love him. Sometimes I think I do. He
says he loves me. But if all I had to look forward to was marriage to him and
babies and poverty that just keeps getting worse, I think I’d kill myself” (pg 75).
“Three books on survival in the wilderness, three on guns and shooting, two each on handling medical emergencies, California native and naturalized plants and their uses, and basic living: log cabin-building, livestock raising, plant cultivation, soap making— that kind of thing” (pg 49).
Our main character is not opposed to being an adult. Quite the contrary she cannot wait to be older. Time continues to march forward, day in and day out everyone is stressed, and forced to live a life of deprivation. Lauren is ready to be older, she wants to be ready to make a new world for herself and others. We all sit in the present, the future has an infinite amount of paths to be held, and it is our job to be prepared for them- make it the best path we can. The issue is that is built on the here and now, the seeds of the present will be reaped in the future. The path taken may be one not in our purview or out of the purview of others. How do we engender the change we would like to see in this world for a maintainable future along with our needs to live in the present? Our present and future self needs to work together. For a better here and now-we cannot know the future. In the future we must answer to ourselves how we behaved in the past: are we doing what we should be doing right now? Is it preparing us for a better path? and did we do the best we could do with what we knew? Lauren is biding her time for the future… learning lessons that may be applicable in her future aka education and self-evaluation of what god is that will be applied to her religion to make a better path. How can we do this in Sustainable development?
Early on in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, we learn that protagonist Lauren is hyperempathetic. Lauren explains that “Hyperempathy is what the doctors call an “organic delusional syndrome”‘ and she can feel what she sees others feeling (Butler 12). We get to see an example of this when Lauren and others from the neighborhood venture outside the walls to get baptized. She describes the gory scenes they see on the way, “There was a naked little boy whose skin was a mass of big red sores; a man with a huge scab over the stump where his right hand used to be; a little girl, naked, maybe seven years old with blood running down her bare thighs. A woman with a swollen, bloody, beaten face” (Butler 13). As expected, Lauren is very bothered by this, but wouldn’t anyone be? It seems as though her reaction to the terrible things she sees is a reaction that anyone with a beating heart would have. So why is she considered so different from everyone else, even so far as being diagnosed with a disorder? And why does she have to hide the way she feels? I wonder if her being hyperempathetic is a symbol for something else? By making Lauren hyperempathetic, what do you think Butler was trying to say about Lauren vs her peers?
Nicole Travers
Parable of the Sower focuses on the future which is in 2024. Readers discuss the distrust in governmental institutions, economic disparities, and social organization depicted in the novel. There is also contemplation on individual agency in creating change and the looming climate crisis.
How does the portrayal of governmental institutions and societal structures in Parable of the Sower reflect current realities and concerns, particularly regarding economic disparities and distrust in authorities?
Emily Duhon
“But this thing (This idea? Philosophy? New religion?) won’t let me alone, won’t let me forget it, won’t let me go. Maybe…. Maybe it’s like my sharing: One more weirdness; one more crazy, deep-rooted delusion that I’m stuck with. I am stuck with it. And in time, I’ll have to do something about it. In spite of what my father will say or do to me, in spite of the poisonous rottenness outside the way where I might be exiled, I’ll have to do something about it. That reality scares me to death”. (Chapter 3, page 26)
In this quote, Lauren grapples with an insistent and transformative idea or belief that consumes her thoughts. She questions whether this “thing” is an idea, philosophy, or even a new religion taking root within her consciousness. Despite feeling overwhelmed and somewhat frightened by this “weirdness” or “crazy, deep-rooted delusion,” Lauren acknowledges that she cannot shake it off; it has become an integral part of her identity. She recognizes the inevitability of having to act upon this belief, regardless of the opposition she might face from her father or the hostile world around her. The quote encapsulates Lauren’s inner conflict between personal conviction and external pressures, highlighting her fear of the unknown yet underscoring her resolve to confront and act upon her truth, even in the face of daunting challenges and potential exile. Ultimately, this passage foreshadows Lauren’s journey of self-discovery and resilience as she navigates a dystopian landscape while seeking to realize her profound sense of purpose and faith.
How does Octavia Butler’s depiction of internal conflict and personal conviction in “Parable of the Sower” resonate with the challenges faced by college students in asserting their individual identities and beliefs within societal pressures? How do the themes of authenticity and resilience explored in the novel parallel the experiences of modern-day students navigating academic, social, and familial expectations?
-Abby Henderson
Ellen Kraai
In Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, we learn of the protagonist, Lauren, and her family in an imagined future taking place in 2024. Lauren, due to her mother’s drug abuse, was born with hyperempathy. She has a complex relationship with God, further complicated by her pastor-father’s beliefs and influence on Lauren’s life. Throughout her existence, Lauren has grappled with a complicated understanding of what, and who, God is. She feels that she has finally come to a proper conclusion, “But we can rig the game in our own favor if we understand that God exists to be shaped, and will be shaped, with or without our forethought, with or without our intent.” (Butler 25). Later, Lauren mentions, “My God doesn’t love me or hate me or watch over me or know me at all, and I feel no love for or loyalty to my God. My God just is.” (Butler 25). This understanding of a metaphysical being simply existing contradicts traditional Judeo-Christian understandings of God as an omnipotent, all-knowing being capable of creating the world and imposing His will. This understanding of Lauren’s God just being reminded me of our discussion of Bill Neidjie, in which the world was meant to be left no better or worse than it was found. Rather, Earth and its beings were meant to be allowed to just be. Can these traditional Western understandings and the beliefs of Lauren or people like Neidjie coexist? Can their be a God that just is and a God that guides the lives of Earth’s beings? Or does it matter at all? Lauren mentions what prayer can do for people, and how God exists in the ways that we shape it. Can God be whatever we need it to be? Or would this be unappealing to someone like Lauren’s father or Neidjie? What would a conversation between someone like Neidjie and Lauren’s father look like? Where are the spaces for understanding God as well as the Earth as dynamic and ever-evolving? In some sense, it seems that only Lauren’s understanding of the metaphysical leaves room for dynamism. Can understandings of the metaphysical and what “God” is vary from person to person in Butler’s imagined world? Or would understandings like Lauren’s cause too much of a spiritual and cultural upheaval?
“A victim of God may,
Through learning adaption,
Become a partner of God.
A victim of God may,
Through forethought and planning,
Become a shaper of God.”
From chapter four
“The only lasting truth Is Change. God Is Change.”
Said in chapter one and seven
One main theme of this book is religion. It seems to be something that brings the community members together in the crises they are facing. I like the quote saying “God is change”. Both of the quotes above are hinting at the need to accept the changes they are facing and change with them. How does religion bring people together but also separate them in this book? Will religion become more or less popular as climate change persists?
What are other ways this book highlights that it is important to put community needs over your individual needs?
-Ella Harris
Consider Lauren’s claim that her hyperempathy is a “delusion” as seen in chapter 2. This is to say, she can’t physically connect with other people’s pain or pleasure, but that by perceiving their pain or pleasure, she herself is affected either positively or negatively. The syndrome is described by Lauren’s father as something that she can overcome or “beat.”
What is the significance of this disease and its application to our world today? Why do you think the author chose to make this disease something tangible, rather than something mystical or magical? Could we learn from the power that Lauren holds to feel with other people?
Beyond that, why do you think this is seen as a detriment in the world described in Parable of the Sower? How could being able to intensely feel other people’s pain or pleasure be a place of power for Lauren in the dark world she inhabits?
Ren Pommarane
So far I have been really loving this book and I find myself drawing parallels to our world because it’s just so ironic. I also find it interesting to be reading about a post apocalyptic world that takes place in the year in which we live. The themes of wealth inequality and corporate greed are prevalent throughout the text and very much relevant today. I wanted to examine a piece of text from chapter 3 that talks about space travel and the space trips to Mars. Lauren is reflecting both her and her fathers feelings about space travel as a remedy to their problem and both have contrasting views.
“Dad just looks at me and shakes his head. “You don’t understand,” he says. “You don’t have any idea what a criminal waste of time and money that so-called space program is.” He’s going to vote for Donner. He’s the only person I know who’s going to vote at all. Most people have given up on politicians. After all politicians have been promising to return us to the glory, wealth, and order of the twentieth century ever since I can remember. Thats what the space program is about these days, at least for politicians. Hey, we can run a space station, a station on the moon, and soon a colony on Mars. That proves we’re still a great, forward looking, powerful nation right?” pg 20.
This made me think of American in its modern state and the priorities of the government. Rather than fixing the existing problems we have the government likes to pump money into other sources of the future, and I mean we do know the government is looking at space travel as an alternative currently. What do you think some of the reasons that Butler drew these parallels? How do you think Laurens perspective will change throughout the text, do you think she will continue to see space travel as a problem solver to their current situation, or will it change as she grows more into Earthseed?
Carlye Durham
Throughout the beginning chapters of this book I was drawn to the similarities that can be seen between our current socio-political state and the portrayal of the United States government in the novel. On page 27 the entry by Lauren discusses the promises of the newly elected president, Donner, and his plans for increasing employment. Donner’s ideals take an extremely capitalist approach in advocating for the further deregulation of an already loosely regulated economy and for dismantling “overly restrictive” laws which protect employees from workplace exploitation, in order to increase employment. Stemming from this deregulation, employers who provide food and “adequate” room and board for employees will be compensated by being allowed the freedom to overlook environmental and health regulations in conjunction with suspending minimum wage pay for workers. Lauren ponders the morality of this plan by questioning who determines the criteria for what food and shelter is deemed “adequate.”
Lauren states, “And what about those suspended laws? Will it be legal to poison, mutilate, or infect people—as long as you provide them with food, water, and a space to die?” (p. 27)
This quote perfectly sums up the way in which politicians of wealthy, capitalist societies view marginalized people, as machines who’s value is reduced to their ability to do work. As a reward for their labor they are granted only the basic necessities for sustaining life as it is defined biologically. These actions are driven by the capitalist obsession with GDP being the only indicator of a nation’s success, thus erasing the intrinsic value of human life.
A couple sentences prior Lauren states, “Won’t they be seen as bad investments?” (p. 27) referring to human life and labor as something that can be bought by businesses with the promise of granting basic human needs.
This reminds me of Appalachia’s extractive and exploitative history with coal mining operations throughout the 1800’s and early 1900’s. Company-owned coal mining towns forced miners to work in extremely hazardous conditions, all the while paying them miniscule wages of a currency that can only be exchanged within the company town itself. Similarly, the treatment of migrant farmworkers in the United States further illustrates the paradigm in which vulnerable communities of people are exploited for difficult and hazardous labor, often exposed to unethical living conditions, and paid the bare minimum.
How do these examples, both in the text and in real life, portray the viewpoints and biases of neoliberal American politicians regarding economic and societal development? How do we begin to address these socio-political inequities and injustices through SD to prevent Butler’s dystopian novel from becoming more of a reality in the U.S?
Joe D Discussion Response
“If hyperempathy syndrome were a more common complaint, people wouldn’t do such things. They could kill if they had to, and bear the pain of it or be destroyed by it. But if everyone could feel everyone else’s pain, who would torture? Who would cause anyone unnecessary pain? I’ve never thought of my problem as something that might do some good before, but with the way things are, I think it would help. I wish I could give it to people. Failing that, I wish I could find other people who have it, and live among them. A biological conscience is better than no conscience at all.” (118)
This quote highlights how empathy is an essential part of our existence as humans that is often misunderstood. Applied to a post apocalyptic world, we’ve seen how it can be used in negative ways to manipulate people, cause internal conflict, but also shed light on individuals who have never been given that light. We see how if we were all more empathetic, this issues may not arise as often.
How can Lauren’s condition give us insight onto the benefits of greatly understanding and feeling empathy? What sort of a role should empathy play in our society? How do we healthfully exercise empathy to better our society, ourselves, and others?
Jason Schlachtun
In my time reading Parable of the Sower, I’ve noticed some traits of Lauren Olamina which stand out as direct corollaries to the climate-anxiety which exists in our modern day. The first of these is that Lauren is young, she’s 15 years old and is still in a position where She has to navigate around her mother and father, and the rest of the older members of the community which restricts her agency and limits her ability to prepare for the future. In chapter 5, we see that she acknowledges that the way her community is organized is unstable, because it’s one of the few safe places in California, and is exposed to thieves and earthquakes and climate disasters on all sides:
“‘Sure’, she said.’More shootings, more break-ins. That’s what I meant.’
‘And that’s what will happen for a while. I wish I could guess how long. We’ll be hit and hit and hit, then the big hit will come. And if we’re not ready for it, it will be like Jericho…
In L.A. some walled communities bigger and stronger than this one just aren’t there any more. Nothing left but ruins rats and squatters.” p.105
She urges her friends, family, and her community To do anything about it, but this talk scares them so they don’t listen. In this way she’s reminiscent of climate change activists who face opposition and denial from other people and policy makers because they don’t want to acknowledge the reality of climate change.
Finally, Lauren’s hyper empathy might be some sort of standing for how people today are exposed to the Tragedy and Injustice that face people all across the world. Though I haven’t read enough to be convinced of this interpretation.
My question is: what is Butler trying to say about the role and challenges of young climate change activists through the character of Lauren?
Faye G.
In Chapter 11, we learn about the privatized city of Olivar. Some people, like Lauren, her father, and Curtis, are distrustful of company towns and their tendency to exploit the people who live and work there. Others, like Cory and Joanne, are hopeful that moving to Olivar could provide safety and security. There is a growing acceptance among everyone that they cannot stay in their neighborhood forever– as Joanne says on page 126, “I have to go. What else is there for me– for anyone. It’s going to be hell here. You know it is.” This sentiment is one that Lauren has held all along, but her solution is very different. Lauren would rather choose uncertainty (going north and pursuing her Earthseed vision in a dangerous environment) over security (and the potential loss of freedom in a company town). I can understand both Joanne’s and Lauren’s perspectives. There is the fear of losing your life and the fear of losing your autonomy. I wish I could be as brave as Lauren, but in this extreme of a situation, the fear of a gruesome death might win out- I might be more like Joanne. What would you do in their shoes?
I finished this book within three days. It was so powerful, scary, informative, and inspiring. The Parable of the Sower follows Lauren, a 15-year-old who lives in a world where disease has spread, crops and water are no longer abundant, and addiction is spreading, causing fires, crime, and death to rise. Lauren was raised Baptist but never felt connected to it, which is when she created Earthseed: Book of the Living, which describes God as being changed “God is neither good, nor evil, neither loving nor hating. God is power. God is change. We must find the rest of what we need within ourselves, in one another, in our Destiny.” (245) This quote describes the theme within the book of looking inward and relying on oneself and that building connections with others can help you navigate through the challenges you may be facing.
How does this concept of god as a force of change and transformation challenge the traditional beliefs about god and religion? Further in today’s society do you think this concept of the Earthseed to be beneficial to bringing about change within society or sustainable development?
Alissa Odom
As we continue to read Parable of the Sower, I am extremely interested in the parallels made between the book and our current world. The book takes place in 2024, set in Los Angeles, and is a very dystopian version of our current world. Lauren is the main character in the story, and as she discusses the world around her we learn a lot about the environmental crisis taking place, and how it is affecting people.
“Peddlers are being found with their throats cut and their money and their handtrucks stolen. Dad says water now costs several times as much as gasoline. But, except for arsonists and the rich, most people have given up buying gasoline. No one I know uses a gas-powered car, truck, or cycle. Vehicles like that are rusting in driveways and being cannibalized for metal and plastic” (Butler).
There isn’t enough water to go around, and people hurt/kill others for it. She also mentions how being clean is a safety issue, and it will draw attention to oneself. She highlights how only the ultra-rich can buy gasoline at this point, yet water costs multiple times as much. How does she use this example of resource disparity and inequality to show the power dynamics playing out within society? Also, how does her hyper-empathy shape her view of the world, and how does it differ from the people around her, especially her dad?
Erik Olson
I was drawn to the passage,
Once of the core motifs of the book is “God is change.”
One strategy to achieve Sustainable Development goals involves appealing to our governmental leaders for change. This correlates with the concept of “super-people” Lauren writes about, politicians serve as gods “to look after us” and “stand between us and God.”
This paradox of politicians serving as representatives of the people, ostensibly as change-makers, while standing between us and meaningful change is played out globally in the world’s handling of climate change. As an example, in the United States, even politicians that acknowledge the threat of climate change operate under the framework of preserving the general status quo. Instead of shifting larger patterns of development to prioritize public transit and walkable cities, billions of dollars are invested in subsidizing electric cars which allow our current (unsustainable) patterns of development to perpetuate. Standing between us and “God” (change), politicians continue to subsidize nonsense policies like ethanol fuel production and swine CAFO biogas methane and Enviva biomass.
Change is constant and inevitable. As an alternative to creating these “super-people,” how can we democratically take control of change, of God? How can our change look like an amoeba shaped by the people and not like a cancer shaped by the rich? How can movements of mutual aid and solidarity economies become predominant?
Abigail Gagan
This half of the book is making me introspective and nostalgic in a sad way. I think it is some kind of twisted empathy for it.
There is so much conversation about change. God is ever-changing according to earthseed, “God is Clay.” Maybe that’s why so many people believe in it, because humans don’t change.
“Is that the way it’s going to be, I wonder? Is that the future: Large numbers of people stuck in either President-elect Donner’s version of slavery or Richard Moss’s.”
but before this,
“Dad decided not to vote for Donner after all. He didn’t vote for anyone. He said politicians turned his stomach.”
But they do, a lot during this book. It’s so interesting to see how slow or fast a change can occur, like miss sims killing herself. She was self-declared holier than thou. Why did she change and kill herself?
Maybe we have a piece of god in ourselves?
It’s late and I’m tired and kind of broken up about this book.
There is so much change yet static energy here, how god is everlasting yet ever-changing in a hopeful way, somehow being human is too, in a fucked-up way. What is the difference? Would the difference even matter here? Here as in the narrator’s world.
Audrey Mase
One of the most notable things for me in the first few chapters of Parable of the Sower was the extreme disconnect from government institutions and the public, just trying to survive. Lauren describes distrust and lack of faith in policing, fire services, and general politics that is felt community-, and surely nation-wide. We hear about presidential elections, but few people have consistent access to radio or TV news broadcasts, and even thoughtful and engaged citizens like Lauren’s father ultimately neglect to vote. It is impossible to not draw parallels between this situation and reality. There is massive distrust of police, and an unimaginable disconnect, especially among young voters, in electoral politics. I know that for myself and my peers, there is no real political representation, and the illusion that politicians are beholden to the demands of their constituents has never been more see-through. I do find it interesting that there had yet to be a complete collapse of state infrastructure in Lauren’s world. While Parable of the Sower has left me with more ruminations than questions, for this week I would ask, how do you find strength in community? Do you share Lauren’s concerns? I am very interested in how this book made everyone else feel.
The Post apocalyptic setting that we are introduced to in Parable of the Sower is one of the most unique and interesting I’ve been able to explore in a long time. As Lauren questions her dads idea of religion it seems interesting that she doesn’t seem to understand him even though she has a condition known as hyper-empathy. The way Lauren understands that the current world has no space for the Baptist church is a very fitting conclusion to the apocalyptic setting but compared to everyone else it makes her look cold. She also ironically has a calloused disregard for the less fortunate people that live outside of Robledo’s walls even when she can feel their pain. The social classes are clearly marked in chapter 3 and something that seems like an important theme of the novel. The have and the have-nots are distinguished by their access to resources and material goods.
How can religion be a tool for community building rather than exclusion?
Does the duality between rich and poor go beyond human society as a natural law or is that simply a human construction?
^^^Carlos Carmona