Octavia E. Butler is a name I’ve known for some time. Various people, most of whom I don’t know, had recommended her books, particularly Parable of the Talents. It turns out to have been one of the scariest novels I’ve ever read. It’s not horror—it’s science fiction. It’s scary because it’s just too plausible. The first inkling I had that something was amiss was when I read how Andrew Steele Jarret ran for president to “make America great again.” Jarret pretends to be Christian to get the vote and America suffers terribly when he’s elected. I flipped back to the copyright page. 1998. I read on anyway. It’s not too often you find a sci-fi book about someone starting a religion. And named after a biblical story, as well. I was doing fine until Jarret’s supporters destroyed Olamina’s peaceful community and enslaved the survivors.
It’s all just too plausible. Of course, there’s a lot going on here. Butler was an African-American whose ancestors had been slaves. The religions presented in the book are a bit too black-and-white, but the followers of Christian America behave like many followers of Trump. Butler saw this two decades before it happened. The slavery part of the book was difficult to read. There was so much pathos here, so much deep memory. Although Olamina is a flawed character, she is a visionary with the best interest of the human race at heart. This dystopia is perhaps a little too close to reality. Those who recommend the book say that it’s hopeful, so I kept on reading. And yes, there is a hopeful ending. Getting to it left me floored.
Religion defines us. In the growing materialism—false, as anyone who feels deeply knows—the idea that a story could be built around religion seems unlikely. Butler has done that, and done it in spades. I was surprised to learn that she’d studied at the Clarion Workshop, not far from where I grew up. Being from an uneducated family I never heard of the Workshop until I was an adult. And besides, it left Clarion, Pennsylvania for Michigan before I even got to high school. Still, it gives me a sense of connection with a woman who saw more than many did. Although Parable of the Sower is earlier, I’m not sure that I have it in me to pick it up. At least not right away. I’m still trembling a bit from Butler’s second parable.
