Subject: PARABLE OF THE SOWER by Octavia E. Butler

From: dg-rtp!umail.umd.edu!C_Douglas_BAKER (cb52)
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 1994 20:38:52 GMT

PARABLE OF THE SOWER by Octavia E. Butler
                 Book Review by C. Douglas Baker

     Robert A. Heinlein once stated that in writing speculative
fiction the author takes a current cultural or societal trend and
follows that trend to its logical, if sometimes extreme,
conclusion.  Butler has taken the anomie of today's central
cities in the United States, with the attendant violence, drug
abuse, and general disregard for community and painted a
frightening and stark world in PARABLE OF THE SOWER.  Butler
introduces us to an America thirty years hence where to survive
communities must be armed, walled, and prepared to take human
life to defend themselves; an America where drug abuse has taken
a radically violent turn in which a new drug "Pyro" induces the
user to burn items, be they animate or inanimate, for a sexual
high; an America where life expectancy is short; an America where
violence is the norm instead of the exception.

     In this stark, surreal world is Lauren Oya Olamina, an
eighteen year old girl with a vision.  Olamina lives in a walled
community that has protected itself by keeping quiet,
inconspicuous, well armed, and prepared to defend itself.  This
all changes when Lauren's brother, Keith, enters the nefarious
world beyond the walls and implicitly brings attention to this
previously secluded community.  Lauren finds she and her
community must confront the ugly world outside the walls.  

     Most of Butler's works have a strong, empathetic female
character that seem to carry and unfair burden in life.  Lauren
Olamina is no exception.  Lauren has a condition called
"hyperempathy" meaning that she feels the physical pain of others
(including animals).  Yet, she is willing to kill to defend
herself and her family, despite the psychological costs to
herself.  She remarks that if everyone had her disability,
violence would greatly diminish.  Unfortunately for Lauren, the
world she lives in is not only full of violence but inherently
forces a person to eventually commit acts of violence in self-
defense.  Lauren also has a gradual and evolving "philosophy"
called "Earthseed" that takes on quasi-religious status as the
novel unfolds.  This "Earthseed" is the thread that binds the
narrative and makes the conclusion innovative and hopeful.  

     Butler's work is intricate and impressive in its description
of a future America.  There are many sophisticated parallels
between the ugly future Butler paints and today's society.  I
really cannot do her work justice by a simple and brief
description. I highly recommend PARABLE OF THE SOWER.

%T Parable of the Sower
%A Octavia E. Butler
%C New York
%D 1993
%I Four Walls Eight Windows $19.95 (hbk)
%G ISBN 0-941423-99-9 (hbk)
%P 299