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Parable of the Sower as Activism

 I was unable to attend the opera so this is solely based on my reading and interpretation of the book. Ever since class last Wednesday, I have been contemplating the question we were posed regarding if Parable of the Sower can be seen as a form of activism and the more I think about it, the more I want to say yes to that question but it is also a complicated and layered question. 

I think the thing that drew me in to Parable of the Sower was how much overlap I could see with our current world. The governmental control, the climate crisis, the violence, the drug use, everything reminded me of things I am reading about in the news, just with a fictional spin but even that isn't too hard to believe that it could happen in the near future. I think knowing the context of when Parable was written was influential in my thought process for this question as well. It was written following the first videoed and publicized episode of police brutality - an issue we are seeing become more and more prominent. Knowing why Octavia Butler wrote this, I think it is hard to not see it as a piece of activism. It is commentary on the United States relation to racism, religion, and climate. It was a warning of what would happen if things didn't change - if people's views about POC and our environment didn't change. And now we are less than a year out from the time this book is set and things didn't change and we are almost living in the world that Butler created.

One of the other things that struck me was the concepts behind Earthseed. For the most part, the religion was based on accepting and pursuing change. Butler said she wanted to create a religion she could believe in and understanding why she wrote Parable, it is unsurprising to me that she would believe in a religion that wanted change. On it's own I think Earthseed is activism and in combination with the character, Lauren, is a carrier for Butler to be able to spread her views regarding the change needed in our world. Butler wanted to create social change with her book so inherently I think it is activism art.

I spent some time looking to see what the outcomes of her book were after class on Wednesday, other than it becoming a highly regarded science fiction book and eventually turning into the opera. One important thing I found was the Earthseed Land Collective. Started in 2016, I believe, the collective is a group of POC inspired by Butler's books to take change into their own hands and attempt to do their part to help our environment while building a community and pushing back against capitalist oppression. It is based out of North Carolina and overall believe in the values of Earthseed as a way to accept and catalyze change for the better.



https://earthseedlandcoop.org/

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