“All that you touch
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
is Change.
God is Change.
EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING”
When I first encountered the idea of “God is Change” in Parable of the Sower, it really stuck with me. I wouldn’t call myself a religious person. I’m more of a pagan who believes the Universe is God, and God is in everything. So this idea of God being Change really makes sense – the Universe is constantly in flux, evolving, expanding, creating new life cycles. The Universe is quite literally Change.
In a project to study how humans imagine the future, I think the best place to start is with a master, and Octavia E. Butler was certainly a master at imagining the future. I chose to begin with the Parable books because they are both seminal works of an amazing visionary, and they take place during this exact moment in time. First published in 1993, Butler quite accurately imagines what life is like in 2024. Parable of the Sower is set in a three-year period between 2024 and 2027, so I’ll basically be reading the book in real-time. In the forward written by LeVar Burton, he calls that experience “chilling” and “disconcerting,” but he also says that it’s ultimately hopeful because of what Earthseed gives us.
“Through Earthseed, Octavia instructs us that the only sane response to being human is to embrace the inevitability of change.” (p. xi)
Going into these books, I’m apprehensive because I know it will be tough to read something so close to real life, but I’m also so excited to study this work more closely and with a new perspective from when I first read it back in high school. I hope to be able to engage with this work in a way that extracts its lessons and helps me to better imagine where we can go from here.
Burton says, “I believe that living a successful life is akin to walking; we take it one step at a time, and one step at a time is how we accomplish anything in this life, no matter if it’s eating a sandwich or changing the world.” (p. xii)
Butler called this a cautionary tale, but unfortunately, any opportunity to heed her warning is gone. So, what can we glean from it now? Let’s take the first step and find out.
If you want to read along with me, you can grab a copy of Parable of the Sower from my bookstore, Tubby & Coo’s Traveling Book Shop. View the first 20 books I plan to read here, in no particular order.
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