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I just received this book and am looking forward to reading it and everyone else's analysis.

We’re currently reading through this in school and working on mid book essays for it right now. Normally I hate writing super long essays but damn the relevance of this book is really giving me the motivation I need to write it

Wait until you get to the sequel. I’m reading it now and my goodness it’s unsettling to the core.

Just read this novel last month…powerful.

It's been on my list for a long time but now I better move it up to the top.

🤔🤔🤔🤔

That’s freaking crazy! I just got this book today and can’t wait to read it

Wow. This is eerie.

I ordered a new copy last week. 💪🏾♥️💪🏾

Just ordered this book; it’s arriving today and I can’t wait. Need to finish the one I’m reading now so I can get started. Thanks so much for the recommendation. It truly is uncanny.

I just finished Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talent. Hard to accept the similarities between our reality and those fictions.

How crazy is that.

Yes and wait till you read the sequel Parable of the Talents ! Currently reading it, my mind is blown. President Jarrett's Christian nationalism /make America great again movement.... She (Butler) envisioned the nightmare we're experiencing.

Not voting is the same than voting for evil.

So eerie

😳😳😳

On my TBR pile!

The dystopian novels have become all too real. Did someone imagine this exact scenario? Oh, only too close.

Completely agree. I feel the same about Ishmael by Daniel Quinn (1992) and Killing Time by Caleb Carr (2000).

😳

Well I guess I’m headed to the library tomorrow

A guy named Sinclair wrote a book in 1935 called "It Can't Happen Here" and if you swapped some of the names and updated the setting it'd read like today's news. Butler wrote that book because she's one of many, many wise people who understood politics and tried to stop this from happening.

Damn, that's crazy.

I ordered this book last week and I should have it before Christmas. It's going to be my holiday read. So excited.

Wtf

Prescient.

And Sinclair Lewis in 1935?

I’m reading this now 😊. Startling in its accuracy

Reagan,.Nixon and Bush were already putting out these ideas. In fact, Nixon wanted to get rid of HUD, Welfare and other govt departments & replacing all w/universal basic salary to every US citizen.

This passage from Parable of the Talents is also absolutely fucking spot on. I got physically nauseous when I read it.

That would give a stroke! Scrapping the Mars program? Never

And Donner’s slogan is “help us make America great again”…

I think about this passage often.

It’s insane how prescient Parable of the Sower is. Loved reading it. “Civilization, like intelligence, may serve well, serve adequately, or fail to serve its adaptive function. When civilization fails to serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces”

OK. I have chills.

Whoa!

I’m on the hill with you.

This just reminded me to buy it. Thank you.

Yep there were no conservatives in 1993

OMG I know. I started reading this book and my jaw dropped. No spoilers though, I’m in the middle.

I am rereading it now.

This is next in my tbr pile

The last paragraph on that page is exactly what really happened. A third of registered voters didn't vote.

Okay you've convinced me lol. I need to see if somebody has it on audio. I spend way too much time driving my kids around. 😆

Prophetic…

Wow-amazing

This is definitely next on my list! My first Octavia Butler book was Kindred. Excited to dive into more of her work.

I am floored!! I have to get the book now!!

Wow. Also see Edgar Casey (1877-1945) who predicted a fascist president years ago.

I’m just reading Parable of the Talents now! Octavia Butler is such a beautiful writer

WOW!

I have just bought this book thanks to #booksky can't wait to read it!

This has been on my TBR forever. This post just pushed it to the top of the list! How prescient!

You've got to rub your eyes in disbelief!

I have just ordered the two book parable set after reading your posts. I am sure I will enjoy them after which I will humbly thank you.

Thank you. I just put a hold on it at the library.

This book kept me up at night for many nights. There are so many references that feel current. Workers and credit with no end hit me hard, now this one…. Not fun.

Holy mother f*

My brain just exploded. I read this in 1993. This is freakin spooky. Time for a reread.

Every time I see Octavia Butler on my feed it tells me I’m in the right place.

I read this during the pandemic in a time of stress and anxiety. And now here we are again and I am in a time of stress and anxiety as we become an authoritarian regime. Writing the obituary for democracy and freedom.

Parable of The Sower and Parable of The Talents by Octavia Butler got me in a chokehold. I read both books during the pandemic. I was astonished how she could see where the future. She was very astute and she was pay attention to how governments work.

there are certain kinds of horny that allow glimpses into the nature of your world, which has not fundamentally changed since 1993

2024 is an election year and this dumpster fire was predictable as far back as Reagan but, yeah. Why not 2020 or 2016? Or 2028? It’ll be interesting to see how much future events seem to line up. I hope we can say, “See? We took her warning seriously and avoided disaster.”

I started reading this book this morning, and I'm already 120 pages in. It's captivating

Reading this right now. I said to myself “Christ, she named him DONner?”

Wowza!

I keep saying this and I will say it again Butler was a seer when she got in the zone and wrote those books her mind left this time and saw things in the future. My favorite author and gone too soon but left us gems to read and reread.

I saw that page posted by @nnedi.bsky.social a few days ago. Crazy right?

An amazing but heavy read rn.

She didn't need a time machine, she needed to look at the direction of where we were going and say "By 2024..."

Such a great book. It's been quite a few years since I read it, but I still think if it often. I love her writing.

Amazing!

This stands firmly beside Margaret Atwood and her unsettling gift. There is also prophetess Baba Vanga- blind at age 12; Teresias - blind seer of Thebes who became a woman for 7 years. A history of female prophets + the enigmatic Nostradamus.

The dystopian novel that really ain't that dystopian. Hammer hit nail on the head.

Wow!

📌

PROPHETIC she was!!🙌🏾

✔️

That was a good book...reading part 2 now. Does make you think about comparisons with today

I read this book over the summer - literally started at the end of July, when the book starts - and it was unnerving how much she predicted.

That book is terrifyingly prescient.

Reread via audiobook this year. Narrated by the much missed Lynne Thigpen. Prophetic! Disturbing! So well written!

Wow! I need to read this. Can’t believe I missed it!

WOWWWW!

She's been my favorite author for the last 3 years... I read anything she writes!

Enjoyed this book. Found it because of an adult book club at the library. Long story short, support your libraries! 🙂

I think about this book all the time. She was a genius and her version of the near future is startlingly close to our reality.

just got the book at used book store based on a posting on this site.... remarkable....don't tell me how it ends. 😳

Hmmm. Available in PDF online.

Learn more. Yes, uncanny. Sci-Fi authors have a habit of dreaming up stuff that is so strange it can only be real... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable...

Parable of the Sower (novel) - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Or history just keeps repeating itself

wait til you see what her ultra conservative president says in the 1998 sequel, Parable of the Talents:

that's astonishing

I follow back immediately tnx

She was a very insightful being.

Nah. We’ve just been having literally the same fight since the 60s.

And yet Trump’s autistic advisor is actually building moon and mars missions.

I feel this way about Robert Anton Wilson’s Schrodingers Cat Trilogy (1979)

I’ve just added it to my list, it’s next!

So much prescience in that novel. Eerie.

This isn’t earth shaking. I could see it coming back in the 90’s as I knew the players back then. You didn’t have to be clairvoyant to see what the they wanted. But no one listened. They BARELY listen now. Everything I have said about the players I knew then has come to pass.

Loved this book; need to reread it

Bought the book today. Cant wait to jump into it.

Holy shit! That’s crazy. I just got the book. I can’t wait.

I wish she'd lived long enough to write book #3. BTW Xenogenisis Trilogy is really cool too. Especially regarding ideas of gender...

I read it in 2017 and not sure I can manage a re-read in this timeline but an absolute gut punch of a novel for these times

I just picked the book up at the library today.

Just started this

I’m going to have to re-read Parable of the Sower! Octavia Butler was an extraordinary visionary. Thanks for sharing! 📚 🙏🏽💜

What?!?! Let me order this book!

On my way to Barnes and Noble to pick up my copy right now.

Wow!

Wow speechlesd

Holy crap!! And here we are

And, Butler talked about politicians running on the idea of making America great again.

I have not read this book, but it's on my list now.

And the name. Donner. Prescient AF.

She was a true prophet.

Trends are a hell of a thing. I wonder if they are friends with Matt Graoning, the Simpsons creator.

Yes! Loved Kindred. Her time travel abilities make complete sense

Yes a bit too unfortunately prophetic. She was brilliant.

Art creating reality. Once again

She tapped into some deep zeitgeist…like the really good writers do. They’re like our canaries in the coal mine. But everyone just things they’re crazy Cassandra’s. Meanwhile…

Excellent book! I read it when it came out.

Prescient beyond belief! I am also a great fan.

And Parable of the Talents, which has a right-wing bible-thumper named Jarret elected president early in the book, who literally says, "Help us to make America great again."

It almost makes you feel like dystopian novels are being used as handbooks.

This is just insane

Wow

Me and my book club just started this book. I'm locked in.

When was this book written?

I'm downloading this now💪🏾💪🏾

I just finished this book and was soo…..hopeless afterwords 😭

Wow

I so wish she'd been able to write this series as a trilogy, instead of a duology. Love her writing--we lost her WAY too soon.

Have you listened to the podcast "Octavia 's Parables" hosted by Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown? Dream work, examining how to change world, chapter by chapter! www.readingoctavia.com

I need to re-read that book. Again. And Parable of the Talents, too.

Nah their game plan was written in stone in the 80's, anyone could have predicted this

😮😦😨😖

I mean, this is completely consistent with 80s and 90s politics. No special insight was required to predict it.

I'd argue that the US is in for a rougher ride than they would have had under Donner 😥, but very spooky.

Don’t remember this she is a seer

Didn't she say something about looking at how things were and imagining how they'd progress in 30 years? She looked at the Reagan/Bush era and had 'em figured immediately.

😳🤯

I was confused and thought Octavia Spencer was also a kick ass sci fi writer!

📌

The Far Right is relentless in plotting the decades-long pursuit of its goals. The Far Right is more unashamedly outspoken about establishing minority rule now than they were by 1993, but Project 2025 was preceded by a similar plot in the Reagan era.

How surprising is 5/11/2024 really, though? The USA has historically maintained a rigid schedule for elections. And as a woman of colour, OB would have been more likely to see the way things could be moving, because minorities are often used as proving grounds .....

t r u m p - parable of the sewer.

Oof.

Here's an excellent 15 min interview of Butler in the early 2000's. youtu.be/e0UgiE8vYuI?...

Remembering Octavia Butler: Black Sci-Fi Writer Shares Cautionary Tales In Unearthed 2005 InterviewYouTube video by Democracy Now!youtu.be

I totally agree. I read this in 2017 so the date wasn't significant. I was astounded by Donner's campaign to take America back to glory days and that evangelicals loved him. I couldn't believe she wrote it in 1993. I wish she were still here to discuss all of this.

Umm...was Ms Butler a seer by any chance? This is harrowingly close to today.

I think about this so often and have ever since I read it several years ago. Brilliant and terrifying.

Yes. I posted the same thing two days after the election. She is a seer, is what I’m going with. #booksky #blacksky

She was a prophet.

🤯 listened to this on audio just last month (pre-election), so I didn’t catch that date. That’s nuts!!

Just read recently thought the same thing. Such a remarkable and talented writer

Yes. This.

I read it long enough ago that 2024 seemed a ways into the future and the dystopia seemed the product of a creative imagination. How far we’ve come…

Butler is an unappreciated genius.

It happened. The aloofness, often (imho) rooted in ignorance and fear morphed into a gray apathy where sound was a rumbling background murmur which did not disturb or annoy any more.

I've read everything she's written. She was awesome. Coincidentally. . . My great-grandpa's name was Doro. (Wildseed)

I LOVE ❤️ Octavia Butler.

She was an amazing writer who would definitely have taken a moment to research Election Day 2024. The fact that she knew 2024 would be where we descended into dystopia is proof of genius.

Just wait until you read parable of the talents. It will be a jump scare

I think that book also had a politician running with “Make America Great Again” as a slogan but I could be wrong. It’s been years since I read it

I will die on the hill that there is at least one person with powerful sway in the MAGA camp who read The Parable of the Sower, The Handmaiden's Tale, Fahrenheit 451, etc, while Trump watched Idiocracy and they both agreed these would make excellent planning materials.

When I read this book earlier this year, chills at the reality.

When I read the book earlier this year...chills at the reality.

FYI: libro.fm is currently giving a few audiobooks away for free, including parable of the sower. Check into it.

Buy audiobooks & support local bookstoresLibro.fm makes it possible for you to buy audiobooks directly through local bookstores.libro.fm

It is unsettling to put it mildly.

OMG

It is amazing that she picked the year that voters would make a horrifying choice in real time.

I just read this and the sequel… kind blown. I got a new reprint from the library and had no idea how I missed this!!