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A review by trilbynorton
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
5.0
"All that you touch
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes You.
The only lasting truth
Is Change.
God is Change"
Horrifying and hopeful at the same time. Octavia Butler preaches a sort of secular gospel, with an interventionist or even Deist god replaced by the inexorable process of change. Which means that not only can "god" shape us, but we can shape "god". The 2024 Butler imagines, 30 years away at the time of publication, is disturbingly familiar now, replete with economic and ecological collapse. But unlike much dystopian fiction, which has humanity at the whim of its various conceits, Butler exhorts us to act, to shape change before change can shape us.
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes You.
The only lasting truth
Is Change.
God is Change"
Horrifying and hopeful at the same time. Octavia Butler preaches a sort of secular gospel, with an interventionist or even Deist god replaced by the inexorable process of change. Which means that not only can "god" shape us, but we can shape "god". The 2024 Butler imagines, 30 years away at the time of publication, is disturbingly familiar now, replete with economic and ecological collapse. But unlike much dystopian fiction, which has humanity at the whim of its various conceits, Butler exhorts us to act, to shape change before change can shape us.