Her father understands and encourages her to read books on survival, learn to be a good shot, and have an escape bag ready when the time comes. She knows that the walls that protect them won’t last forever, and she gets frustrated when her friends and family shut her down for trying to talk about this and prepare for it. Lauren is a very smart teenager who is sharply aware of the dangers surrounding her and her community. Her father’s fear is that it could be used against her, to hurt her and perhaps force her to do things in order to protect herself from pain. Lauren’s condition as a hyperempath is a secret, known only within her family. For the most part, whites and Blacks get along ok, but outside the walls, those who are not white are targeted. Lauren and her father are Black, as are some others in the neighborhood. They and the neighbors have their own school, neighborhood watch, and social support system. Her step-mother and younger half-brothers mostly stay within the walls of the community.
Her father is both minister to their community and a university employee outside it. Lauren Olamina and other teens in her community are taught how to use them guns are an essential tool for survival in a world where police and other first responders most likely won’t respond to a crisis, and if they do are as likely to engage in crime as to fight against it. Guns are everywhere, and although expensive, they are necessary for protection. Gangs, drug addicts, the poor live outside and will resort to any and all means to survive. Like most other communities, it is walled and gated as a means of survival. The book begins in the year 2024, in a Los Angeles neighborhood called Robledo. Is this a weakness in a world being ripped apart by violence, chaos, and natural disaster? Or is it a strength that will propel Lauren toward building a new and better society? Parable of the Sower is book one in a duology, so those questions will not be answered yet, but Butler shows her readers the dangers that Lauren and her friends face in their mission to escape and against all odds create their own community. In this world, however, a condition known as “hyperempathy” afflicts some, including Lauren, causing them to feel the pain that those around them experience. It is in many ways an accurate depiction of the world we currently inhabit. Butler writes powerfully and passionately about a world in the throes of self-destruction.
I reviewed this novel for the 2015 Cannonball Read, and I do believe that it (or really any written by Butler) would be a Gateway to reading more sci-fi/fantasy, and I hope a Gateway to reading more by Butler. Octavia Butler (1947-2006), winner of Nebula, Hugo and MacArthur prizes, tells the story of hyperempath Lauren Olamina in mid-2020s California. Parable of the Sower (1993) is an astoundingly prescient work of science fiction. Cbr13bingo Gateway, Bingo #9-11 (horizontal, vertical and inner square)
0 kommentar(er)
