Octavia Told Us: 7 Quotes from Parable of The Sower, The Spoken Black Girl Book Club Book of the Month!
It’s no coincidence that people everywhere have been picking up Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. It reads like an eerily accurate account of the confusing and frightening times we live in. It’s surreal to watch as families lose their homes in the LA fires. We are on the precipice of a new Trump regime and the impending threat of Project 2025 and policy changes that can severally impact the lives of especially Black and brown people, even more so women. In Spoken Black Girl Issue 5: Motherhood, Dr. Ashley Gaddy Robbins wrote about the severe impact the first Trump presidency had on every day Black women who are often the caretakers of the community, leading to devastating choices between food to eat and healthcare. What Octavia wrote as science fiction has in many ways become our present reality. Many call her a prophet, and I believe she understood manifestation and the importance of the messages she had to bring into the world. As writers, we can all take a tip from Octavia Butler to get out of our own ways and write the stories we have been gifted with.
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I speak for myself and every Black woman writer who has ever dreamt of writing sci-fi and fantasy when I say, we are are eternally grateful to Octavia Butler for writing The Sower Series. I, for one, had only read her novel, Kindred. Upon starting Parable of the Sower, I was immediately engulfed, identifying with the main character, Lauren’s hyper-empathy, which is consistently tested to the limit by the violence and tragedy of the world. The leaders of her community, the adults like her father, a preacher who has taught his kids how to shoot a gun, still hold on to the idea of the good old times coming back again, but Lauren knows those days are over and looks to space for solace and hope. Butler calls the novel “a cautionary tale” about what our world could come to if we keep moving in the present direction and continue to neglect and abuse the earth. That’s just scratching the surface of this haunting and yet timeless novel. Read with us!
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7 Quotes From Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
“The destiny of Earthseed is to take root among the stars.”― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower
“In order to rise from its own ashes a phoenix first must burn.” ― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower
“All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower“Embrace diversity.
Unite—
Or be divided,
robbed,
ruled,
killed
By those who see you as prey.
Embrace diversity
Or be destroyed.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower“Create no images of God. Accept the images that God has provided. They are everywhere, in everything. God is Change— Seed to tree, tree to forest; Rain to river, river to sea; Grubs to bees, bees to swarm. From one, many; from many, one; Forever uniting, growing, dissolving— forever Changing. The universe is God’s self-portrait.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower“That’s all anybody can do right now. Live. Hold out. Survive. I don’t know whether good times are coming back again. But I know that won’t matter if we don’t survive these times.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower“I'm trying to speak--to write-the truth. I"m trying to be clear. I'm not interested in being fancy, or even original. Clarity and truth will be plenty, if I can only achieve them.”
― Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower
