Parable

The dystopian book club is starting to meet again, the next time will be Thursday, at a local pub. Having read about dystopia for a couple of years, the real thing then descended and we were blocked from holding the usual get-togethers. I've noticed that a few sporadic sessions took place, scattered around local pubs, but it looks as if now it will settle back into a rhythm.

First up is Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler. She wrote it in 1995, but it stands up well against the prevailing conditions in today's world. She describes pandemics and the violence of gun culture in a fractured and disintegrating world. 

The protagonist of the story is keeping a diary, and we see her thoughts about collapsing power and the ways that those with nothing to lose will play against the remnants of a system.

Butler portrays a rope unravelling a thread at a time. As things get worse, you start to dread turning the page to see what unfortunate scene gets depicted as one sinks further into the novel.

"Prodigy is, at its essence, adaptability and persistent, positive obsession. Without persistence, what remains is an enthusiasm of the moment. Without adaptability, what remains may be channeled into destructive fanaticism. Without positive obsession, there is nothing at all. EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING by Lauren Oya Olamina"

It is some diary. More an account of the deteriorating conditions on earth, or more specifically around Los Angeles, as the last remnants of shelter become corrupted. How people who move to the outside get viscerally damaged. There's feral dogs and raging men with Glocks outside of the so-called gated community. But the gates are more-or-less symbolic because strangers with wants can assail the walls at any time. Firestarters can easily thieve from what has been created.

Lauren Oya Olamina also has a condition known as hyper-empathy, where she can feel what those around her are feeling, even among animals. It creates new descriptions, but seemed to me to be under utilised in the story telling, like a dormant super-power.

All the while the mega-Corporations are busily buying the cities and towns, to create something akin to that feature of modern-day China - the company towns - operated by people who are effectively slaves.

This all sets up the imperative to move from Earth. A new planet and positive change. The book of verses being written by Olamina is Earthseed: The Book of the Living. She notes how it contrasts with the Tibetan and the Egyptian Books of the Dead. 

And there is a matter of factness to the descriptions of prevailing conditions. Whether it is shooting a new satellite toward Mars, handling the aftermath of a Pyro induced fire, or seeking more ammunition for the handguns, there is a levelling of tone which persists through the described aftermath of a fire created as a diversion to rob properties.

Butler has run the clock forward in the writing of this novel. Even without the internet's spinnery, we get a sense of the acceleration of earth toward an end-game. Just when we think it can't get worse,  Butler quietly offers us an alternative.