Earthseed: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents

by Octavia E. Butler

Luke, chapter eighteen, verses one through eight: the parable of the importunate widow.

the parable of the importunate widow.

Luke 18, theology

Moral:

The weak can overcome the strong if the weak persist. Persisting isn’t always safe, but it’s often necessary.

Kayla Talcott

I’m no good at denial and self-deception.

We’ll be moved, all right. It’s just a matter of when, by whom, and in how many pieces.

REVEREND MATTHEW ROBINSON

Haha!

I intend to go out posing as a man when I go.

The Garfields

Phillida, Jay, and Joanne.

Bennett

I wish I could imagine just marrying Curtis, staying here, and having a decent life with him.

Haha

You think it’s going to get sane? It’s never been sane. You just have to go ahead and live, no matter what.”

I’d never told him about my sharing, for instance. I’ll have to before I marry him.

Then there’s Earthseed.

“If we’re going to marry anyway, why not do it now?” Because I have things to tell you, I thought. Because if you reject me or make me reject you with your reactions, I don’t want to have to hang around and watch you with someone else.

Haha

Last night someone set fire to the Payne-Parrish house.

What about guns and survival packs?

People are setting more fires to cover crimes—

People are setting fires to do what our arsonist did last night—

People are setting fires to get rid of whomever they dislike

People are setting fires because they’re frustrated,...

They have no power to improve their lives, but they have the power to make others even more miserable. And the only way to prove to yourself that you have power is to use it.

Cf. écorcheurs in 15th century France.

Paracetco,

my biological mother’s drug of choice,

We’ll adapt. We’ll have to. God is Change. Strange how much it helps me to remember that.

Curtis Talcott

Cory

Russel Dory,

Alex Montoya

Kayla Talcott

Wardell Parrish

Wyatt Talcott, Michael, and Curtis

WE are flesh—self aware, questing, problem-solving flesh. We are that aspect of Earthlife best able to shape God knowingly.

7 months later

Natalie Moss,

Edwin Dunn—

I bent, snatched up his gun, and kept running.

Haha smart girl

In the night, a woman and three kids might look like a gift basket of food, money, and sex.

Haha

Poverty, she said, had made the streets cleaner.

Haha

I couldn’t go back to the fires and the pain.

Edwin Dunn’s old .45 automatic.

If it were empty, I could only use it as a club. And the moment I hit someone with it, I might as well hit myself.

I am one of the street poor, now. Not as poor as some, but homeless, alone, full of books and ignorant of reality.

roofless collection of upright black bones.

if I were surprised,

Right use of the subjunctive mood.