Earthseed: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents

by Octavia E. Butler

The day she and Harry use their knives, I hope they kill. If they don’t, I might have to, to escape the pain. And what will they think of that?

I’m a sharer.

we’re not a unit yet. Harry and I don’t know Zahra very well, nor she us. And none of us know what will happen when we’re challenged.

It’s no small thing to commit yourself to other people.

People get killed on freeways all the time.”

Haha - with and without cars

Sucking on a plum or apricot pit all day makes you feel less thirsty. Zahra told us that.

Nice

It’s crazy to live this way, suspecting helpless old people.

we need our paranoia to keep us alive.

Harry and I have been well-fed and protected all our lives. We’re strong and healthy and better educated than most people our age. But we’re stupid out here.

The costs of privilege

think what a stab wound or a broken bone would mean out here:

“We don’t have to hurt anyone unless they push us into it, but we don’t dare let our guard down. We can’t trust people.”

we don’t have to turn into animals, for godsake.”

“In a way, we do,” I said. “We’re a pack, the three of us, and all those other people out there aren’t in it. If we’re a good pack, and we work together, we have a chance. You can be sure we aren’t the only pack out here.”

Haha

I let them go. I think it would have been better to shoot them.

I’m afraid of guys like that—guys looking for trouble, looking for victims. But it seems I can’t quite shoot someone just because I’m afraid of him.

“Let’s pass your watch and my gun around,” I told him. “Three hours per watcher.”

Anything that would keep him alert couldn’t be all bad.

Haha

And my father used to worry about future slavery or debt slavery. Had he known? He couldn’t have.

Haha

I groaned.

you tried your hardest to make me throw up while I was learning to clean and skin rabbits?”

everything was getting worse: the climate, the economy, crime, drugs, you know.

I didn’t believe we would be allowed to sit behind our walls, looking clean and fat and rich to the hungry, thirsty, homeless, jobless, filthy people outside.”

individual shots and short bursts of automatic weapons fire. That last and the dogs worried me, scared me.

Haha

I fell asleep at once. Aching and exhausted, I found the hard ground as welcoming as my bed at home.

I was worthless after delivering that one blow.

a packet of small, round, purple pills.

I put the pills back in the pocket I had taken them from.

Best to try to get ahead of them.

“But if they’re unconscious or dead, you don’t feel anything.” “That’s right.” “So that’s why you killed that guy?”

“I killed him because he was a threat to us. To me in a special way, but to you, too.

Could we stay with him? For how long? To what purpose?

Cops are not trusting people.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I knew I should, but talking about it is … hard. Very hard. I’ve never told anyone before. Now …” I took a deep breath. “Now everything’s up to you.”

That Paracetco shit was baby milk.”

“What would you do,” he asked, “if that guy only had a broken arm or leg?”

I groaned,

I already knew more than I wanted to about how br...

Haha

“I think I’d let him go,” I said, “and I’m sure I would be sorry for it. It would be a long time before I sto...

“What if I broke my arm?” “Then I might not be much good to you.

Haha

I took his hands, looked at their big, pale, blunt fingers. They had a lot of strength in them, I knew, but I had never seen him use it to bully anyone. He was worth some trouble, Harry was.

“No one is who we think they are,” I said. “That’s what we get for not being telepathic.

Haha

Haha

Haha - literally

“Maybe this sharing thing is all in my head? Of course it is! And I can’t get it out. Believe me, I’d love to.”

I’ll show you some of what I’ve written. I want to. It’ll be another first for me.

Also p. 12, ch. 1 epigraph