Earthseed: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents

by Octavia E. Butler

Haha good point

Strange how normal it’s become for us to lie on the ground and listen while nearby, people try to kill each other.

God Is both creative and destructive, Demanding and yielding, Sculptor and clay.

I remember once going 10 days without seeing another human being except Stuart in our canoe on the Chibougamou River.

junkies and alcoholics

Horrific - cannibalism was a thing in The Road by Cormick McCarthy (2006 - Pulitzer). Interview: “when everything's gone, the only thing left to eat is each other." https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704576204574529703577274572

No imperative to try and “save” them. Just as we, when seeing some poor soul, tho’ less horrific, clearly in need of serious help,or correction, or “salvation,” nonetheless pass by on the other side. No Good Samaritans among the people I know.

farms, many overgrown and abandoned, and abandoned houses.

Nice country, and compared to Southern California, rich country. More water, more food, more room. …

So why were the people eating ...

Question

Cities were always a relief as far as prices went. But cities were also dangerous. More gangs, more cops, more suspicious, nervous people with guns. You tiptoe through cities. You keep up a steady pace, keep your eyes open, and try to look both too intimidating to bother and invisible.

Haha

Bankole says cities have been like that for a long time.

Ouch haha

I didn’t see condescension or that particular kind of disregard that some men reserve for women.

My sister says the area is getting dryer, warmer.

Climate change

Alexandra.

Don Casey.

I had been trying not to look at him. I looked now, but he had not yet said what he had to say if he wanted to keep me with him. Did he know? I thought he did.

“It’s all right if you don’t believe, but don’t laugh. Do you know what it means to have something to believe in? Don’t laugh.”

“This world would be a better place if people lived according to Earthseed,” I said. “But then, this world would be better if people lived according to the teachings of almost any religion.”

“You need me to take you and all your friends off the street so you can start a church.”

decided that I didn’t trust him—which I still didn’t, quite.

Paracetco.

hyperempathy syndrome.”

I remember thinking that it might not be so bad a thing if most people had to endure all the pain they caused.

I’m a very good shot because I’ve never felt that I could afford just to wound someone.

Haha

Your teachers Are all around you. All that you perceive, All that you experience, All that is given to you or taken from you, All that you love or hate, need or fear Will teach you— If you will learn. God is your first and your last teacher. God is your harshest teacher: subtle, demanding. Learn or die.

Because God is change.

We could hear people shooting, screaming, cursing, running. … Same old stuff—tiresome, dangerous, and stupid. The shooting went on for over an hour, waxing and waning. There was a final barrage that seemed to involve more guns than ever. Then the noise stopped.

And somehow, during or after the battle, in spite of the watch, two people slipped into our camp and bedded down among us. They slept, too.

Jill,

Haha

Harry and Travis

Zahra

There was more hunger in those eyes than we could fill with all our food.

I thought I had probably made a mistake. These people were so desperate, they were dangerous.

It didn’t matter at all that they looked harmless. They were still alive and strong enough to ...

Haha

“She’s been beaten,” Jill said. “The way they rolled up when we first spotted them. They’re used to being beaten, kicked, knocked around.” “Yeah.” Allie looked haunted. “You try to keep from getting hit in the head, try to protect your eyes and … your front. She thought we would beat her. She and the kid both.”

Interesting that Allie and Jill should understand so well. What a terrible father they had. And what had happened to their mother?

If they have manners or if they can learn manners, we keep them. If they’re too stupid to learn, we throw them out.”

Haha

“The world is full of crazy, dangerous people. We see signs of that every day. If we don’t watch out for ourselves, they will rob us, kill us, and maybe eat us.

It’s a world gone to hell, Jill, and we’ve only got each other to keep it off us.”

A hint at the ethical motivation of Earthseed. How far does it extend- tribalism

Emery Tanaka Solis.

Tori Solis.

Haha

Then the farm was sold to a big agribusiness conglomerate, and the workers fell into new hands.

Indentured servitude

Wages

Wages—

new laws that might or might not exist,

debt

debt slaves