Earthseed: Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents

by Octavia E. Butler

“I heard it was easier up there,” I said. “Oregon, Washington, Canada.” “Closed,” he said. “You’ve got to sneak into Oregon if you get in at all. Even harder to sneak into Washington. People get shot every day trying to sneak into Canada. Nobody wants California trash.” “But people do leave.

Wall

“Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. Civilization provides ways of combining the information, experience, and creativity of the many to achieve ongoing group adaptability.” And then,

Civ

I was born in 2009, and for as long as I can remember, I’ve heard people complaining about the space program as a waste of money, and even as one of the reasons for the country’s deterioration. Ridiculous! There is so much to be learned from space itself and from the nearby worlds! And now we’ve found

Life

There are textbooks, up to graduate level in several subjects, specialized dictionaries, a set of encyclopedias—2001 edition—books of history, how-to books, and dozens of novels. Jeff King ran across the books being all but given away at a street market in Arcata. “Someone was clearing out a room so that relatives could move into it,” he told me. “The owner of the books had died. He was considered the family eccentric, and no one else in the household shared his enthusiasm for reading big, bulky books made of paper. I didn’t think you’d mind my buying them for the school.”

Books