Matthias's Reviews > Parable of the Sower

I often wonder about religion. Its roots, its power, its consequences. When looking at the religion that had the biggest influence on my life, I sometimes wonder if that belief system isn't just a biography that got out of hand. We've got the life of Jesus described to us, the good deeds he did and the things he had to say, and people picked it up, learnt it, liked it, loved it, embraced it, fought for it, killed for it, died for it. Whoa, that escalated quickly. Such a tiny harmless thing as a moral compass doing so much harm.

I've caught myself thinking about how nifty it would be if my life story would turn into a religion, and what impact writings about it would have on later generations. Telling people about that time when I gave a sandwich to a poor guy, or the one where I forgave a friend after he had put chewing gum in my hair. Or when I waited with washing my dishes for an entire week and had to scrub a bit harder to get the crusts away. What impact would those writings have a couple of generations from now? "And on the seventh day he decideth to wash the dishes, and saw that it was difficult."

In this day and age, at least where I live, the moral compass no longer seems to be the Bible. But does that mean our morals and behavior are no longer guided by religion?

When Christiano Ronaldo visits a sick kid it's as if a beautiful miracle happened, when Messi tells us not to be racist we accept his wise words, when Coca-Cola tells us to enjoy life and Nike tells us to just do it, we do it. What's the difference with Jesus, except for the time they were living in? A viral video of a beggar giving what little he has and being immediately rewarded for it, a meme of a bully being kicked in the nuts, a social experiment on domestic violence on men filmed in a public square guided by a solemn song and big, white words scrolling over pointing us to what's right. What's the difference between my Facebook feed and a page in the Bible? Could a simple idea as "Enjoy life" be the seed of a religion?

These are some of the questions that were inspired by this book, "Parable of the Sower". In it Octavia Butler tells the story of Lauren Olamina, a young girl who holds the seed of a new religion: Earthseed. Aside from the religious aspect, this book also presents us with a dystopian future, a future that is as alarming as it is a possibility that only seems to have increased in likelihood since the time this book was written in the late nineties.

Lauren lives in a small community surrounded by walls. The community is not rich, but fairly well-off compared to what's out there. She lives on an island of the privileged amidst an ever-rising ocean of those who fell and got left behind. It's not a particularly warm community, with lots of suspicion, gossip and resentment, even within families, but at least they have chicken to breed and vegetable patches to work on. Outside the walls poverty is king and violence is queen. A new drug turns people into raging pyromaniacs. It is clear for both the protagonist and the reader that the walled community will not be able to stand up to these increasing dangers for a long time, that it will be swallowed up whole.

The way Butler describes this situation, the sense of impending danger and how Lauren reacts to it, was done brilliantly. And it's sad to say, but I could relate. Bombs blowing up ever closer to home, streams of refugees looking for shelter, shelters blown up, refugees joining other refugees looking for safe havens that build walls around them to keep the problems out, well, you get the picture, we all watch the news.

In the midst of all this, Lauren has discovered a new "religion". That's what the author and her protagonist decided to call it and it starts off very promising with inspiring verses around the idea that the one, undefeatable constant is change. The religion centers around the idea that God is Change. Lauren insist she "found" this wisdom and did not construct it, making her belief very firm and her resolution to spread it even greater.

Unfortunately, it doesn't get much richer than that. The idea isn't really expanded upon, there's no clear moral consequences aside from the fact that one can shape change through one's own actions and accept change when one can't steer it. The title refers to seeds and sowers, but it seems that the idea of God being change is the full-grown plant and that's all you get. The part of Lauren's life described in the book also isn't inspirational in the way Jesus' or Zlatan Ibrahimovic' is. It's a story of people on the run. The dangers they encounter and the people they meet all seem to melt together in one big ball of misery that gets harder to relate to as the book progresses. This book does not hold one sparkle of joy or humor, and actually has little emotion to offer in general. It's unceasingly and unremittingly bleak and depressing. "Parable of the Sower" is presented as excerpts of Lauren's journal, but is written in such a factual way it's difficult to relate to her or anyone surrounding her. By the end of the book I still had a hard time discerning between some of the characters.

I'm also pretty sure this is actually a Young Adult novel, only I didn't realize it very quickly, which is a compliment for any YA novel in my book. But some aspects, like the hyperempathy syndrome due to which Lauren feels physical pain whenever someone around her is hurting, just feels a bit too "Disney", for lack of finding a better word. You know, the one where a trait with morally desirable consequences is considered a dangerous thing to be ashamed of. You don't need to have hyperempathy to feel where this is going.

All of this to say that this book starts off with a brilliant setting and idea in the first half (5 stars), but seems to waste its potential in the second (3 stars). I have to add that the ending of this book is clearly not the end of the story, which continues in "Parable of the Talents", a book I'll start reading tonight. I have hopes that after all the running from fires, dogs, and cannibals in book one, more of the philosophical potential is unlocked in this sequel. Maybe the God-is-change plant will bear some fruits after all.