I love Octavia Butler's Parable books. But they're complex works. The fires in the books were started by arsonists hooked on a fictional drug. And Lauren Olamina is not a clear-cut hero. They obviously resonate today, but to say that they "predicted" the present feels like it flattens their nuance. - ThreadSky

matthewborus.bsky.social • 164 days ago

I love Octavia Butler's Parable books. But they're complex works. The fires in the books were started by arsonists hooked on a fictional drug. And Lauren Olamina is not a clear-cut hero.

They obviously resonate today, but to say that they "predicted" the present feels like it flattens their nuance.

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matthewborus.bsky.social•164 days ago

I'm not the first to say something along these lines, but the simplifications keep getting thrown around on social media. And sometimes they make me wonder what books people are referring to.

amycastro.bsky.social•164 days ago

Valid

devjones.bsky.social•164 days ago

I've only read Parable of the Sower, but I did have an eery prophetic feeling reading it for the first time in 2020. Less about the fires and more the breakdown in social trust and the rise of corporate feudalism. Neal Stephenson also saw this and I do feel like we're getting closer every year

nekron999.bsky.social•164 days ago

In an analogous & far less sophisticated vein, I can't stop hearing Baldwin's line, "no more water, the fire next time."

Also, from Everclear's Santa Monica,
We can live beside the ocean
Leave the fire behind
Swim out past the breakers
Watch the world die

stopburningthings.bsky.social•163 days ago

There is always Bad Religion's (Los Angeles is Burning). Yea I know it's gone from an occurrence to absolutely apocalyptic and this is climate change. But then there's always Bad Religion's Kyoto Now (about the climate treaty).

potato-salesman.bsky.social•164 days ago

But there is a line in one of the books where the Christian fascist dictator says
"Make America great again"

Which is very eerie for a boom written long before the Trump phenomenon

littlemissesri.bsky.social•164 days ago

I will have to disagree with you. What’s going on presently is also mired in a lot of complexity, interplay, and nuance- social media and limited character counts are unable to express it the way it deserves. Don’t conflate the desire to do so with the failure to deliver it satisfactorily.

mamaonthemic.bsky.social•164 days ago

I just finished the first book a couple of weeks ago. I did see a lot of the details as uncannily predictive, but I agree that such analysis should be undertaken carefully and respectfully.

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