{"id":51104,"date":"2018-10-19T05:03:54","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T09:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=51104"},"modified":"2018-10-18T10:24:25","modified_gmt":"2018-10-18T14:24:25","slug":"the-parables-of-the-sower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/10\/the-parables-of-the-sower.html","title":{"rendered":"The Parable(s) of the Sower"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I have two reasons to blog about the Parable of the Sower. One is that I listened to the Octavia Butler<\/a> novel Parable of the Sower\u00a0<\/em>as an audiobook<\/a> recently, and then did likewise with the sequel, Parable of the Talents<\/em><\/a>. The latter is not getting the attention it deserves, given its arguably prophetic insights, about which I\u2019ll say more below.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"At the same time, I was reading parts Gerry Canavan\u2019s book, Octavia E. Butler<\/em><\/a>. Canavan had the privilege of being among the first to gain access to Butler\u2019s papers, which included her many drafts for Parable of the Trickster<\/em><\/a>, envisaged as the next book in the Earthseed series. Apparently the words I recently turned into a meme were intended to be the epigram for that volume, following one or more Earthseed colonies into space:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing new
\nunder the sun,
\nbut there are new suns.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The biblical allusion and reworking, as Canavan puts it, \u201cwonderfully captures this tension between optimism and pessimism, and the possibility of actually breaking through this psychic impasse into something new\u2026\u201d Canavan\u2019s book includes Butler\u2019s essay \u201cLost Races of Science Fiction\u201d which it is truly fascinating to reread in the wake of the controversy over The Last Jedi on the one hand, and the success of Black Panther on the other.<\/p>\n

The other reason for writing a blog post with this title is because of a post on another Patheos blog<\/a>, asking what Google Analytics would make of the sower\u2019s \u201cbounce rate\u201d in the story that Jesus told. And that too seemed a thought-provoking way of bringing the ancient agricultural parable into conversation with our modern world.<\/p>\n

Butler has written many words that engage with the Bible, and those who know the novels mentioned earlier in this post will know that the name Earthseed refers to a new religion created by the central character in those books. They raise the question of whether science fiction and prophecy<\/a> are the same or at least overlapping genres, since the second novel features a politician whose slogan is \u201cMake America Great Again.\u201d But the focus in prophecy, whether in ancient Israel or modern dystopian fiction, is on addressing the present day. Butler often quoted a dictum of Robert Heinlein\u2019s<\/a>, saying that there are only three kinds of stories:\u00a0\u201cThe what-if category; the if-only category; and the if-this-goes-on category.\u201d Prophecy and sci-fi arguably deal with all three. Would you agree?<\/p>\n

See too the AAR article about Ursula Le Guin as amateur scholar of religion<\/a>. There was also a recent article about blockchain and sci-fi as prophecy<\/a>. And Stephen Garner continues his series of sci-fi recommendations<\/a> (as well as offering some links related to AI<\/a>).<\/p>\n

To conclude, here is an excerpt from the fictional scripture embedded in the novels, \u201cEarthseed: The Books of the Living,\u201d a snippet that is relevant to the present day, and probably to every present day:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Also, let me add one more related detail: Stephen Garner\u2019s series about theological science fiction continues<\/a>!<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\" <\/a>\"\" \"\" <\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have two reasons to blog about the Parable of the Sower. One is that I listened to the Octavia Butler novel Parable of the Sower\u00a0as an audiobook recently, and then did likewise with the sequel, Parable of the Talents. The latter is not getting the attention it deserves, given its arguably prophetic insights, about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":52809,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[2931,8318,8693,15509],"class_list":["post-51104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-fiction","tag-earthseed","tag-octavia-butler","tag-parable","tag-sower"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Parable(s) of the Sower<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I have two reasons to blog about the Parable of the Sower. 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