I feel bad for speaking ill of a creation of the dead. But, I want to talk about this regardless, because I just finished this book the other day and my thoughts about it were bothering me for the entire book.
I cannot decide if *Parables of the Sower* is meant to be a story of how, in trying times, communities can form around the silliest of ideas, because that’s all you need to bring people together. A sort of first-person hagiograph, telling the story of how a young girl starts a religion, with the obvious implication her invented religion is, for want of a better way of describing, fit only for /r/Im14AndThisIsDeep
Except… I can’t shake the feeling the author intends for the *Books of the Living* to *actually be deep*. Like she’s constructing a story around these parables and verses she wrote herself and considers remarkable. And that just… ruins the story for me. It’s like, girl, what are you doing, this is a bunch of nonsense, just tell me a good story rather than trying to convince me this girl is some brilliant intellectual.
So which is it?
Does Butler consider “God is Change” to be profound?
Or is it the story of how you don’t need any actual profundity, to build a community?
by AnEriksenWife
1 Comment
I’ve only read the first few chapters of the second book, but it seems to address this issue using the main character’s kid as the voice along with the previous main character.
I’m interested in reading the next one when it’s available at the library.