I appreciate parable of the sower but I feel like that has to be a brutal read at exactly this moment.
this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
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Would you be able to explain why without spoiling the book for me?
On its own, its very dark. There is a ton of pretty harsh subject matter, most of which is implied or you only passingly see the aftermath of, but contributes to it feeling very heavy.
Then it also feels very topical, despite being released in 1993, it opens in july of 2024 and features a devolving american political situation with some startling specific similarities to our real life political situation. If you are prone to doomerism I can imagine it really fueling that impulse.
Yes, but that's part of the magic of reading it! I wasn't going to say a thing on it because I thought if someone read this and went into it completely cold they would walk away with their chin on the floor. Because it's almost prophetic in nature. It's really dark, but Octavia Butler herself was prone to depression (I believe she said as long as she allowed herself to wallow in it). I've got the books and the audiobooks now and I am a happy puppy. I'm not sure but they might have also made it a comic? I know they did Kindred. Unfortunately Butler really blew up when she passed. I think she influenced a lot of science fiction ideas on the low. But also, I think she helped continue the fueling of Afrofuturism. Which is pretty cool. But I get the feeling that regardless of how she was born, she probably would have been a writer. She's just got that zouz.
I truly do appreciate it. It's very dark, but without being overly edgy about it, and how little she needs to to say to evoke that feeling, and for its portrait of people dealing with serious shit without losing themselves. but I could easily imagine someone who went in cold bouncing off of it, particularly right now.
Nah, I feel you. I think you know - it's good to get both sides of the coin and go in and like be willing to drop a book. I mean in general though, cause like - trust me there's been books I have been super excited to read and then when I am going over a line five times in my head and I am just going through the motions I realize "she is not the one" and I let that book go. But I am also guilty of re-reading because I have fun, it's simple, and always see something I didn't see first go round. i think I have read Two Serious Ladies 650x. I mean, I am overexagerating, but I also think it was the first time that I came face to face with what I consider the perfect typeface. Cause the edition I have has "Minion" as its font and hot damn do I love that font-face.
But yeah, no you legitimately are saying something super valid and I thank you for it =)
Great recommendations! Octavia E Butler is a fantastic author, and I've read the first but couldn't find the second before life got in rhe way, again...so I might check this out!
Yo, ty! If you read the second one you will slap someone by the end =P!
Now I'm going to get it on my reading list, thanks!
No worries, I hope you like it - but if you don't, don't sweat it. I will straight up put down a book that I am not feeling even if it's recommended by someone I love to death. Because I know all of us are rocking some gnarly backlogs. So you know, read on - whatever you like =)!