Maximum Occupancy

Whoa, whoa, whoa! 2 posts in less then 24 hours?! That is right, because I have a lot of books that I need to catch the internet lurkers who stumble onto this page, up on. Have I done my taxes though, have I cleared out my inbox, taken care of all the life chores that are never-ending, answered texts from months ago? No and this is not about this.

This is about some real shit, Parable of the Talents. The internet had informed me that this series is taking place in our present and near future, that Octavia E Butler is a science fiction goddess, perfect, awe-inspiring and worthy of all worship for her stories and her message. And they were right, after reading the first novel in the series, even though it is a hard story, I had to move onto the only other book she completed within it before she became too depressed by what she was researching and writing.

She was onto something and she used the best of her abilities to give us some hope, even while predicting the political and environmental challenges we will face. Written in 1998, this book takes place in 2032, and made me feel uncomfortable as to how close our society is to these “made ups” events. Systematic racism, ineffective police and government, the erasure of social safety nets like education and welfare services, all goes hand in hand with the widespread housing, famine and water shortages that her characters face.

Not all the characters we have come to love and care for in the first novel makes it, and that is because things have not changed around them even if the Earthseed movement is making huge gains in changing the thinking and mindset of those participating in it. The story still focuses on Lauren and comes from her diaries and recollection, but now we have some view points from Bankole and their daughter. It is though the introduction of Asha Vere’s voice that the writer tries to tackle residential schools and what happens when children are “rehomed” from loving parents who are not allowed to lift themselves and their families out of poverty, but are punished for arbitrary reasons by their government.

As great as this book and series is, it is dark. I thought the first book was difficult what with the murder, rapes, raids, lack of support, racism, the tactics that are used to force others into legal slavery, and so on, but this book does not hold back either and adds to the traumas that we are facing. What balances it out is that the critical voice comes from the daughter. Mother and daughter relationships are always fraught, but especially when there is generational trauma involved it is much easier to lay blame on the one who gave birth to new life in a miserable existence. I was left seeing where both Lauren and Asha Vere were coming from, and I was left wondering if I could ever survive a fraction of what they went through.

This is my favorite dystopian science fiction series of all time, even if the series ended prematurely and before it makes it to the stars.

Book one and two were the framework to show that earth was too far gone to be anything but the launching pad to trying to achieve a Utopia in space. I think it it meant to be full of reality and our current day monsters (the president is Texan governor Andrew Steele an uncanny combo in my mind of Governor Abbott and our ex despot Trump) so we can feel the initiative to try hard when it comes to who we allow to be elected and why the funding of science exploration should not be left to the cults or private companies (no matter how well meaning they are).

I will admit that I am a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to this story, I see Earthseed as the only acceptable cult and I am okay with their privatization of space so they can escape even though cults are NOT okay and Elon Musk’s Mars shit gets on my nerves - let the real scientists motivated by ethics and thirst of knowledge get things done…because her writing is that good.

I mean how can anyone top that?