parable of the talents
what can you do with a god like that?
“All that makes me wonder how a belief system like Earthseed — very demanding but offering so little comfort from such an utterly indifferent God — should inspire any loyalty at all. [Earthseed’s] promise is of hard work and brand-new possibilities, problems, challenges, and changes.”
This book, y’all. Octavia Butler’s mind. We are not worthy.
If you enjoy her work, you might also be interested in her conversation with fellow Black sci-fi author Samuel Delany.
What we’re reading
- Butler, “‘Devil Girl from Mars’: Why I Write Science Fiction” (1998)
- Butler, Parable of the Talents (1998), prologue — Ch 11
If you need a reminder, here’s what we said about Sower.
“Parable of the Talents” (Matthew 25:14–30)
If you’re not familiar with the original story, this is what Butler’s title is riffing on.
“To all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” (Matthew 25: 29)
Why do you think Butler named the story of Earthseed’s maturing after this parable?
Butler, “Devil Girl from Mars”
Why does Butler say she writes science fiction? What work does she hope her Parables will do?
Butler, Parable of the Talents (prologue — Ch11)
Rather than pull out a bunch of quotes — because honestly I highlighted so much on this, my fourth? fifth? reading of Talents — I want to encourage y’all to consider this novel in the context of all our readings for the semester.
- Using Earthseed as a model, what are the characteristics of a new religious movement or “cult?” How does Earthseed resemble the movements we’ve discussed this semester? How does it differ?
- How does Earthseed develop its practices? How might Weisenfeld’s work help us think about their approach to these practices?
- Weisenfeld, Chidester, and Evans all theorize religion, in part, through the way movement members’ bodies are treated after they die. What do Earthseed’s funerary practices tell us about the movement, and why do they matter?
- Weisenfeld, Chidester, and Evans likewise attend to how movement members’ describe their own commitments and practices AND how those practices and commitments are described and received by outsiders. How do these theorists help us think about Larkin/Asha Vere’s response to her mother’s work? (We’ll come back to this one for next time, too.)
