2015: The Year of Reading Women discussion

Discussion thread for Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Group read commences February 1st. Detailed reading schedule to be posted later (probably in the February, 2015 thread).

I will join in on this one!

I plan to join yawl for this one too!

The more the merrier!

This one is on my TBR shelf and just waiting for me to finally pick it up. I'll gladly join the group read! :)

Great to see so many people joining us. I've been busy these past few days so I haven't been able to work on the schedule yet. I'll be putting it up shortly.

Reading schedule for 'Parable of the Sower' group read in February:-


1/02/2015 - 7/02/2015 - 2024 (Chapter 1) - 2025 (Chapter 9)

8/02/2015 - 14/02/2015 - 2026 (Chapter 10) - 2027 (Chapter 16)

15/02/2015 - 21/02/2015 - 2027 (Chapter 17) - 2027 (Chapter 20)

22/02/2015 - 28/02/2015 - 2027 (Chapter 21) - 2027 (Chapter 25)

P.S.:-Feedback on the schedule is welcome.

Thank you Samadrita!
Looking forward to this one! :)

May I join?

This sounds great! I'd love to join as well, I've been meaning to read some Octavia Butler for ages.

@Writetospeak:- Yes of course! Anyone and everyone are welcome.

@Katie, The_Freddy:-Looking forward to your participation. :)

I'd happily do a year of reading Octavia Butler so count me in in in :-)

Where is the discussion thread with schedule

Writetospeak wrote: "Where is the discussion thread with schedule"

Right here. :)
(The schedule is in message 7.)

I'm in, for Feb 2015 (schedule says 2014)

Chance wrote: "I'm in, for Feb 2015 (schedule says 2014)"

Apologies for the erroneous dates. Now edited.

Wow I cannot put the book down - I'll try to keep remarks to the schedule, even though I'm already close to finishing.

From the perspective of, say, a low waged service worker, Lauren lives a kind of utopia: close-knit community shaped by an ethics of care and mutual support. She does not have to work, except to share the unalienated labour of social reproduction (childcare, growing and preparing food, education of herself and the young) which leaves her time to pursue her own preoccupations*. Her father, who provides money for the whole family, only has work for it one day per week, leaving him plenty of time to spend at home participating in social reproduction and leisure...

*I have been reading Hito Steyerl and have thoughts about work and 'occupation'

Lauren was born in 2009 so was only 15-16 years old in 2024 at the start of the book. Teaching a group of neighborhood children of different ages and educational levels, along with Cory, seems fairly challenging for someone her age.

I got the impression that Lauren's father did some of his teaching online, although he only went to the university once or twice a week because of safety concerns. He also the job of being a minister so had the responsibility of religious education, had to prepare for and conduct Sunday services, as well as countless funerals, and occasional weddings and baptisms. He was also an unpaid neighborhood leader, trying to keep people safe such as when he took people out for target practice.

Cory, who also had a PhD, taught the neighborhood children all day and was paid for this. (It was not safe for the kids to leave the walled community so they went to her in-home school.)

I would consider growing food to be labor since it was a substitute for money. They were bartering food that they grew to get the things they could not produce themselves. They were also very generous in helping their neighbors when food was stolen.

Because it was so unsafe to go outside their walls, their little community had to go back to the days of being more self-sufficient and partially using the barter system. So unpaid labor can add as much value to the family and the community as paid labor.

I'm really enjoying this book! Will comment more later.

I thought it was very effective using a journal to tell this story. Lauren often does not know who she can trust, so we see her her perceptions of people develop day by day in her journal.

Lauren's age helps brings things down to the level of human interaction. If the character was older, they might be looking more into the past, concentrating on what they had lost. But Lauren is looking toward the future, seeing how she can adapt to the new reality. Her religion/philosophy is based on changing with the circumstances to survive and build a better future.

I'm terribly behind on this one so far (I read 40 pages....). But come Wednesday I'll be on a 10 day vacation and am looking forward to spend my days reading! :) So I'll join the conversation in a few days.

I finally had a chance to pick this up, so I'm way behind but excited, too, despite some lukewarm reactions on here. Speculative fiction (is that how you'd classify this?) is a genre I'm not familiar with so I can already tell that it will be a different sort of reading experience for me.

I absolutely love the book, i couldn't put it down. I agree that the journal device was very effective for describing the situation factually but with emotional depth...

Pardon me while I revive this sleepy thread, but I've finished the book and I have some comments to add!

First off, I must admit that I didn't find the writing very engaging, but the plot did pull me in. I generally prefer writing over plot but whatever keeps me reading, right? The writing style seemed more appropriate to a young adult audience.

The world outside the walled communities is bleak and absolutely terrifying, yet also believable. The desperation and rootlessness of families on the brink of starvation, defenseless against rape, theft, and murder...
I found it interesting that Butler chose to write about a time not too far into the future. Isn't it a little far-fetched to think that things will get this bad by the 2020s? Wait, check that thought. Is it possible that people already live (survive? die?) in these circumstances? My cozy life in Canada knows nothing of the horrors faced by people displaced by war. Floods of refugees with nowhere better to go. And the necessary lack of trust between people on the outside, the dangers inherent in the most simple interaction, the menace of the police - many a homeless person can relate to these sentiments. Just some thoughts that stem from my own interests.

I find it plausible that as social structures deteriorate, women would revert to having less social status than men, and be more vulnerable to violence. The first wife of [I forget his name] resents being in a polygamous relationship, but is powerless to do anything. The younger wives were bought. This is happening more and more in some countries around the world. Young girls are being sold into marriage at increasingly young ages because their families simply can't afford to keep them.

In sum, I feel like Butler's portrayal of American society after its economy collapses under its own weight bears a remarkable resemblance to some impoverished and war-torn nations. This should really freak us out.

In terms of the hollowing out of the state I thought it was exactly like the US and direction of travel of Europe's centre-right parties like our UK coalition government. Lauren's descriptions of the politics and especially the increasing power of companies and erosion of rights... that kind of thing is much more developed in 'Western' countries.

I agree with you about the voice making it like a YA novel!

Lisa wrote: "Pardon me while I revive this sleepy thread, but I've finished the book and I have some comments to add!

First off, I must admit that I didn't find the writing very engaging, but the plot did pull..."

I found the book very underwhelming as well - all the issues of misogyny, climate change, class distinctions and sexual orientation are old wine in new bottle. And as for men maintaining a harem of wives, the Muslim community in our country are legally empowered to have up to 4 wives if they so wish. (I'm not sure of their rights in the West) As for Lauren's utterly drab narration, it bothered me so much it's a miracle I was able to finish the book. I've read many YA novels with the narrator having a more well-defined voice than Lauren's. The reflections on religion and how any religious ideology takes root were the only part of the narrative that seemed novel and interesting to me.

Samadrita wrote: "The reflections on religion and how any religious ideology takes root were the only part of the narrative that seemed novel and interesting to me. "

It's funny, those were the parts that struck me as the most flat and expendable! Sigh. (view spoiler)[Possibly because I found the ending (the settlement of an Earthseed community and potential for a brighter future) far-fetched and too neatly arranged to give us hope. Maybe I'm just too cyncial... :) (hide spoiler)]

Here's my review
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...