In 1993, Octavia Butler set her novel The Parable of the Sower in a dystopian future: our present. The novel begins in July 2024, midway through America’s “Apocalypse” or “Pox” era of “coinciding climatic, economic, and sociological crises.” Its first pages describe the November 5th election of a government-dismantling, science-denying president, as well as a drought-stricken California where fires occur routinely.
Scorched Earth Press & friends are reading through the novel in “real time.” Join the readalong on Storygraph here.
Since the Parable is in a sense Lauren Olamina’s journal, with entries stretching from July 20, 2024 through October 10, 2027, we made a cool zine-journal [though kind of long for a zine] to go accompany the reading. You can download it here: