50 Fun Facts About Parable of the Sower (Octavia Butler)

In Parable of the Sower, what name does Lauren Olamina give the new religion she secretly creates?

Earthseed grows out of verses Lauren drafts in private as a teenager. By the end of the novel, the strangers who walk north with her have become its first congregation.

Which condition makes Lauren Olamina feel other people's pain in Parable of the Sower?

Hyperempathy, which Lauren calls sharing, traces back to a drug her mother took. On her father's advice she keeps it secret, fearing others will see her as weak.

NASA named the 2021 touchdown site of which rover after Parable of the Sower author Octavia Butler?

Perseverance set down in Jezero Crater at a spot NASA christened Octavia E. Butler Landing. The agency announced the name as the rover made its first drive.

Parable of the Sower first made which newspaper's best-seller list 14 years after its author died?

The New York Times list first carried the novel on September 3, 2020, some 27 years after it was published. Butler, who died in 2006, never saw it there.

Musician Toshi Reagon and her mother turned Parable of the Sower into what kind of stage work?

An opera was the result, with a score that blends spirituals, soul, rock and roll and folk. Reagon built it with her mother, the singer and composer Bernice Johnson Reagon.

In Parable of the Sower, Lauren Olamina's new religion is built on the idea that God is what?

Change is the one constant Lauren sees in her collapsing world. Her followers are urged to steer it through deliberate effort instead of waiting to be rescued.

Before walking north in Parable of the Sower, Lauren Olamina cuts her hair to pass as what?

A man in the group makes the three survivors look less vulnerable on roads full of predators. Lauren completes the disguise with clothes salvaged from her ruined home.

In 1995, Octavia Butler became the first science fiction author to win which honor?

MacArthur Fellowship winners are popularly called geniuses, and Butler's grant came with $295,000. It arrived two years after Parable of the Sower, following years of low-paid jobs.

Parable of the Sower, which opens in July 2024, is told by Lauren Olamina in what form?

Journal entries dated from 2024 to 2027 carry the whole story. The audience learns only what a teenager on the run chooses to set down each night.

What do Lauren Olamina's travelers name the community they found at the end of Parable of the Sower?

Acorn takes its name from the oak seeds the group plants for each loved one lost on the way. It becomes the first settlement of Lauren's new faith.

In Parable of the Sower, Lauren's walled neighborhood lies about twenty miles from which big city?

Los Angeles is where Lauren's restless younger brother dreams of making money. Lauren resolves to walk the other way, north, perhaps as far as Canada.

Lauren's father in Parable of the Sower leads the neighborhood as a minister of which denomination?

Baptist belief shaped the author too: Butler recalled being raised by her mother and grandmother in a strict Baptist home. Lauren is baptized even though she has lost that faith.

In Parable of the Sower, what does Lauren Olamina's faith call the ultimate Destiny of humankind?

Settle other planets: that is the Destiny Lauren preaches, convinced that leaving a failing Earth will force humanity into adulthood. It serves as her faith's version of heaven.

Which 1998 Octavia Butler sequel picks up Lauren Olamina's story five years after the first book?

Parable of the Talents opens in 2032 and sees religious zealots overrun Lauren's settlement and turn it into a re-education camp. The other three titles were books Butler planned but never finished.

Parable of the Sower borrows its title from a story about scattered seed told by whom?

Jesus tells of a farmer whose seed lands on a path, on rock, among thorns and on good soil. Butler closes the novel with the passage itself.

Which natural disaster throws the Bay Area into chaos during Lauren's trek in Parable of the Sower?

An earthquake sets off fires and looting along the route. In the wreckage Lauren's group pulls two young sisters from a collapsed house, and both join the march.

In Parable of the Sower, what relation to Lauren Olamina is Cory, who runs the neighborhood school?

Her stepmother Cory holds a PhD and is the mother of Lauren's younger brothers. As the neighborhood declines she wants the family to move away, but her husband refuses to go.

During target practice in Parable of the Sower, Lauren shares the dying pain of which animal?

A feral dog is shot in the hills, and Lauren almost collapses as it dies. Packs roam outside the neighborhood, one reason every household in her street keeps at least two guns.

Which doctor, nearly 40 years older than Lauren, becomes her partner in Parable of the Sower?

Bankole, a 57-year-old widower from San Diego, owns the northern California land where the travelers finally stop. Lauren notes how much he reminds her of her father.

In Parable of the Sower, which of Lauren's brothers runs away to live among thieves and is murdered?

Keith first slips out by stealing his mother's key, and later comes home with rolls of cash he will not account for. His body is found after months of getting by on robbery.

In Parable of the Sower, what does Lauren Olamina start teaching Zahra Moss, who grew up homeless?

How to read and write is a rare skill on the road, and Zahra had never been taught either. Two sisters rescued from a collapsed house soon join the lessons.

In Parable of the Sower, what has happened to the doctor's farmhouse when Lauren's group arrives?

It has burned down, and five skulls in the ashes show that the doctor's sister and her family died there. After arguing it over, the travelers decide to stay and build anyway.

At age 10, Parable of the Sower author Octavia Butler begged her mother to buy her what?

A typewriter, a Remington, was the prize, and she pecked out stories on it with two fingers. By 13 she was submitting her work to magazines.

Which California town is home to Lauren's walled neighborhood when Parable of the Sower opens?

Robledo is Butler's invention, a suburb where the middle class shelters behind a wall while the homeless and desperate live in the streets outside.

In Parable of the Sower, which coastal town sells itself to the corporation KSF?

Olivar gives itself to KSF in return for help stopping the erosion of its coastline. Lauren's father is skeptical of the scheme, though Cory wants the family to move there.

In Parable of the Sower, which childhood friend escapes the massacre and walks north with Lauren?

Harry Balter is badly beaten while helping Zahra Moss escape an attacker. More trusting than Lauren, he has to learn to be ruthless once they are on the road.

In Parable of the Sower, which friend reveals Lauren Olamina's secret survival plans to her parents?

Joanne Garfield repeats the conversation at home, exaggerating it, and Lauren's father orders Lauren to stop panicking people. Lauren never fully trusts her again.

In Parable of the Sower, what do raiders use to breach the wall of Lauren Olamina's neighborhood?

A truck through the gate lets in the pyro addicts, who set the houses alight. Lauren grabs the emergency pack she had long kept ready and runs into the dark.

In Parable of the Sower, which highway do Lauren and hundreds of other walkers follow up the coast?

U.S. 101 has become a river of refugees on foot, all heading for water and work in the north. Lauren's trio trusts no one and takes turns keeping watch at night.

In Parable of the Sower, Lauren's group detours inland through which city to avoid the Bay Area?

Sacramento is reached by September, after a rest at the San Luis Reservoir. The stretch shows the group some of the grimmest sights of the whole walk.

In Parable of the Sower, what is Emery Solis escaping when she slips into Lauren's camp at night?

Debt slavery to an agribusiness kept Emery working with no hope of paying her way out, and the company took her two sons. She ran with her last child, Tori.

In Parable of the Sower, water engineer Richard Moss is known in Lauren's street for having what?

Three wives share his house, the youngest of them Zahra, whom he bought from her homeless mother when she was 15. He has also put together a religion that keeps men in charge.

After the fire in Parable of the Sower, where does Lauren find her family's hidden packet of money?

Buried in the ground outside the house, the packet escapes the scavengers picking through the ruins. Lauren stuffs it into a pillowcase with salvaged clothes and lemons.

Besides preaching, Lauren's father in Parable of the Sower leaves the neighborhood for what job?

College professor and dean are his titles, and the commute is his undoing: he vanishes on a trip to work and is presumed dead. Lauren preaches at the service held for him.

The duo behind the 2020 graphic novel of Parable of the Sower first adapted which Butler book?

Kindred came first for Damian Duffy and John Jennings and won them an Eisner Award. Their adaptation of this novel's sequel followed in 2025.

The 2020 graphic novel of Parable of the Sower won which prize for Best Graphic Story?

Hugo Award voters honoured the adaptation in 2021, the same year it took the Ignyte Award for Best Comics Team. Librarians had already put it on their best-of-2020 list.

Octavia Butler's sequel to Parable of the Sower won which science fiction prize for best novel?

Nebula Award honours went to the sequel, published in 1998. The first book had been nominated for the same prize in 1995 without winning.

What stalled Octavia Butler's third Parable novel, leaving the series unfinished at her death?

Writer's block stopped Parable of the Trickster after several false starts, which survive among her papers. She switched to a vampire novel, the last book of her life.

Which relative of Lauren narrates the frame of the 1998 sequel to Parable of the Sower?

Her daughter Larkin, taken as a baby and renamed by adoptive parents, grows up estranged from Lauren. Her commentary surrounds the older woman's own account of events.

Parable of the Sower author Octavia Butler was born in 1947 in which California city?

Pasadena was home through a painfully shy childhood. Butler was raised there by her widowed mother and found her refuge in fantasy stories.

Octavia Butler said she began writing science fiction at 12 after watching which 1954 B-movie?

Devil Girl from Mars convinced her she could write a better story than the one on screen. Decades later she titled a lecture about her career after the film.

Which author taught a young Octavia Butler and urged her to attend the Clarion workshop?

Harlan Ellison was impressed enough to put $100 toward her application fee. At Clarion she sold her first two stories, one of them to him for an anthology.

Octavia's Parables, begun in 2020 by adrienne maree brown and Toshi Reagon, is what kind of series?

A podcast was the form they chose, a deep dive into Parable of the Sower and its sequel. Reagon had already adapted the first book for the stage.

In Parable of the Sower, which traveler is shot dead while carrying young Tori Solis to safety?

Jill Gilchrist had herself been rescued by the group from a collapsed house. Her sister Allie, left grieving, goes on caring for an orphaned toddler the travelers took in.

In Parable of the Sower, which prescription drug taken by Lauren's mother caused Lauren's condition?

Paracetco was the drug Lauren's mother abused while pregnant, and she died giving birth to her. Lauren confides the resulting condition only to people she trusts.

In Parable of the Sower, the bald pyro addicts who torch Lauren's street have what striking look?

Painted skin in bright colors marks the fire-setters, and Lauren later stares at the body of a green-faced woman. Their drug makes watching things burn intensely pleasurable.

Which candidate wins the presidency in Parable of the Sower after vowing to scrap the space program?

Donner goes on to loosen labor protections, opening the way for company towns owned by foreign businesses. Jarret is the president elected in the sequel.

Which small independent press first published Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower in 1993?

Four Walls Eight Windows tried to present the book as literary fiction in the vein of Toni Morrison. A co-founder later started Seven Stories Press, which published the sequel.

Toshi Reagon's stage adaptation of Parable of the Sower had its 2017 world premiere in which city?

Abu Dhabi hosted the premiere at a university arts center, two years after a concert version was tried out at the Under the Radar Festival. The other three cities staged it later.

Parable of the Sower author Octavia Butler struggled at school with which mild learning difficulty?

Dyslexia made schoolwork a torment and, paired with her awkwardness, made her an easy target for bullies. In 2010 she was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.