Q 01/05

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

A) Earthseed

B) Bokononism

C) Mercerism

D) Jediism

Answer · why

A) Earthseed

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 f...

Q 02/05

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

A) Synesthesia

B) Telepathy

C) Hyperempathy

D) Clairvoyance

Answer · why

C) Hyperempathy

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 h...

Q 03/05

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

A) Curiosity

B) Perseverance

C) Opportunity

D) Sojourner

Answer · why

B) Perseverance

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 ...

Q 04/05

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

A) The Washington Post

B) The Boston Globe

C) The Chicago Tribune

D) The New York Times

Answer · why

D) The New York Times

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 the...

Q 05/05

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

A) An opera

B) A ballet

C) A musical revue

D) A solo play

Answer · why

A) An opera

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 B...