First off, let me apologize for getting this up much later than I had originally planned. Parable of the Talents is a very engaging work of fiction, and I was really surprised with how many ideas that were  stirred up in this single book. I wasn’t sure where Butler was going at first when she started delving more into Larkin’s upbringing all the way to her adulthood, but it tied in nicely with the ultimate end, the culmination Olamina’s ambition, the original seed of Earthseed finally sprouting and leading its people to be among the stars.

Earthseed’s motto of the potential to grow sounds like something straight out of a ridiculous animated series, but is the basis of what Olamina aspires to do, what many have dreamed of before – a utopia, the ideal “perfect” place to live. In fact, Earthseed reminds me of the fictional underwater world of Rapture, a creation of business mogul Andrew Ryan from the Bioshock series. the difference between the two is that Rapture failed and devolved into a dystopia, and Earthseed has just begun to fulfill “the Destiny”. Sadly, we’ll never get to learn what becomes of Earthseed.

Ben’s post posed the question of whether abandoning the Earth to find salvation in the stars was the appropriate thing to do. Regardless of its correctness, I believe that the cause of such insane ideas like Earthseed is the hope that there is a better future out there somewhere. It’s just never where we, as humans, presently are. With the creation of utopias in works of fiction, writers seem to unconsciously place these utopias in a different realm than on where we as humans inhabit, Butler no exception. Salvation like this couldn’t possibly exist. Or could it?

Why is it always the space? The stars? Underwater? Another dimension? Can this sort of thing never come into fruition right here on Earth?

Dystopias, on the other hand, seem an all too realistic possibility.

The origins of the word dystopia from the writings of J.S. Mill in the 1800’s define it as an “imaginary bad place”. However, the image that Butler paints in this work of speculative fiction is a frightening image that could very well be America in the not-so-distant future, and not-so-imaginary at all. Not to get all political-y and such, but I have heard that analysts believe capitalism is only a temporary system, and will not last forever – if our entire economy were to just suddenly collapse, the dystopian setting of Parable of the Talents could very well be ours. I speculate that this could be the potential “Pox” that is referenced a few times throughout the novel, but I haven’t read Parable of the Sower (which might explain what the Pox is) so I can’t be 100% sure.

So why is it that paradise seems like a ridiculous fantasy, but death & decay an inevitability? I blame human nature. We’ve seen it being tested, being pushed to its limits in Girls, exposing the ugliness of men and women alike. We’ve seen people act out of fear, when a Fascist regime ruled over Germany. Psychologically speaking, how far have humans really come? Making the same mistakes over and over, coming to the same conclusions, acting out decisions that have been made hundreds of times in the past doesn’t seem like the correct way to progress forward. As crazy as Olamina’s “cult” was, it does lay out a lot of simple truths that we miss & forget in our day-to-day lives.

“These days, projecting blame is almost an art form.” – Lauren Oya Olamina, Saturday, June 10th, 2035.

Humans blame. Vent their frustration, confusion, sadness & anger in a state of helplessness. Through fear, control of society & its people changes from generation to generation. A new leader is born, the old one dies, or fades into obscurity. Some leaders create destruction. Others bring hope. And one way or the other, after a period of solace or of discord, society slowly begins to re-build itself, to adapt to change. The cycle continues.

So I leave this to everyone to ponder and discuss – is the idea of a utopia an impossible fleeting dream? As we, as humans, stuck in a seemingly perpetual loop of destruction and recreation? Are reoccurring dystopian scenarios all we have to look forward to?

“We keep falling into the same ditches…and when we look at all of that in history, we just shrug our shoulders and say, well, that’s the way things are. That’s the way things always have been.” – Lauren Oya Olamina, Tuesday, June 19th, 2035.