This past weekend marked a date of literary significance.
Octavia Butler’s 1993 speculative fiction classic, "The Parable of the Sower," is a story of a young visionary that has since moved and inspired generations of readers. This young woman, Lauren Oya Olamina, is destined to found a religion that changes the course of human history, amid the wreckage of contemporary moment.
The novel is told through Lauren’s journals, which begin on Saturday July 20, 2024.
More than one science fiction fan has noticed this date - I have read this book multiple times, and I have to tell you, when a friend pointed out to me the date was coming up, I gasped.
Many more readers have noted the many parallels between Butler’s thirty-year old imaginings, and the world we’re grappling with today.
Today a scholar of Afrofuturism is going to talk to us about how Octavia spoke so eloquently to this moment… and what Parable of the Sower has to show us about getting through the darkest times.
Professor Ebony Elizabeth Thomas is Chair of the Joint Program in English and Education at the University of Michigan’s Marsal Family School of Educationand. She is also the author of the book, "The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to The Hunger Games."
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GUESTS ON TODAY’S SHOW:
- Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, writer, educator, and associate professor at the University of Michigan’s Marsal Family School of Education
