After reading through my sources again I would like to condense my question to focus on how Butler diverges from traditional religious ideas and how the environment (setting, characters, encounters, violence) shapes this.
Annotated Bibliography
JERRY PHILLIPS; The Intuition of the Future: Utopia and Catastrophe in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. Novel 1 November 2002; 35 (2-3): 299–311.
• The author of this piece calls Earthseed a “hopeful experiment in enlightened communalism…” (Philips, 2002) and elaborates on the way Butler is making a statement of faith in modernity and undoing all forms of chauvinism associated with faith in religion. In detail he also touches on examples in the novel illustrating that the concept of change leads to a dialectical view of reality, thus being a shaping factor of the Earthseed community.
Melzer, Patricia. “”All that You Touch You Change”: Utopian Desire and the Concept of Change in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.” Femspec 3.2 (2002): 31. ProQuest. 17 Nov. 2022 .
• This piece explores the way children in the novel represent the survival of the community and how they embody the future the adults are trying to create. Melzer explains how through responsibility for others, Lauren finds meaning to life and heals internal wounds. Melzer also highlights how the children’s dependency triggers a growing solidarity among the adults. This piece connects to my question on the way the environment shapes Lauren’s principles of Earthseed which include mutual support, community, and creating and shaping God. The children can be seen as a part of God because they can be shaped and they will shape the future.
McCormack, Michael Brandon. “‘Your God Is a Racist, Sexist, Homophobic, and a Misogynist … Our God Is Change’: Ishmael Reed, Octavia Butler and Afrofuturist Critiques of (Black) American Religion.” Taylor & Francis, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14769948.2015.1131503.
• This piece dives into Afrofuturist criqtiues of contemporary Black American religion, touching on problems of difference and dominance. It examines Octavia Butler’s racially imagined future and discusses the way Butler calls the integrity of Black christianity through crafting Lauren and her dynamic with her strict baptist home and father. It also examines the way Butler imagines a vision of a black, feminist, youth, future. This article is crucial to answer my research question about what Butler is trying to say about religion through her writing.
Jos, Philip H. “Fear and the Spiritual Realism of Octavia Butler’s Earthseed.” Utopian Studies, vol. 23, no. 2, 2012, pp. 408–429., https://doi.org/10.5325/utopianstudies.23.2.0408.
• This article points out the relationship between fear and spirituality and religion and the way way crumbling orders, violence, and cruelty in history often spark intolerant religious movements with authoritarian rule in response. It explores the ways in which Parable has the same circumstances, and yet diverges from this common response of intolerant religious movement and instead creates a coherent, non dogmatic belief system focused on community and equality.
Achachelooei, Elham Mohammadi, and Carol Elizabeth Leon. “The Past and ‘Discontinuity in Religion’ in Octavia Butler’s Parables: a Feminist Theological Perspective.” Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, vol. 68, no. 2, 2021, pp. 120–137., doi:10.1080/20512856.2021.1935492.
JERRY PHILLIPS; The Intuition of the Future: Utopia and Catastrophe in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. Novel 1 November 2002; 35 (2-3): 299–311.
Melzer, Patricia. “”All that You Touch You Change”: Utopian Desire and the Concept of Change in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.” Femspec 3.2 (2002): 31. ProQuest. 17 Nov. 2022 .
McCormack, Michael Brandon. “‘Your God Is a Racist, Sexist, Homophobic, and a Misogynist … Our God Is Change’: Ishmael Reed, Octavia Butler and Afrofuturist Critiques of (Black) American Religion.” Taylor & Francis, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14769948.2015.1131503.
Jos, Philip H. “Fear and the Spiritual Realism of Octavia Butler’s Earthseed.” Utopian Studies, vol. 23, no. 2, 2012, pp. 408–429., https://doi.org/10.5325/utopianstudies.23.2.0408.
Achachelooei, Elham Mohammadi, and Carol Elizabeth Leon. “The Past and ‘Discontinuity in Religion’ in Octavia Butler’s Parables: a Feminist Theological Perspective.” Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, vol. 68, no. 2, 2021, pp. 120–137., doi:10.1080/20512856.2021.1935492.
In order to find my sources I used Hunter One, JSTOR, and Google Scholar. I also found a source on the open bibliography. At first I was sticking to seeking out articles titled with phrases related to religion (my research question). I used keywords such as religion, role, spiritualism, earthseed, along with the title of the novel or “Butler”. I found many articles discussing neo liberalism, feminism, etc in the novel. When I was closing myself off to looking at articles titled something directly related to the theme of religion I found it difficult to acquire sources and this narrowed my search. I started looking into different articles despite the title implying the central theme of discussion was unrelated to religion, and to my surprise found that these sources did in fact make some interesting points that I could use in a paper. Not all but several of these discuss the role of religion in Parable, possible shaping factors of Earthseed, and then later discuss how religion intersects with the main theme they are critiquing or discussing, whether it be neo liberalism, race, feminism, etc. I realized that these could actually be valid points of information as well and could help expand on the discussion in the paper more, making it more multidimensional. I mainly used recent sources, the oldest being from 2002 and more recent ones from the last couple of years.
By chapter three it is clear that the narrator is in a disassociative state as a result of his Marfan diagnosis. The wandering plot takes us back and forth between timelines and core memories while also touching on stories and memories of other people such as Noor and the narrator’s father, which somewhat resonate with aspects of the narrator’s life. Some of the characters throughout the novel are reflections of parts of the narrator or internal themes he is facing. However, there are many examples of “making kin” demonstrated by the narrator and other characters. The theme of “making kin” coined by Donna Haraway which we previously discussed this semester shows up throughout this novel in different forms. Making kin is what Haraway says “we most need to be doing in a world that rips us apart from each other…” (Haraway, 2016). For a mutli dimensional, cli fi, auto ficftion novel that takes place in a melting pot full of people from different socio economic, ethnic, cultural, etc backgrounds, it is not surprising to see this theme play out.
One of the earliest examples of making kin is the narrator’s wholesome relationship to Roberto, the gifted 8 year old boy from an undocumented family who he is mentoring. The narrator takes Roberto under his wing and becomes a part of his support system by tutoring him, talking to him about his fears, taking him on a museum trip. In turn this mentorship seems to be a grounding force for the narrator in some sense and fulfilling to both him and Roberto. It even serves as a bit of a wake up call to the narrator about parenthood during their trip to the Museum of Natural History, when he realizes he has never had to be responsible for anyone and is stricken with panic when trying to maneuver the best way to protect the child from the dangers of life while also being an authority figure in the best way possible, not too harsh but not too lenient. The trip is successful but puts the narrator in a state of reflection about his future of being a parent to his child with Alex. This “making kin” relationship in the present reflects his future role as a parent and the concerns and questions that come along with taking on such a role.
A past reflection of his mentor relationship with Roberto in some sense, is his relationship to Natali and Bernard. They are introduced to us when Natali contacts the narrator to inform him that Bernard is in the hosptial. This brings the narrator back to the memories of how they met. Like he does with Roberto, Natali and Bernard take the narrator under their wing in some sense and make “kinship” with him as they become his mentors early in his career. He even becomes somewhat part of the family as they help guide him through the writing world, and invite him to dinners to help him network with influential people in the field. Bernard’s current health state reflects a potential future that the narrator fears and he begins to think about that and the strange phenomena of noticing people age.
A brief form of making kinship takes place when the narrator opens his home to the protestor who is currently without a home. He lets him shower and makes dinner for him and in this moment realizes he has never done this for anyone and feels that no one has ever needed him or needed to rely on him. He begins to want a child but then realizes that would be an attempt to fill a void and he should fill it with self improvement and self care. This brief interaction reflects a side of the narrator he is not in touch with much and may want to tap into more.
All of these memories and recalled interactions of making kin are seemingly random but all converge to reflect parts of the narrator and his present experiences and unknown futures- the ones he is trying to disassociate from out of fear, uncertainty, and potential vulnerability. Maybe without realizing, this is his own way of facing the present and the future.
Lauren’s Earthseed religion believes that we shape God and that God is a malleable force. What in her environment may have shaped her to reject her family’s christian religion and take on this ideology? What may Butler be trying to say about current contemporary religion by using religion as an underlying theme among this chaotic dystopia.
