Parable of the Sower

Octavia Butler (1947-2006) was a pioneering figure in American science fiction. Her blend of speculative fiction elements, social critique, and her unique point of view as a Black woman in a field dominated by white male authors made her formidable both within her genre and outside it—in 1995, she was the first science fiction author to be awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant.

Coming of age during the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, Butler wrote novels that used science fiction conventions to explore both existing power dynamics and social hierarchies and to imagine new futures. As a result, she is considered an important figure in the Afrofuturist movement. After getting her start by writing short stories, Butler published her first novel, Patternmaker, which was the first book in the five-part Patternist series. The sprawling saga traces an alternative history from Ancient Egypt to the far future, in which humanity is split into three genetically different groups. The powerful Patternists—humans who have been bred to have telepathic powers—fight against the Clayarks, who are mutated superhumans, and dominate over the Mutes, who are ordinary humans. The series examines “racial and gender-based animosity, the ethical implications of biological engineering, the question of what it means to be human, ethical and unethical uses of power, and how the assumption of power changes people,” themes that appear throughout Butler’s oeuvre (Hine, Darlene Clark, et al.