In recent days, the fires in Los Angeles are capturing all the news attention: a disaster on a financial level, but also a climate one. “The costliest fire in United States history” has roots, as AccuWeather said, in climate change, which, as we said, “is exacerbating the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.” Of course, science fiction was responsible for anticipating these sad climate forecasts years ago.
Until today. A few days ago a tweet went viral that talked about how one of the most emblematic works of the brilliant Octavia Butler, ‘The Parable of the Sower’, had not only anticipated the climate crisis we are currently experiencing, but did so with surprising precision. The book begins with devastating fires in Los Angeles that take place in 2025. And not only that: in the book, the United States has just elected a president whose politics have far-right overtones and does so with the slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ , exactly like Trump.
What is ‘The Parable of the Sower’ about? Of course, ultimately those are the details that draw the most attention for their precision, but Butler looks much further in his novel and portrays a climate crisis that does not stop at a handful of fires: in the book, California becomes in an area of high danger, with crises ranging from widespread water shortages to masses of people living on the streets and who are willing to do anything to survive. The protagonist is a fifteen-year-old teenager sheltered in a closed and relatively safe community. From there he tells us what the world has become.
Getting closer. This book written 23 years ago, fortunately, was not correct in many of the issues it predicted, such as the existence of a drug with extreme effects that the protagonist’s mother consumed during her pregnancy, which has caused her to suffer from an annoying , sometimes even painful hypersensitivity. However, in many other details it could even be said that it fell short: the increasingly extreme racial tension (in the book mixed couples are not well regarded), unemployment through the roof, the absence of effective social policies and increasingly private companies. with greater power, which increases inequalities and the disintegration of the middle class. All eerily familiar.
Hope in the future. It is not the only prophetic novel by Octavia Butler, an author who has been widely acclaimed in recent years not only for her visionary futuristic pieces, but also for her point of view, hopeful despite the terrible situations she describes, and always talking about support. group as a solution to collective problems. This is what has made her one of the main authors of the subgenre known as hopepunkas opposed to much more depressing, dystopian and hopeless styles such as cyberpunk.
Why Butler is right. When asked how he could get so close to the current crises, Butler responded that “I didn’t make up the problems. All I did was look at the problems that we are denying now and give them about thirty years to become full-blown catastrophes.” . And he had a solution for it, of course: “There is no single answer that will solve all of our future problems. There is no magic bullet. Instead, there are thousands of answers, at least.” You always have to keep hope. And act as soon as possible.
Cabecera | Jeff Head, Anthony Citrano
In WorldOfSoftware | The 25 best science fiction books
