Octavia's Parables

It can’t be postponed, can’t be avoided. Mary and Doro must face off. Mary tries to send the Patternists away, but she’s too late. She does not anticipate surviving. And yet, and yet. Can the power of the many confront the power of the one?

We are invited, as always, to urgent questions. Have you learned to fight while in the battle? How could we bring our opposition into our pattern? What is the cost of freedom?

Mary tries to obey Doro, she does. But sometimes obedient intent isn't enough. Pausing the pattern is killing her. The showdown is inescapable. The patternists, once reluctant and resentful, refuse to leave Mary’s side.

We are invited, again, to pressing questions. Have you met someone afraid of your power? Do you understand your power, individually? Collectively? What size pattern sustains you, what can you hold?

The original pattern members - the first family - spread out, then draw close. Mary and Karl unshield, meld, lose control, find themselves. They decide to have a baby, despite the Patternists struggling around children. But Doro is still seeking to control the Pattern, and the tension between him and Mary comes clear. For us, in our world, these questions of control and transition are urgent - and for Mary, too.

A beast of a chapter. Two years have passed. The pattern is enormous, and still growing. Mary continues to weave and transition latents. She has taken over towns, and their non-telepathic residents - the patternists control the “mutes,” and use them as slaves. Doro is confident he can still control Mary, and all those in her pattern. But Emma is not as sure.

After Mary’s show of force, the group cooperates - for the most part. But the biggest surprise is Clay, a life-long latent, who is now in transition. As Mary begins to bring other latents into the pattern, Doro feels his breeding project slipping out of his control. He watches “with carefully concealed emotions of suspicion and envy.”

Mary calls a meeting of the pattern members. Emotions are high: resignation, resentment, fear and anger. Some try to challenge Mary, and learn quickly just how much control over them she has. She is coming into her power, and likes it.  

The telepaths in Mary's web begin to arrive. They try her, full of resentment, looking for weakness. The first to arrive finds it, but Mary learns fast. She studies the others before they arrive, and their shields can't keep her out. And despite themselves, the telepaths she has woven begin to see the benefit in what she has done.

We go deep with Mary and Doro. We learn of Doro's childhood, millennia ago, and the years after he came into his power. We learn more of his breeding programs, and his hungers. And we learn of Mary's power, as she feels into the shape of the pattern. 

We meet the other members of the pattern - children of Doro, varied, powerful, damaged, dangerous. Mary's tether hits them like a bolt of lightning, a command they cannot resist, but do resent. Angry and confused, they each begin their journey to California.   

Mary is in her transition, a perilous time. Others with her strength have not survived. Karl rushes home to support her - aid she rejects, at first. But as her transition peaks, she pulls his mind to hers. And then, she can't let him go. The pattern has begun.  

Doro introduces Mary to her soon-to-be husband, Karl, a rich white telepath with a fancy house and a partner. No one but Doro is happy. Mary flexes independence in her way, but the choices are few. 

We meet Mary, child of Doro, grandchild of Anyanwu, small and strong-willed. She is powerful, long-sought and nearing a challenging transition. She's in love with Doro, but he has other breeding plans. 

We are once again with Doro and Anyanwu, who we left at the end of Wild Seed - but we are now in modern times. Doro has continued to breed his powerful offspring, with the same flawed results, full of suffering. Anyanwu, going by Emma now, continues to carry the weight of his cavalier arrogance. 

Anyanwu and Doro find an uneasy peace. But Doro will not, cannot, understand or respect what is sacred to Anyanwu: those she loves. She is done.

But yet again, Anyanwu chooses life. At the end, she draws boundaries and makes compromises. Is this survival?

Toshi and adrienne break down the final chapter and epilogue of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Conflict with Doro, and a suicide. Anyanwu, in her grief, returns to the sea to heal. And when she comes home, Doro is waiting. She finds strange comfort in this long-known being, and as always, danger.

Toshi and adrienne break down chapter 13 of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

What would look different in the US if we had enough space for the grief that we’re currently holding? How vulnerable are we when we are tired?

Doro left his son with Anyanwu, to marry her daughter. But the son, Joseph, is a sly, vicious, untenable danger. A murderer, a rapist. Only the leopard can respond.

Toshi and adrienne break down chapter 12 of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Forward in time. Doro has been hunting Anyanwu for decades. He finds her, her children, generations of her line. All she has built, he wants. Yet again, she compromises to keep her people safe. And yet again, there is so much he fails to understand.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 11 of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider. 

A short but fierce chapter. Funerals for Nweke and Isaac. Doro’s emotions push him to change bodies. Anyanwu’s emotions push her to flee. As a dolphin, as a bird, she finds a new clarity, and finally, finally a new sense of her own power. If not partners, then adversaries.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 10 of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

We learn more about Doro’s childhood, and more about Anyanwu and Isaac’s love. Nweke’s transition continues with Anyanwu’s support. But Doro’s breeding program doesn’t go to plan. Isaac, Nweke, and everyone come to grief.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 9 of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

A specific trigger warning for this chapter, for abusive relationship.

Anyanwu helps her daughter Nweke in her transition; Doro leaves them to it. We see anew the power of Anyanwu’s empathy, and Doro’s inability to understand it. We learn of Nweke’s fraught conception, rooted in punishment, power, and death.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 8 of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

A specific trigger warning for this chapter, for child sexual abuse and incest.

Fifty years have passed. Anyanwu is married to Isaac, and is mother to many. Her daughter Nweke is nearing her transition; Doro returns, called by the girl. When he arrives, he sees in Nweke an opportunity to replace and humiliate Anyanwu, and takes it.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 7 of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Anyanwu, Doro, Isaac and the rest of the Silver Star’s passengers arrive at Doro’s land. Anyanwu is adapting to new language, new food, new customs and expectations. The extent and goals of Doro’s breeding program becomes clearer to us, and to her. Intimacies and abominations.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 6 of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Anyanwu reveals more of her capacities to Doro and her shipmates. Her danger, her hunger, her transformations. Isaac’s powers become more clear. And Octavia graces us with some of her most sensual writing, on the pleasures of being a dolphin.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 5 of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Anyanwu shows her true, transformative self to Okoye, her grandson. Both become sea sick. Anyanwu heals herself, but feels the pull of the waves. We meet Isaac, learn his relationship to Doro, and get further hints of their deep danger.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 4 of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed, a chapter full of warnings. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Anyanwu and Doro reach the coast. She sees slavers for the first time, meets one of her kin. They board Doro’s boat, and set out onto the big water.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter three of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Anyanwu leaves her village with Doro. Curiosity, fear, protection and attraction all in the mix. We learn more of Anyanwu’s healing powers, foraging skills, what she holds back. And learn more of Doro’s casual violence and power.

Toshi and adrienne break explore chapter two of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider. Rich text, potent questions.

We meet Anyanwu. And we meet Doro. We learn of their abilities, their longevity, their strengths and their danger. They feel each other out, appraising, assessing. Wary, compromising. It begins.

Toshi and adrienne break down the rich text of Octavia E. Butler’s Wild Seed. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Larkin/Asha meets her “charismatic, dangerous, heathen” mother, Lauren. Our understanding of the timeline deepens. Marc’s duplicity continues to cause discord and heartbreak. And Earthseed does, finally, take root among the stars.

Toshi and adrienne break down the epilogue of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And offer some final questions (of this series!) for you and your people to consider. 

All about Larkin. The final chapter. She’s living in New York. Reconnected with uncle Marc, and the church. She knows her mother’s identity, with mixed awareness. Some of her childhood dreams have come true. And yet. Meanwhile, Lauren is gathering her people, with seduction and a chance at a purpose. And still, always, hunting for her daughter.

To survive, know the past. Let it touch you. Then let the past go.

Toshi and adrienne break down Chapter 21 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider. Back next week, with the epilogue. 

Larkin meets her uncle Mark. Her smooth, beautiful, lying uncle Mark. Mark lies about Lauren, her path, her life, a lie of her death. Meanwhile, Lauren is on the move, reenergized. Finally, with a travel companion and collaborator in Earthseed. Earthseed rising.

Toshi and adrienne break down Chapter 20 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Larkin’s childhood, young adulthood. Her dream-mapping, her world-building bloom and are punished. Meanwhile, Lauren searches, to exhaustion. Allie tries to plant the seed that her daughter may never return. But Lauren’s search continues, with a new young ally.

Toshi and adrienne break down Chapter 19 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

A chapter heavy with Marcus. Octavia revisits the politics of attractiveness. Lauren asks Marcus for help finding Larkin. He can’t hear her, he won’t hear her. Lauren gets a vital clue, but at a deep cost.

Toshi and adrienne break down Chapter 18 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Once again, we travel with Lauren and with Larkin. Larkin searches to understand her mother. Lauren searches for Larkin, alone despite herself. The children of Acorn are still missing, almost all of them. Lauren braves a Christian America shelter, navigating her terror and trauma. And she sees a familiar, unwelcome, hypocritical face.

Toshi and adrienne break down Chapter 17 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider. Big, deep questions this week. 

After the storm. We gain insight into Larkin’s childhood in the Christian America children’s homes, in their vicious brutality. Lauren and her band find a lost friend, as they rebuild and survive. The first post-Acorn formation shifts, dissipates, reconfigures. A rich, dense, textured chapter.

Toshi and adrienne break down Chapter 16 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider. Including, what is your alter ego name? 

TW: Mention of rape, childhood sexual abuse

Camp Christian is ashes. The story shifts back to Larkin, and her strategies for survival. Quiet was good, and questioning was bad. We rejoin Lauren, as she reclaims her agency. Earthseed disperses, with intention and grief.

Toshi and adrienne break down Chapter 15 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

A dense, bruising, painful chapter.

A year has passed. A year of enslavement at Camp Christian. With an escape attempt, and its consequences. And a brutal, wasteful, pointless war.

We learn more of Larkin’s childhood life in her adoptive family, with its cruelties and violations.

Sickness strikes Camp Christian. A betrayal. A storm. And liberation.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 14 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Trigger warnings: sexual violence, rape.

We learn what happened to Larkin, and where the children went. We learn how the women of Acorn survive, day by day, and how they maneuver. New alliances are cautiously forming, at great risk. And the sexual violence is a constant presence. We grapple with the pleasure of power, and its consequences.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 13 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Trigger warnings: sexual violence, rape, death.

We learn more about life after Acorn is seized. The children are gone. The violence is constant. The hypocrisy is deep. The living save what little they can, and begin to plan while they try to survive.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 12 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Trigger warnings on this episode: death, suicide, mention of sexual violence.

Acorn is overrun. Unspeakable, unthinkable losses. Loss of family, loss of life, loss of freedom. How to go on?

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 11 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Our narrator is born, and named, and welcomed. Lauren and Bankole discuss a move, again. Assessing danger, seen and unseen. Bankole tries to understand, again, how he and Lauren can shape the unknown. She shows him more of her self, this far in.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 10 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and offer questions for you and your people to consider. Not easy chapters, not easy questions.

Marcus leaves, with the Peraltas. Dan Noyer returns, chased. A fierce battle. Lauren speaks words she can’t take back. Jarrett is ascendant.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 9 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, and offer questions for you and your people to consider. Not easy chapters, not easy questions.

Lauren and Bankole visit Halstead. Some in Acorn encourage them to move; Lauren remains adamant. Marcus preaches, and finds out.

Toshi and adrienne explore chapter 8 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents, offer questions for you and your people to consider, and dream of some fan-fiction crossovers.

We hear Marcus’s own Parable, his journey, and meet his religion. We get a perspective on the early life of Lauren. Bankole continues to press a move away from Acorn.

And as always, Toshi and adrienne offer questions for you and your people to consider. You’ll want to sit with these ones.

The Acorn community searches for Dan Noyer’s sisters. But find another, unexpected sibling. The reunion is heavy.  

Toshi and adrienne explore Chapter 6 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

We learn about access to news, access to water, and mechanisms of control. The climate keeps changing. There’s life on Mars, and there’s life formed in a Petri dish. War is very popular these days.

Toshi and adrienne explore Chapter 5 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Acorn welcomes a baby. They hold ceremony. They assess the impact of the house truck, and we get a window into Acorn’s decision-making structures. They navigate the survival of ambiguous loss. God may be change, but some still fear it.

Toshi and adrienne explore Chapter 4 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider. 

We hear the horrible ordinary story of how the house-truck family came to Acorn. And with Acorn, they bury their dead. 

Toshi and adrienne explore Chapter 3 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Talents. And come with many questions for you and your people to consider.

TW: this chapter and episode include mention of rape. 

A battle nearby. Acorn acquires a vehicle, and new children. And the community is split by a right-wing politician. Promises of order and stability are so sweet.

Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown break down chapter two of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

We're back! We rejoin the Earthseed community at Acorn. They have held the land, they have made a home. But they are in the slow apocalypse. And we have a new, unnamed narrator.

Toshi Reagon and adrienne maree brown launch us into Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Talents. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider. 

Events:

Toshi is doing a set of music featuring some songs from the Parable of the Sower opera, on March 6th at 8pm EST. Link here, free registration required.

Our travelers land. But not as they expected. They grieve, and they live. They sow seeds.

adrienne and Toshi close out Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, with the final chapter of this crucial work. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

A fight. A death. Navigation, negotiation. And moving through fire.

Toshi and adrienne engage with the lessons in Chapter 24 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

A watcher falls asleep. New folks join, through stealth and play. Our travelers work to balance trauma and kindness.

Toshi and adrienne engage with the lessons in Chapter 23 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

The travelers confront some grim moments, and grim realities. Lauren and Bankole build, and disclose. 

Toshi and adrienne grapple with the griefs and joys in Chapter 22 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider. Note, this whole book carries a trigger warning, but this chapter contains some particularly disturbing scenes.

Lauren and Bankole build. The travelers settle briefly, with intention. The individualness of humans is manifest.

Toshi and adrienne engage with the complexity of the moment, in this reality and in Chapter 21 of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

No rest. A gunfight. Bankole rescues a child. Our travelers find evidence of community.

adrienne and Toshi dig into Chapter 20 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

An earthquake. Scavenging, a killing. Choosing kindness despite the danger. And new travelers join Lauren.

adrienne and Toshi dig into Chapter 19 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Our trio are on the road. They rest, as possible. They talk, and learn in conversation. The beginnings of an Earthseed.

adrienne and Toshi dig into Chapter 18 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Everything turns. Our travelers start to get good at where they are. A fire, an ocean. Embrace diversity, or be destroyed by those who see you as prey.

adrienne and Toshi dig into Chapter 17 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower. And as always, offer questions for you and your people to consider.

Our travelers learn from each other, walking miles. Lauren shares some secrets, and she kills. They can’t afford denial. 

As always, Toshi and adrienne offer questions for you and your people to consider. 

Lauren, Harry, and Zahra grieve, share, prepare to move. We go to Hanning Joss. We start to learn some of the ingredients of survival. Because Lauren intends to survive.

adrienne and Toshi dig into Chapter 15 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower. As always, with questions for you and your people to consider. 

Things fall apart. The compound is attacked. Lauren flees - does what she trained herself to do.  Death. despair. Allies where you find them. The episode where everything changes. 

Toshi and adrienne dig deep into Chapter 14 of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower. The episode that, in some way, is why we’re doing the podcast. With questions for you and your people.