February Media Map: Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Updated: Jun 1
Cultivate a holistic approach to visionary Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower, by exploring related music, books, TV, film, podcasts & social media accounts, with additional resources & articles to check out!
“The novel can make us. It can get us into
book, magazine, and movie.
It can put us where we want to be. We will do it.
We will WIN!
We shall always succeed. “
- An affirmation written by Octavia E. Butler in her 1967 calendar 
Music
Hardcover Hotties Collaborative Playlist
A visually stunning story of a young woman named Jane 57821, who is living in a totalitarian near-future society where citizens are referred to as computers. An exploration of the pursuit of happiness and freedom.
Sun Ra and his Solar Myth Arkestra return to Earth after several years in space. Ra proclaims himself the “the alter-destiny”, meets with inner-city youths and battles with the devil himself to save the Black race.
"This film is an exploration of origin, asking the question how much of ourselves do we bring with us versus leave behind in our evolution"
Books
Parable of the Talents (Earthseed #2) by Octavia E. Butler
The Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto by Legacy Russell
The Power by Naomi Alderman
Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life by Alice Wong ♥
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer ♥
Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanna Simard
Overstory by Richard Powers
The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet by Leah Thomas
Crude: A Memoir by Pablo Fajardo
The Future is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes, and Mourning Songs by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei
*♥ Previous Hardcover Hottie “Book of the Month” Pick!
Art
LIFEFORCE, an all female group show that explores the feminine in the context of a genderless future curated by sisters Kelsey and Rémy Bennett. Inspired by Donna Haraway’s essay, A Cyborg Manifesto, the feminist science fiction and Afrofurturists of the 1970s, the exhibit will feature performance, sculpture, painting, comics, and photography that aim to re code normative expectations celebrating the LIFEFORCE that is beyond human matter and closer to it’s essence. The work focuses on the all encompassing power of “the female” on both physical and metaphysical levels – transcending constructs of race and gender, reclaiming representation, & exploring intersections with science & technology.
EverythingIveEverWantedToKnow.com
TV & Film
Allow these movie and TV show recommendations to hold you down while we patiently wait for A24’s adaptation of Parable of the Sower directed by Garrett Bradley!
Nope (2022)
I Am Legend (2007)
Gaia (2021)
Mother! (2017)
The Last of Us (2023)
The Maze Runner (2014)
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Snowpiercer (2013)
Blade (1998)
Arrival (2016)
WALL-E (2008)
Princess Mononoke (1997)
Gandahar (1987)
Fantastic Planet (1973)
Kindred (2022)
Black Panther (2018)
They Charge for the Sun (2016)
Podcasts & Video Essays
A podcast hosted by adrienne maree brown and Toshi Reagon where they break down each of Octavia E. Butler’s work, chapter by chapter.
Your People Will Find you: The Octavia Butler Legacy Network - How to Survive the End of the World
Notes on this podcast by Hottie Veronica Cook:
"This podcast explores ideas of radical action in a society that works against you every day. Octavia Butler’s writing of science fiction itself is a radical act as well as a means of survival. Storytelling through writing, art, and other means of expression is how the history of Black people in America has survived despite all of the efforts against it. Science fiction is a genre that can almost perfectly embody these experiences, desires, and thought processes. The podcast refers to the idea that activism is its own version of science fiction. As activists and progressive thinking people envision a world different than the one they are living in, they are practicing ideas similar to that of writing non-fiction work. As much as activism can be science fiction, science fiction can be activism. /// As a Black woman writer, Butler’s writing has empowered other Black women artists and activists to study the current political climate of the world while creating a vision for the future. The legacy of Octavia Butler is now embodied by readers taking her works in new directions, as her work allows us to think about our relationship to the planet and one another. It is interesting to see how Parable of the Sower is set in 2020, and how there are many similarities in the environments of this text and our current reality. These circumstances were foreseeable by Octavia, and her work teaches us the lesson that we continue to neglect and work against ourselves and this planet, we will have let colonialism and capitalism be victorious — very well leading our world into the disasters shown in Parable of the Sower."Accounts to Follow
@theparableparable
@afrofuturistabolitionists
@oparables
@octavias_bookshelf
@octavias_chariot
@blackforager
@seedingsovereignty
@bqic.ohio
@acresofancestry
@healfoodalliance
@growwhereyouare
@intersectionalenvironmentalist
Resources
Build an Emergency Kit | Ready.gov
Exploration of the archives left by Octavia E. Butler:
Behold Octavia Butler’s Motivational Notes to Self | Open Culture
Articles to Check Out
QUEERING OF THE SPACE AND TIME IN AFROFUTURISM AND CYBERFEMINISM | The Art Columnist
Mentions of Space is the Place, Sun Ra; and Female Extension, Cornelia Sollfrank
Did we miss anything?
Let us know! Feel free to DM us on Instagram @hardcoverhotties or email us at hardcoverhotties@gmail.com. ❥