Parable of the Talents (novel)
.jpg) Cover of first edition (hardcover) | |
| Author | Octavia E. Butler |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Parable trilogy |
| Genre | Dystopian, Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Seven Stories Press |
Publication date | 1998 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 365 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | 1-888363-81-9 (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC | 39478160 |
| 813/.54 21 | |
| LC Class | PS3552.U827 P38 1998 |
| Preceded by | Parable of the Sower |
Parable of the Talents is the second in a series of science fiction novels written by Octavia E. Butler and published in 1998.[1]
Plot
Parable of the Talents (1998) (the sequel to Parable of the Sower) tells the story of how, as the U.S. continues to fall apart, the protagonist's community is attacked and taken over by a bloc of religious fanatics who inflict brutal atrocities. The novel is a harsh indictment of religious fundamentalism, and has been compared in that respect to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.[2]
Proposed third Parable novel
Butler had planned to write a third Parable novel, tentatively titled Parable of the Trickster, which would have focused on the community's struggle to survive on a new planet. She began this novel after finishing Parable of the Talents, and mentioned her work on it in a number of interviews, but at some point encountered a writer's block. She eventually shifted her creative attention, resulting in Fledgling, her final novel. The various false starts for the novel can now be found among Butler's papers at the Huntington Library, as described in an article at the Los Angeles Review of Books.[3]
Publication and award history
Published by Seven Stories Press in 1998, by Quality Paperback Book Club in 1999, by Women's Press Ltd. in 2000 and 2001, by Warner in 2000 and 2001, and by Seven Stories Press in 2017.[4][5]
See also
Further reading
- Allen, Marlene D. “Octavia Butler's ‘Parable’ Novels and the ‘Boomerang’ of African American History.” Callaloo 32. 4 2009 pp. 1353–1365.
- Caputi, Jane. "Facing Change: African Mythic Origins in Octavia Butler’s Parable Novels." Goddesses and Monsters: Women, Myth, Power, and Popular Culture. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2004. 366-369. ISBN 978-029919624
- Jos, Philip H. “Fear and the Spiritual Realism of Octavia Butler's Earthseed.” Utopian Studies 23. 2 2012 pp. 408–429.
- Lacey, Lauren. J. "Octavia Butler on Coping with Power in Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, and Fledgling.” Critique 49.4 (Summer 2008): 379-394.
- 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." Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. Gale, 2008. Originally published in FEMSPEC 3.2 (2002): 31-52.
- Nilges, Mathias. “‘We Need the Stars’: Change, Community, and the Absent Father in Octavia Butler's ‘Parable of the Sower’ and ‘Parable of the Talents'.’” Callaloo 32.4 2009 pp. 1332–1352.
- Stanford, Ann Folwell. "A Dream of Communitas: Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents and Roads to the Possible." Bodies in a Broken World: Women Novelists of Color and the Politics of Medicine. Chapel Hill: The U of North Carolina P, 2003. 196-218. ISBN 978-0807854808
- Stillman, Peter G. "Dystopian Critiques, Utopian Possibilities, and Human Purposes in Octavia Butler’s Parables.” Utopian Studies 14.1 (2003): 15-35.
References
- ↑ Jonas, Gerald (January 3, 1999). "Science Fiction". The New York Times.
- ↑ Diemer Llewellyn, Jana (2006). "Rape in feminist utopian and dystopian fiction". The University of Hong Kong Libraries.
- ↑ Canavan, Gerry (June 9, 2014). ""There's Nothing New / Under The Sun, / But There Are New Suns": Recovering Octavia E. Butler's Lost Parables". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved May 19, 2016.
- 1 2 Holden, Rebecca J.; Shawl, Nisi, eds. (2013). "Annotated Butler Bibliography". Strange Matings: Science Fiction, Feminism, African American Voices, and Octavia E. Butler. Seattle, WA: Aqueduct Press. p. 284.
- ↑ https://www.sevenstories.com/books/3951-parable-of-the-talents
External links
- Parable of the Talents: A Novel
- Parable of the Talents title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database