The Ways of Octavia Butler

"Today's troubles that grew up into tomorrow's disasters": on wildfires, prophecy, and humanity

It’s January 10th and wildfires are raging across southern California in a terrifying and extremely unnatural way, months after the standard wildfire season is supposed to end. At the time of writing, 5 people have died from these wildfires, 179,000 people are under evacuation orders, more than 1,300 structures have been burned, and over 60,000 more structures are threatened by the strength of the winds spurring these flames. Around 30% of the firefighters risking their lives in California right now are incarcerated people, who are paid pennies and have little-to-no pathways to become actual firefighters upon release.

People are relocating and leaving their homes, cars, pets, and worlds behind— without certainty of whether they’ll have anything to return to. Let’s be very clear: this is a climate disaster fueled by the government’s de-prioritization of essential resources like firefighters, while increasing police budgets, and the fueling of genocides globally. It’s all connected. This is also a direct result of the fossil fuel industry’s greed, lies, and decades of deceit about the true impacts of their industry in contributing to the climate crisis we are experiencing today.

Since the wildfires started a few days ago, many people have been turning to social media to share how one of my all-time favorite authors, Octavia E. Butler, rightfully predicted that in 2025 wildfires would rage through southern California in her award-winning Parable books (Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents), which she wrote over 30 years ago. Much of the future she wrote about then is happening today— including the election of a President who wants to Make America Great Again (more on that another time). However, citing Butler’s words to claim that we’re entering the world's end is a dangerous and inaccurate representation of her work.

The Parable books are a sequence of cautionary tales showing what happens if the status quo is maintained, and a blueprint for something different— not a prophecy. Her radical, wild imagination gifted us a clear view of what’s to come if we don’t change our ways. Plus, the books she writes after the Parable novels, Xenogenesis or the Lillith’s Brood trilogy, show what the end result will be if we don’t take our duty as future ancestors seriously. So what must we do? How can we use the lessons Butler gifted us with to help reimagine the world?

I started reading Octavia Butler a few years ago and at this point, I have read 10 of her 12 novels, a book of her short stories, plus a book compiling some of her most notable interviews and saw an opera based on Parable of the Sower. Some would say I’m a bit obsessed, and I would not disagree. So over the next few weeks, I will attempt to explore the legacy and lessons this brilliant, prolific writer left us through her work.

In the Parable books, we learn about “the Pox”, shorted from, “The Apocalypse”. Butler describes this era in a 2002 interview as a “nasty part of history that happens as a result of all the problems that we’re neglecting now, from illiteracy to drugs to global warming, that are likely to give us trouble in the future just because we’re ignoring them now.” Over twenty years ago Butler understood that “the Pox” was already underway, and it would come to maturity in the 2020s. This is one of the many reasons why this week’s wildfires have turned so many people’s attention back toward her work.

Parable of the Sower is written in the style of journal entries by the main character, 15-year-old Lauren Olamina, who lives in a gated community in a suburb of Los Angeles, relatively protected from the troubles that have engulfed the world around her— from wildfires, drought, food scarcity, severe class wars, and bands of desperate people willing to do anything to survive. The book begins with a journal entry dated July 21, 2024. Butler has re-emerged in the public lexicon following that date last summer.

Since releasing the first Parable book in 1993, Butler spent a lot of her time explaining to people that she was not a prophet and that she had no desire for the futures she wrote about in her books to become reality. In a 1999 interview for the feminist art journal SOJOURNER, Butler explained that the Parable novels are novels of warning. In this interview she “despair[s] about the way we human beings injure ourselves and lay waste to the environment.”

In a 1996 interview, Butler explains that in the first Parable novel, she focused on the problems— “the things we’ve done wrong, that we appear to be doing wrong, and where those things can lead us.” She notes that she made a real effort to talk about what could happen, or is in the process of happening, including the walled communities, increasing illiteracy, climate change, and more. In this same conversation, just as she does in the books, she explains that destruction does not have to be the way.

Butler instead identified as a Histofuturist, which, as written in her November 4, 1981 journal entry, is “a historian who extrapolates from the human past and present as well as the technological past and present”.

Butler followed patterns, studied history, and understood how people operate. Butler once shared that “sometimes history provides you with some kind of outline”. Was she a fortune-teller or prophet? Who’s to really say, but she certainly didn’t think so. Octavia Butler was an only child with a big, curious mind, who used stories to create answers to the questions real life couldn’t. Octavia Butler’s imagination was radical, but she wasn’t necessarily radically imagining the future. She saw the world for what it was and didn’t sugarcoat it. Butler understood that the human mind and spirit are boundless, but generally quite predictable.

In a 2000 Essence article titled A Few Rules for Predicting the Future, she explains:

“Of course, writing novels about the future doesn’t give me any special ability to foretell the future. But it does encourage me to use our past and present behaviors as guides to the kind of world we seem to be creating. The past, for example, is filled with repeating cycles of strength and weakness, wisdom and stupidity, empire and ashes. To study history is to study humanity. And to try to foretell the future without studying history is like trying to learn to read without bothering to learn the alphabet.”

In a 2004 interview with Joshua Sanders of Imotion Magazine, Butler explained that she was not trying to prophesize:

Matter of fact, I was trying to give warning. One of the kinds of research I did was to read a lot of stuff about World War II. Not the war itself, but I wanted to know in particular how a country goes fascist. So , I have this country, in Parable of the Sower, and especially Parable of the Talents, sliding in that direction. And I really was not trying to prophesize that we would somehow do that but…

When people quote Butler during perilous times as a means of accepting defeat, it limits the lessons she gifted us through her words. Yes, she accurately predicted the wildfires we’re witnessing today, but in the same book she reminds us of the power and value of community: finding it, building it, and re-establishing it when necessary. And the community she’s referring to is a verb, not a noun— it doesn’t have geographic boundaries or age limits, nor will there always be agreement. However, the common goal is helping each other so that we can all live on; so that we can keep working toward a world where humanity can still exist. Our resilience will be sustained by— and our survival is contingent upon— the ways in which we show up for one another.

As such, here are some resources for individuals impacted by the wildfires and for those interested in providing support:

• [Mutual Aid] Mutual Aid LA has resources on their website and Instagram page for individuals impacted by the wildfires.

• [Donation Opp.] Here is a directory of Black families who have been displaced due to the fires.

• [Volunteer Opp.] If you are in the Southern California area and want to help those impacted, here is a list of volunteer opportunities.

• [Housing] Airbnb has partnered with 211 L.A. to provide free temporary housing. To access this resource, please complete this intake form.

• [Transportation] LA County residents who have been ordered to vacate their homes can get a credit from Uber to get to an evacuation site. The $40 will only be valid for trips to an active shelter and by using the code WILDFIRE25.

• [Clothing] Radical Clothes Swap is hosting a clothing giveaway on Saturday January 11 at Angel City Brewery from 12-4pm.

This website has the most up-to-date list of additional resources for residents, including charging stations, transportation, cell phone coverage and more.

Parable of the Sower also provides important lessons on the necessity of preparation. We should not have to be victims of the government’s willful ignorance and lack of preparation. And yet, we now must all be prepared because this is our new reality. Even if you don’t live somewhere where wildfires or floods are common, we should all be prepared for emergencies by at least creating a go-bag.

Here are a few items you should consider including in an emergency preparation bag:

• Water and non-perishable food (dried fruit, nuts, peanut butter, etc)

• Flashlight and extra batteries

• Permanent marker

• Small first aid kit

• Copies of identification documents

• Sanitation supplies and toiletries

• Matches in a waterproof container

• Paper plates, cups, napkins and utensils

• Manual can opener

• Battery powered radio

• Whistle to signal for help

• Solar-powered power source

• Extra batteries

• Prescriptions

• Local maps

• Sleeping bag or warm blanket

Octavia Butler’s imagination— grounded in history, sociology, ecology, and other important areas of study— gives us a glimpse of the worst-case scenario. I believe that it is our obligation to use these tools, and learn from the lives of their characters so the Parable books don’t become our full reality.