A review by ac_anemon
Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia E. Butler, Damian Duffy

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

God is change.

i have found myself to be more spiritual after leaving the church than anytime when i was a part of it and this thought pattern is complimentary to the belief system i’ve cobbled together for myself. my driving force in these tumultuous times is the truth that i’ve found for myself ‘the meaning of life is to give life meaning’

the reality of 2024 doesn’t quite look like the 2024 of the novel (yet, at least in america, it’s still pointed in that direction. in many places [thinking palestine 🇵🇸 , thinking yemen 🇾🇪, thinking congo 🇨🇬, thinking ukraine 🇺🇦, thinking syria 🇸🇾, thinking of a lot of places where my doom saying is an actual lived reality] that 2024 is too real and i don’t want to loose sight of privileges i have) we live in dark times, it sounds like we always have. i’ve been reading a lot about fascism, climate change, social movements, oppression, and i find myself in the same fight butler and other activists fight. yes, there’s the social fight, but i’m talking about the internal fight, the fight against pessimism despair, fatigue. i hate that it’s a fight that i’ll be in for the rest of my life. it’s a fight that has two outcomes, you give up and give in to despair, or you keep fighting.

making peace with change is an essential survival tactic (a tactic im still learning to accept and adapt i to my life). i think change is a great truth. i think hope is the other side of that same great truth. the only way to the future is through change. the only way to make a future is to have hope that a future is possible. good things are necessary and possible and we obtain good things through hope and change.

the art style added to the story. i’ll have to read the novel (and the sequel, both the novel and the graphic novel)

i will say, butlers art benefitted from her experiences as a black woman and her identity as an intersectional feminist. this graphic novel is filtered through the masculinity of a white man and a black man. while that’s not a sin, it is going to inform the art. for example, there’s a fair bit of nudity and all breasts are depicted as a perky set of tits. the gore is honed in on while the quiet reflexive scenes feel like they’re just there to break up the violence instead of being treated as the whole point. still, feels accessible and an entry point to what feels like a daunting novel and in an age of a media literacy crisis, having multiple versions of a work is a necessity