Die Parabel vom Sämann

By the end, my enjoyment of this book is 0⭐, but I rated it as a 2⭐ because I did like some of the social commentary and the first 50% were pretty strong. Just know that in my heart, it's absolutely terrible.Disclaimer that I am a white European, somewhere between agnostic and atheist, so I might not have a full understanding of this author's importance. However, I read this book with complete respect for the community and my rating is in no way influenced by racism. Lauren could've been a white boy or a pink alien and I would have felt the same about this book.That being said, I hated this book with an intensity I genuinely did not expect. I loathed it so so much. It might be the book I hated most out of everything I've ever read.The frustrating part is that I actually liked the first half, while Lauren was still living in the gated community. The slow collapse of society felt believable and Lauren’s hypervigilance made sense there. She was observant, practical, and more willing than the adults around her to admit that the world was falling apart. As a person raised in a dysfunctional environment, this resonated with me so much and I genuinely thought this would be a great book for me.Then the community burned down, the journey started, and the book completely lost me.Not because of the violence or the atrocities. Those felt realistic within the world Butler created and they all actually happen in our society, even if we have the privilege to turn a blind eye to them. The discussions around slavery, poverty, displacement, property, and corporate control were some of the strongest parts of the novel. I even understand and respect why everyone is so impressed by this book in the current global political climate.My problem was the actual plot of the second half and how the book treated Lauren. Lauren is eighteen years old. She is intelligent, capable, traumatized, and forced to mature too early. She is also still a teenager.The novel does not simply portray her as competent. It treats her as a visionary whose ideas deserve unquestioning respect. People gradually begin listening to her as though she is a prophet, while Earthseed is presented with enormous solemnity.I understand the appeal of “God is Change,” especially in a collapsing world. But the book never convinced me that Lauren’s fairly simple ideas about change and adaptation were profound enough to justify an entire religion.There is also a difference between being good at recognizing danger and being a spiritual leader. The book repeatedly treats Lauren’s practical competence as proof that her philosophy must also be correct.What made this even more uncomfortable was the way the group formed around her. These people were grieving, homeless, traumatized, and dependent on the group for safety. Many of them had nowhere else to go. I respect the discussion on how people learn to cooperate with one another in extreme situations even if they'd be strangers or even enemies otherwise. However, when they begin accepting Earthseed, I kept wondering: do they truly believe in it, or do they simply need structure, hope, and belonging?That is exactly the kind of environment in which a cult can form. Which, I assume, is how most religions were formed and why most of them still thirve (see the atheist disclaimer).I don't think she is consciously manipulating them, but the cult-like dynamics are there, and the novel seems completely uninterested in examining them critically or providing any argument against Lauren's prophecies. The characters that have some sort of doubts and bring them forward end up convinced they're wrong in 5 pages or less.And then there is Bankole.Lauren is eighteen. Bankole is fifty-seven.I do not have a problem with books portraying disturbing or unhealthy relationships. I have a problem with the way this one is framed. The novel seems to use Lauren’s intelligence, trauma, and maturity as reasons why the age gap should not matter.She knows what she wants. She initiates the relationship. She is mature for her age.No. She is still eighteen.She has just lost her family, her home, and every source of stability she has ever known. Bankole is nearly sixty, has decades more life experience, and represents the possibility of safety and a permanent home.The power imbalance is enormous, and the book barely examines it. Even worse, it tries to justify the relationship by claiming that because Lauren is the prophet, the leader, she's the one that has more power.Lauren’s agency does not cancel out her vulnerability. That is not empowerment. It is the “mature for her age” argument dressed up as empowerment.I understand why this book is admired. The dystopian world is strong, the social commentary is relevant, and I can see why people value a black teenage girl being positioned as the founder of a new future.But if the book wants me to take Lauren seriously as a leader, it should also examine her authority, her blind spots, and the people who benefit from treating her as older and wiser than she is.Instead, it treats her competence as proof of wisdom, her followers’ desperation as proof of belief, and her relationship with a fifty-seven-year-old man as proof of maturity.I found it deeply unconvincing and increasingly disturbing.

Interesting world and themes