i suppose one thing i really dislike about Parable of the Sower is that the responsibility for the collapse of society is in many ways places at the feet of the poor, and moreover, are portrayed as either utterly helpless, useless, etc or predatory and cruel

real world disasters and collapses don't work like that. that's just not what happens. people don't turn on each other like vultures or become helpless and simpering, unless they're rich and well off. poor people already have experience dealing with hardship, can cope better

i dunno. it feels like this story was written in the wake of the Rodney King Riots and was heavily influenced by a kind of middle class perspective on the riots, as some kind of tumult aimed at destroying everything in some greedy upheaval??

and sure there was some of that i guess? same with the 2020 protests that burned down a bunch of stuff? but most of it is not people preying on one another, not like that. it's tension between groups, between power structure and disempowered, it's not cannibalistic

i'm sure it's also influenced by the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fire that destroyed much of San Francisco, but the fires were started by greedy people trying to cash in on insurance, and the food shortages were caused by Colonel Funston

i don't know what Butler's background is but it feels so much like this story is a story borne out of middle class anxieties. it feels like it could have been written by a prepped stocking his bunker with guns and MREs as much as anything