BOOK
Parable of the Sower
THE GIST
The gist
In a near-future California coming apart under climate disaster, economic collapse, and violence, teenager Lauren Olamina starts shaping a new belief system of her own. Written in the early 1990s and set in the 2020s (1993).
ON THE SHOW
On the show.
- Ep 1 — Why Does SciFi Matter? (08:28–09:45): Caitlin calls it "right now sci-fi" that feels alarmingly close to today, with water scarcity, fires, and a fire department you have to pay for. Her example of cognitive estrangement at work: different enough to feel distant, logical enough that you can see us getting there.
TERMS
Terms it runs on.
- Cognitive Estrangement — Critic Darko Suvin's term for what makes science fiction work: it pulls us out of the familiar world with a new idea, then follows that idea with consistent logic so we can see our own world more clearly.
- Near-Future Science Fiction — Science fiction set only a few years or decades from now, in a world that's recognizably ours with one or two things pushed further.
- Climate Fiction — Fiction, often science fiction, centered on climate change and how people live through, cause, or respond to it.