NH: I read _Parable of the Sower_ when it first came out. In it, as I
remember, Lauren says that people call what she suffers from
"hyperempathy," but it's in fact a misnomer, since what she feels is what
she *imagines* other people to be feeling, not their actual sensations.
I'm pretty sure that that's in the novel. I think Lauren goes on to say
that for her, it boils down to much of a muchness: they feel pain, and she
feels pain too, even though it's triggered by her imagination of their
pain, and not by real empathy.
I admire and respect Octavia Butler's writing, but find it *really*
depressing, even though I'm not one to demand that my reading be
"positive" or "uplifting" (I once subsisted on a pretty much steady diet
of Tanith Lee). When I first heard about Butler, I devoured everything
I could find by her in a matter of days, it seemed, then walked around
in a grim fog for the next month.
-nalo
On Tue, 8 Apr 1997, Nicola Griffith wrote:
> Mike, I'm intrigued by your interesting side point. I've read PARABLE OF THE
> SOWER three times now (trying to figure out what other readers have liked
> about the novel--but that's another story). In the text there is nothing, as
> far as I can see, to indicate Lauren is anything but a reliable narrator: she
> says she has hyperempathy; she *has* hyperempathy (the ability to feel
> others' physical sensations--not just pain). At what point do we disbelieve
> what is written and believe instead the author? At what point and to what
> extent should the text stand on its own?
>
> I don't know if Butler does or does not want us to see Earthseed as "right."
> Lauren's religion is one of my (many) problems with the book: we see,
> beautifully articulated, the beginnings of Lauren's philosophy (and I think
> it is a philosophy to begin with, rather than religion); we understand how
> she gets from A to B, and then, phhtt, she's suddenly thinks humankind's
> future is among the stars. She makes a leap of faith that I can't follow--a
> leap of faith that's not prefigured or explained or believable. At least I
> didn't find it so.
>
> Perhaps I'm simply misreading the text. If anyone has any pointers I'd be
> happy to hear them. Meanwhile, if anyone is interested I can post or email a
> review I wrote for the _New York Review of SF_ when the novel first came out.
>
> And Mike: I read RANDOM ACTS OF SENSELESS VIOLENCE and thought it was a
> terrific novel. Heartbreaking.
>
> Nicola
>
> Nicola Griffith
> http://www.america.net/~daves/ng/
>
"Would you trade your funk for what's behind the third door?"
P-Funk, "Funkentelechy"
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:05:58 PDT