Beyond the Plantationoscene: Envisioning New Human-Land Relationships through Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower

Abstract

This article examines Earthseed, the religion in Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, and its potential to replicate the colonial and extractive patterns that constitute the Plantationocene. While Earthseed reflects rhetoric rooted in European and American settler colonial logics such as manifest destiny, this paper argues that Lauren Olamina’s new religion ultimately seeks to resist the extractive frameworks that define the Plantationocene. Through the community she names Acorn, Lauren envisions a transformed relationship between humanity and the land, one based on sustainability, growth, and renewal.