Larger conditions of “slow apocalypse” in Parable of the Sower Degradation government

1. Larger conditions of “slow apocalypse” in Parable of the Sower Degradation government Lack of water Lack of food Violent climate disorder Last time, we discussed how Robledo resembles the Pit in some ways, but that important facets of the Pit lie outside the walls Outside: breakdown, criminality, violence, homelessness Robledo Pursuit of normal Maintain community Walls—maintain boundary between civilized/uncivilized, form/formlessness, order/disorder

2. Mary Douglas Purity and Danger “Purity is the enemy of change, of ambiguity and compromise. Most of us indeed would feel safer if our experience could be hard-set and fixed in form” (163). Douglas--things that have half-identities—bits of trash still recognizable as things—provoke disgust. Dirt, though = does not produce disgust. But salvage = a process of taking things that have half-identities and making them useful again. Salvage requires confronting disorder and disaster.

3. Salvage, then, seems to work like this Order, civilization, walls, form, baptisms, wearing of clean clothes, purity, civilization Disorder, dirt, formlessness, criminality, fire, garbage, disaster, lack of civilization. Salvage—operates between these two modes

4. Robledo = struggle to maintain order and purity

5. Robledo and slow apocalypse • Slow apocalypse—term used by Jeff VanderMeer, others to describe a disaster that is ongoing but not immediately visible. • Garbage piles up, planet warms, hurricanes increase in number, wildfires spread—and yet all of this is hard to notice. • They are living through a slow apocalypse, and pretending this is not the case. • As a side note, walls = common trope post-apocalyptic literature; as E.g. zombie narratives, putting up barricades to keep out the dead

6. How does order break down in the following events?Get into groups and discuss these

7. Lauren’s viewpoint differs slightly from that of her father. • Lauren is not interested in purity—she accepts a more salvage-oriented mindset, oriented toward the wastelands outside the walls. • But Earthseed, as we discussed last time, is a revolutionary or evolutionary kind of change—away from the partial change that salvage entails. • Lauren hopes for a new, ordered future, either on another planet or in the greener areas of the North.

8. Outside Robledo, we see acts of salvage • Keith—squatting in abandoned building • “Most upsetting to me, though, there were a few more rag, stick, cardboard, and palm frond shacks along the way into the hills along River Street. There always seem to be more. They've never bothered us beyond begging and cursing, but they always stare so. It gets harder to ride past them. They're living skeletons, some of them. Skin and bones and a few teeth. They eat whatever they can find up there” (89).

9. How do these quotations treat the question of order? When apparent stability disintegrates,As it must–God is Change–People tend to give inTo fear and depression,To need and greed.When no influence is strong enoughTo unify peopleThey divide.They struggle,One against one,Group against group,For survival, position, power.They remember old hates and generate new ones,They create chaos and nurture it.They kill and kill and kill,Until they are exhausted and destroyed,Until they are conquered by outside forces,Or until one of them becomesA leaderMost will follow,Or a tyrantMost fear. (103) Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation. Civilization, like intelligence may serve well, serve adequately, or fail to serve its adaptive function. When civilization fails to serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces (101)

10. Where, then, does Earthseed fit into this framework? Order, civilization, walls, form, baptisms, wearing of clean clothes, purity, civilization Disorder, dirt, formlessness, criminality, fire, garbage, disaster, lack of civilization. Salvage—operates between these two modes