Why Butler’s ‘Parable of the Talents’ Matters More Than Ever in 2024
Something that has always sparked my curiosity has been the parallels between storytelling and reality, specifically how some stories have predicted the future. What first comes to mind is “The Simpsons,” the animated show that aired in 1989 and has since become the longest-running series in TV history. With 35 sessions to date “The Simpsons” is famous for the eerie prediction of Donald Trump’s presidency in the 2000 episode “Bart to the Future”. However, many skeptics say that due to the long-running nature of the show statistically, it is more than plausible that some of the writer’s far-fetched storylines would come true in real life.
Once is chance, twice is coincidence, third time’s a pattern — Unknown
The second time a fictional Trump-like politician rose to the highest office in the nation came in Octavia Butler’s 1993 novel ‘Parable of the Talents’ in her “Earthseed” series. This now makes it a coincidence. She describes a religious figure running a campaign tailored to the working class with the slogan “Make America Great Again” as his rallying call.
Reading this gave me chills. The character’s name is Jarret Donner and is distinguished by his authoritarian personality and cult-like following of religious Americans who believe in doing whatever it takes to return the USA to Christian fundamentalism. Sound familiar? More similarities between Trump and Jarret come in the way Jarret communicates with his followers; using ambiguous language to discourage acts of violence against members in opposition to his organization, allowing those listening to interpret how they want. Jarret’s followers are known to administer beatings, tarrings and featherings, and general destruction to any non-followers who ‘devil-worship.’ In real life, Trump is famously soft on Nazi groups like the Proud Boys and has even had dinner with the openly vocal white supremacist Nick Fuentes. Trump and Jarret’s relaxed stance on speaking out against violence and their identical slogan “Make America Great Again” are not the only predictions Butler got right, she also alluded to a figure similar to Biden.
Jarret Donner is written as a “big, handsome, black-haired man with deep, clear blue eyes,” running against the current president Edward Jay Smith who is significantly older and described as a “tired, gray shadow of a man.” Before July 2024 when Biden dropped out of the race the parallels of these characters to both Trump, while not handsome or black-haired is definitely big and has blue eyes, and Biden, who is likely to blow away in a strong gust of wind, was uncanny! The election taking place in the fictional world of ‘Parable of the Talents’ is shockingly similar to our current 2024 US election.
This coincidence turns into a pattern when Butler emphasizes how Jarret is not a typical politician, he was originally a preacher now turned politician. Previously using highly divisive language Jarret has since dialed back on his ‘inflammatory’ diction to distance himself from his most extreme followers. Eerily Trump was also not a politician but a TV show host / real estate mogul turned politician who also shies away from extreme groups while not fully condoning them. These parallels were written by Butler over thirty years ago and are remarkably accurate.
In ‘Parable of the Talents’ Jarret is elected president and America in Butler’s book suffers from his religious extremism, however eventually he is voted out and the unity of the nation does improve. This is one of my favorite novels that tells a fictional story with deep roots in reality nodding to the future.
If you have not read ‘Parable of the Talents’ yet you can check it out for free using your local library card on CloudLibrary.
