Octavia Butler imagined LA ravaged by fires. Her Altadena cemetery survived
ALTADENA, Calif. (AP) — Decades ago, the writer Octavia Butler had imagined a Los Angeles ravaged by fires. The Altadena cemetery where the science fiction and Afrofuturism author is buried did catch fire last week but suffered “minimal damage,” according to a statement on the cemetery’s web site.
A spokesperson at the Mountain View cemetery confirmed the accuracy of the website’s announcement to The Associated Press, but would not comment on the status of individual markers. The grave of Butler, who died in 2006 at 58, is marked by a footstone etched with a quote from “Parable of the Sower,” among her most famous novels: “All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you.”
Since the fires began last week, “Parable of the Sower” and other Butler works have been cited for anticipating a world — and, particularly, a Los Angeles — wracked by climate change, racism and economic disparity. “Parable of the Sower” was written in 1993 and set in a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. “We had a fire today,” reads a Feb. 1, 2025, diary entry in the book, referring to a small fire that presages the destructive fires to come in the novel.
The Eaton fire razed large swaths of Altadena, a longtime haven for Black families that for generations eschewed the discriminatory housing practices found elsewhere. In the fire’s aftermath, fears have abounded about whether recovery and rebuilding is achievable for Altadena’s diverse community, amid the pressures of gentrification.
On Tuesday, crews were inside the closed cemetery, clearing away debris. Singed brush around the perimeter was the main sign of the fire’s toll, though the surrounding area was quiet, replete with damaged structures.
Butler’s prescience predates this year. In the book’s sequel, “Parable of the Talents,” an authoritarian politician promises to “Make America Great Again.” (Butler, who died before Donald Trump’s political rise, heard the phrase used by President Ronald Reagan).
“She seems to have seen the real future coming in a way few other writers did,” Gerry Caravan, an associate professor at Marquette University and co-editor of Butler’s work for the Library of America, told the AP in 2020. “It’s hard not to read the books and think ‘How did she know?’”
Butler herself once remembered a student asking her about her “Parable” books and whether she believed all of the troubles she described would take place.
“I didn’t make up the problems,” the author responded. “All I did was look around at the problems we’re neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.”
Widely cited as the first major Black woman author of science fiction, Butler grew up near Altadena, in Pasadena, and spent much of her life in Southern California before moving to the Seattle suburbs, where she died after a fall outside her home. She remains widely identified with her home state. Her papers are stored at The Huntington Library and a Black-owned store named for her, Octavia’s Bookshelf, opened in Pasadena in 2023 and is functioning as a donation center in the fire’s wake.
Butler won numerous awards in her lifetime and her stature has risen steadily since since her death, with admirers ranging from N.K. Jemisin and other science-fiction writers to actor Viola Davis and musician Toshi Reagon. Hulu aired an eight-part adaptation of her novel “Kindred” in 2022 and numerous other projects are planned.
In 2000, Butler considered the whole idea of prophecy with the essay “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future,” which she broke down into a handful of sections:
‘Learn From the Past’
History, she wrote, is “filled with repeating cycles of strength and weakness, wisdom and stupidity, empire and ashes. To study history is to study humanity.” For “Parable of the Talents,” she thought about how countries could fall into autocracy and read books about Nazi Germany.
‘Count On the Surprises’
Butler remembered growing up during the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s, when Americans were building bomb shelters and schools were holding air raid drills. No one would have believed that the Soviet Union could just disappear. “There are always these surprises,” she wrote. “The only safe prediction is that there always will be.”
‘Be Aware of Your Perspectives’
Butler warned that “predicting doom” could have as much to do with your own mindset than with the larger world. She didn’t shy from imagining the worst, but noted that “superstition, depression and fear” could shape — or distort — how we envision what’s next. Butler did not see her work as a call to despair, but as a way to “discern possibilities” and how to respond, “an act of hope.”
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Italie reported from New York.