How we cite our quotes: The main text of the story is cited (Chapter.Paragraph). The date headers are not counted as paragraphs. The verses in the chapters with a single passage from the narrator's religious texts are cited (Chapter.Verse.Line#). In chapters with multiple passages, the verses are cited (Chapter.Verse#.Line#). The four section pages with the years and passages are cited (Year.Verse).
Quote #7
I'm going to go through my old journals and gather the verses I've written into one volume. I'll put them into one of the exercise notebooks that Cory hands out to the older kids now that there are so few computers in the neighborhood. I've written plenty of useless stuff in these books, getting my high school work out of the way. Now I'll put one to better use. Then, someday when people are able to pay more attention to what I say than to how old I am, I'll use these verses to pry them loose from the rotting past, and maybe push them into saving themselves and building a future that makes sense. (7.11)
In this passage, Lauren describes her plans to advance and spread her religious ideals. But she's hitting a pretty big wall: people won't believe a teenager much. For a lot of people, an adult white male in a business suit is automatically more persuasive than someone like Lauren, a female Black teenager. Here she's hoping to just wait it out until she gets older. But when Robledo collapses, she no longer has that luxury, and she must press ahead, regardless of her age.
Quote #8
I've finally got a title for my book of Earthseed verses—Earthseed: The Book of the Living. There are the Tibetan and the Egyptian Books of the Dead. Dad has copies of them. I've never heard of anything called a book of the living, but I wouldn't be surprised to discover that there is something. I don't care. I'm trying to speak—to write—the truth. I'm trying to be clear. I'm not interested in being fancy, or even original. Clarity and truth will be plenty, if I can only achieve them. If it happens that there are other people outside somewhere preaching my truth, I'll join them. Otherwise, I'll adapt where I must, take what opportunities I can find or make, hang on, gather students, and teach. (11.51)
Here Lauren considers the nature of her unique work, as well as her plans for it. Primarily, she wants to tell the truth in plain language. Sometimes in real life, people say we should speak truth to power, literally meaning that we should address ourselves to powerful people such as those in governments and corporations. But here, Lauren seems more interested in speaking truth to people—the ones she meets day to day, or whoever might read her Earthseed verses. She thinks she might join up with others or gather her own students. Her idea isn't to go confront KSF in Olivar and speak truth to them, since they are the powerful. Instead, she wants to build her own community.
Quote #9
"It sounds too simple, you know." [...]
"I mean it's too...straightforward. If you get people to accept it, they'll make it more complicated, more open to interpretation, more mystical, and more comforting." [...]
"All religions change. Think about the big ones. What do you think Christ would be these days? A Baptist? A Methodist? A Catholic? And the Buddha—do you think he'd be a Buddhist now? What kind of Buddhism would he practice?" He smiled. "After all, if 'God is Change,' surely Earthseed can change, and if it lasts, it will." (21.25-31)
These are many of Bankole's objections to Earthseed, which we get toward the end of the novel. He thinks that if people come to find faith in Earthseed, they'll change the religion in ways Lauren might not approve of. If you really want to see where this goes, be sure to read the book's sequel, Parable of the Talents, and check out the plans Octavia Butler had for further books.