Parable of the Sower predicts the rise of an age of terrorism in America, a terrorism that engulfs the peaceful, traditionally secure middle-class public. It also threatens the rich. Parable of the Sower has its setting in Los Angeles and California in a near future in which civilization is disintegrating and culture is descending to savagery. It presents a massive biblical resonance, a theme of the discovery of self through ordeals of violence, and a destiny that produces a passionate love relationship. The forces set in motion in the historical past, especially America's, are a tide that has overwhelmed the present and doomed the future to suffering and disaster, with a redemption and salvation of a very private and individual kind arising in the lives of the few who are patient and passionate and truthful enough to believe such survival is possible. The predicted state will...