Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [470]

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. … 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. That’s if everything will just hold together for a few more years. — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 470

Note

Scripture destined for a castoff school exercise book — the sacred text is physically a child’s notebook. The verbs of persuasion (“pry them loose,” “push them”) keep the revelation practical and coercive rather than comforting, and the passage closes by deflating the vision to a condition: “if everything will just hold together for a few more years.”