 today carries significance for fans of a best-selling dystopian novel that, as NPR's Netta Ulaby reports, has become widely celebrated in popular culture since it was published in 1993. Author Octavia Butler imagined a very grim future in her book Parable of the Sower. The world she envisioned in it and its sequel is dominated by horrific social inequality, big pharma, climate change, and a science-hating presidential candidate.