Fiction is formative. Our reality is shaped by the stories we are told.
September 9, 2015 7:51 AM   Subscribe

 
I'm glad we've gotten beyond just slipping this onto the covers. And dropping a few hints here and there, too.

I can't remember if I started science fiction and fantasy with Ben Bova or Robert Aspirin. They were my first two, but it was important, I think, in retrospect, that their characters weren't all just white boys and all the 'bad people' weren't "Others".
posted by tilde at 8:10 AM on September 9, 2015


So Moses grew up to be a stormtrooper. I always wondered what happened to that kid. Previously
posted by otherchaz at 8:17 AM on September 9, 2015


Not that I disagree with much in this article, but it's odd that there's no mention of the Matrix sequels, which were so populated with African American actors that there's a veritable subgenre of fanboys complaining about it.
posted by goatdog at 8:46 AM on September 9, 2015


Not that I disagree with much in this article, but it's odd that there's no mention of the Matrix sequels, which were so populated with African American actors that there's a veritable subgenre of fanboys complaining about it.

If one of his "earliest memories" is watching The Lion King, odds are he's never heard of the Matrix sequels.
posted by Ben Trismegistus at 8:49 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


Matrix... sequels? No idea what you're talking about.
posted by Etrigan at 8:50 AM on September 9, 2015 [9 favorites]


That excellent essay is by Wendell Bernard Britt Jr. (name the author, posters!). It reminds me of arguments I had forty years ago with two fellow opera fans who disagreed with each other about everything else (he only listened to scratchy recordings of pre-WWII singers like Caruso and Tetrazzini, she only listened to complete recordings in high fidelity) but both agreed that it was ridiculous to cast black singers in "white" (i.e., non-Othello) roles, and nothing I could say would move them. It was one of my formative experiences in understanding how racism works outside of the cross-burning variety.
posted by languagehat at 8:54 AM on September 9, 2015 [14 favorites]


It's so sad to me that people can easily imagine that space travel could be commonplace but not that people of color could have important roles and stories worth telling.
posted by bile and syntax at 9:04 AM on September 9, 2015 [8 favorites]


It seems like this is thinking about the same issues as Reducing bias by becoming friends with diverse television characters which has a lot in both the essay and comments about needing more Black characters on TV, as well as more gay, lesbian, and transgender characters.
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:05 AM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


This essay talks a lot about showing Black people in fantasy and sci-fi, especially on screen. (Since apparently people read past actual descriptions of people in books like The Hunger Games and don't even realize which characters are black.) I agree that's important, but I wish they had lingered longer on the importance of hearing stories told by Black people. Fantasy like The Hundred-Thousand Kingdoms and The Fifth Season, both by N.K. Jemisin are profoundly different stories than are told by the White authors right now. One of the things I realized reading the first was that the heroine had no sense of safety, but did what she had to do anyway, knowing that she was not likely to survive. In contrast, I grew up with Tamora Pierce's Alana books, where the heroine adventured through plenty of dangerous things, but was always sure she would be just fine.

Amy Lane wrote this conversation in Shiny: "'Why would you risk your job teaching some stupid fantasy book?' 'Because alternative universe literature promotes critical thinking, imagination, empathy, and creative problem solving. Children who are fluent in fiction are more able to interpret nonfiction and are better at understanding things like basic cause and effect, sociology, politics, and the impact of historical events on current events.... sci-fi and fantasy tackle ethical problems in a way that allows people to analyze the problem with some emotional remove...'" and the thought of being able to approach things like racism without our cloud of conceptions, to just be able to understand it in a different world, sounds like a way to gain a lot more understanding and possibly reach a lot more people.

I just started The Fifth Season, and find very interesting some of the characterizations of the race Orogenes who are feared for their personal power in her fantasy.
-In schooling: "'You are representatives of us all,' the instructors say, if any grit dares to protest this treatment. 'When you're dirty, all orogenes are dirty. When you're lazy, we're all lazy. We hurt you so you'll do the rest of us no harm.'"
-In dealing with authority "What do you want? An apology? Then I apologize. You must remember, though, that most normal people have never seen an orogene, let alone had to do business with one, and--' She spreads her hands. 'Isn't it understandable that we might be... uncomfortable?' 'Discomfort is understandable. It's the rudeness that isn't.'"
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:36 AM on September 9, 2015 [10 favorites]


I really hope the author's right about the seal being broken, because as moviegoers we're being robbed of a lot of decent stories because they're "too ethnic," and of a lot of performances because the actors aren't pale enough. As readers, we have more choices, but I tend not to hear people extolling the virtues of Karen Lord or Octavia Butler all that often. More's the pity.

As an aside, I'm surprised there was no shout out to Idris Elba's Heimdall in the Thor franchise, since that was taking an explicitly white character and having it portrayed by a person of color, because this is fantasy, so why not? Still not a protagonist, though, so I can see why he left it out.

I bet you people would watch a Heimdall movie. It could be done, with some great writing and flexibility.
posted by Strudel at 10:18 AM on September 9, 2015 [3 favorites]


At a panel I attended at Dragoncon this weekend, an older woman SF novelist told the audience that when she was coming up, the audience wasn't ready yet for diverse SF, but that she believed it was now, and encouraged us to write it. And I was sitting there thinking, well, you're half right, I guess-- we're ready now, certainly, but I don't believe it was ever the readership that was the main barrier to minority authors or minority characters. I think the readership's been ready for a lot longer than anyone credits, because the readership has always been diverse. We've always been here, as fans, as readers, and as writers-- it's just that the people with the most institutional power subscribed to the common fiction that we didn't count.

As a writer, I feel really strongly that fiction, especially fantastic fiction, should be leading our culture, not following it. SF is supposed to be the literature of the imagination, right? SF that doesn't show you new ideas or unfamiliar points of view isn't doing its job.
posted by nonasuch at 11:09 AM on September 9, 2015 [5 favorites]


People are concerned about black stormtroopers? Having a woman inside the suit would probably blow their minds.

As a slight tangent, this thread and similar discussions reminds me of a short story I read in the eighties while I was working my way through the science fiction section of my local library in a very white state. Little boy goes through his life, then suddenly makeup or something gets mussed, and it turns out he's living in a museum exhibit. All the white people are dead except for him, and he's being raised Truman Show style by people pretending to be white. So, "everybody's brown" was the big twist of this short story and we readers were clearly intended to be shocked and a little appalled. Even younger less thoughtful me was baffled. So, that's worth the whole charade? That story was probably written in the 50s, but it seems that it's not as outdated as I once thought. [Also, if anyone knows what the story is, memail me. It obviously made a big impact and I'd love to reread it as an adult.]
posted by Measured Out my Life in Coffeespoons at 11:15 AM on September 9, 2015


People are concerned about black stormtroopers? Having a woman inside the suit would probably blow their minds.

"Not to be sexist but it's really hard to tell that's female armor for me."
posted by effbot at 12:51 PM on September 9, 2015 [5 favorites]


Man, I have been ready for more brown people in fantasy/sci-fi, especially where they are visually depicted. I am Filipino/Mexican, but Ged has always been just a dark haired white person in my mind, and Johnny has the face of the movie's actor. The norm of using white actors for this sort of fiction has played part in the whitewash I apply in my own mind even though I am a minority!

I want my sons to be able to see scifi and fantasy fiction where people look like them, but there's so little right now. They need to be able to see themselves living in the future (or future-past as in Star Wars), they need to be able to see themselves living some crazy fantasy land. What did I get... some sort of past or present depiction, or not at all. And not just Filatino's, brown, black, all sorts of minorities is nice just because they need to be able to see us all living in the future.
posted by Mister Cheese at 2:30 PM on September 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


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