Race and Science Fiction

Students will be signing up for classes next week. I really need to get some posters up for my class on Race, Gender, and Science Fiction. I'm still tweaking the syllabus. I ordered two Butler novels and I'm going to put together a reader.

I was tempted to use the first Dark Matter anthology, which is excellent, but I would still have to make a reader to include the Latina/o, Native American, and Asian American authors I want. Definitely want Guillermo Gomez-Peña in there. and Sherman Alexie.

Last night, L* and I watched John Sayle's 1984 film, Brother from Another Planet. It has aged much better than Lianna

L* thinks it's more speculative fiction than sci-fi. That's prob'ly true. A lot of what we'll be reading is not "hard science fiction," but speculative fiction, supernatural horror, magical realism, and folk tales. It's about redefining science fiction.

I have been reading George Schuyler's Black No More, which is excerpted in Dark Matter (I). The satire is so wicked sharp: it's like Twain in Letters from Earth. Don't know if I'll teach the whole book yet. I'm in the middle of reading about the Nordic Knights (yikes!) and an ex-Black man's involvement with them as a most promising graft.

I'm thinking of showing Man Facing Southeast (Argentina, 1987), but will have to figure out how that will work in the context of the class. (all the other fiction and film will be North American).