> Carole, > > I have to ask this, though. We're black. We're into science fiction (and > fantasy, and horror, and whatnot). Are we so very different from other > black people? Why did *we* get into this stuff, and why can't the factors > that influenced us work for others?
CM: Dunno on this. I can only think that we're writers and therefore escapists. We read as kids to get into other worlds. Writers read more than other people, therefore writers would read more scifi than other people, there black writers would read more than regular black readers. As for SF, I've noticed that many folks I know will say "but science fiction" isn't real. Or "fantasy" is sexual. Yep, there are weird stuff to get past in folks' minds. This addiction to the real is a problem I think. So many black writers have come into writing not through being literature majors but through sociology, politics or pastoral issues. > > One of my students shocked me the other day. He's about 19 or 20, typical > thug-style young brotha with prettier cornrows than mine, which we had to > talk about because I was about to send him out for his first professional > job experience (among other things, I coordinate internships at my > university). I was discussing with him whether he really should wear that > gold medallion to work, when he happened to glance at my open attache bag > and saw that I had a copy of Karin Lowachee's WARCHILD. "Oh," he said, "you > read science fiction. Have you read Octavia Butler?" > > I nearly fell out of my chair. Thereafter we had a much more interesting > conversation, about sci fi and black writers and Lowachee (who he thought > was "some kind of ethnic"). CM: I've got to be totally frank here. If the kid made it to collebe, he's a serious kid and probably read. NOTE: I'm sitting here every day nagging older son to go out and look for a job and to practice his paintings and photography instead of going out to clubs with his loser friends. So if we're talking about the average college-educated kid, of course he's gonna know what's out there in the literary world. SF or not. The average American has an 8 grade reading level. The average reader of typical romance novels is the one who reads most of the books published by the publishing world. At least, that's what I read...that romance novels are the big sellers of fiction. So maybe the normally-educated (8th grade education) person just can't handle books like SF. I'm just thinking here...writing aloud. Speculative fiction has so many levels. We have to trust that people understand a kind of "truth" even if it is a story that is "not true." Truth to tell, maybe some folks just can't handle the "truth" of SF. But what gets me is this: why was I so<<SNIPPED>> > Yeah -- internalized racism on my part; definitely something to work on. =( > But now I often wonder -- just how many closeted geeky black kids are there > out there, whom we've assumed wouldn't touch sci fi with a ten foot pole? I > know Chris would disagree, but doggone it, *we* didn't spring fully- formed > from Sam Delaney's head. =P If we can exist, why do we think it's so > unlikely that there would be others? > > Nora CM: Ah those internalized racist tendencies. I know them well. I was talking to a black woman artist once -- hadn't seen her work-- and she asked me to come up to her studio. Well, I immediately assumed she would be horrendous and uneducated because she didn't look the way my trendy black artist friends look. NOTE: She looked like me. I remember telling someone that I was writing a book once and she -- black-- looked upon me with most piteous eyes. I obviously didn't look trendy enough. But to answer your comment: maybe there are a lot of closeted geeks out there. They have to have strong souls, those kids...because even now the pull of the streets, the clubs, BET and of MTV are strong. -C Community email addresses: Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe Digest Mode: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SciFiNoir_Lit/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SciFiNoir_Lit/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
