After watching this week’s lecture continuing Feminist SF and introducing Afrofuturism, and completing the assigned readings, write at least 250 words summarizing your notes and copy-and-paste your summary into a comment made to this post. Focus on what stands out to you, what were some of the important points that I made, what were interesting elements in the readings, connections between the readings and other SF that you know, etc. Remember, the weekly writing assignment is graded on best effort. I would like to know what you find notable about each week’s class. As long as the posts relate to the class and you give me your best, you receive all the credit. Also, this serves as regular writing practice, which has been shown to improve your writing skills by simply doing this kind of work. It will help prepare you for the writing that you will do on your research essay and the final exam.
10 thoughts on “Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 13”
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This week’s readings really made me think about the show Rick and Morty because of the different worlds and dimensions in which the characters in Le Guin’s “Nine Lives” and Butler’s “Speech Sound” surround. I love learning the different world issues that these characters faced and connecting them to the real-life situations in which we face. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of neurological and physical side effects in many people around the world full of 7 billion people in a rapidly declining population. The pandemic has strained the abilities of many others, especially the developmentally disabled to struggle more and more with literacy, and thus the fact that violence has risen tremendously. As a statistic from NBC News stated, crime in NYC has risen 166% with people being shot or targeting more often than before especially in the city. I found that fact very alarming and how Rick and Morty being the SF it is, is insanely varied with Rick Sanchez traveling amongst different dimensions of himself and his family under infinite amounts of circumstances (death, fascism, pestilence, apocalypse, worm people, etc). The same way with Le Guin’s “Nine Lives” that focused on the adaptation of the clone after all the other clones were gone. That story reminds me a lot of the science that Rick and Morty have done with cloning and constantly jumping from realities after they’ve accidentally destroyed the reality they previously lived in. The lecture really brought an interesting aspect to SF that I’ve never thought of before. Usually, I noticed history books over-focus on Westernization of cultures, colonization and etc mostly centered around Europeans, which leaves out the many interesting aspects of different cultures that people don’t consider as significant because they are not part of Western Civilization or Western Culture. Afrofuturism is really interesting to me, and I know that the history of New Orleans with the Voodoo magic practiced by black women who were often seen as ‘witches’ or workings of the devil isn’t necessarily hard SF, but they are speculative SF and that makes me wonder a lot about the fact that this type of SF is often ignored when it comes to learning about SF because it is speculative fiction, and feminist SF.
This week’s lecture was partly a continuation of Feminist Science Fiction and then the topic of Afrofuturism. Two more notable Feminist SF writers are Ursula K. Le Guin who wrote “Nine Lives” and Octavia E. Butler, author of “Speech Sound.” Ursula K. Le Guin’s writing career is nothing to underestimate as she her works won her five Hugo Awards as well as six Nebula Awards. Her writing tends to have a focus on Anthropology, an interest which she got from her parents. Key characteristics in her stories involve groups of people slowly developing mutual understanding in order to coexist. However, the thing that caught my attention the most was her concept of the Ansible, which serves as a base for the possibility of faster than light travel for communication purposes. I feel that Professor Ellis did a really good job at explaining why the concept matters by using the example of real-life rovers on Mars. This is actually a topic that pops on my mind a lot whenever things like waves and light speed in brought up in physics and other classes. Particularly, I think of communication in Star Wars, though I feel like other space operas are also guilty of never explaining how real time communication is even possible across a whole galaxy. Next up is Octavia E. Butler, a very important SF writer of color who was known for tackling a lot of darker themes such as slavery and racism. Finally, Afrofuturism, which focuses on the relationship between African diaspora and technology. Reading the title, and I am sure I was not the only one, I initially thought that it was a sub-genre of SF. This was addressed by the professor, clarifying that there is an intersection between the two genres, but they are not the same one.
What stands out to me after this week’s reading and lecture, is how Scully of “The X-Files” Kill Switch is an example of the last two lectures we have gone over in class. The series “The X-Files” Kill Switch, centers around a serial killer who uses the internet and technology to manifest terror. Scully, an investigator, leads the team to stop and detain the criminal. Dating back to the lectures of Feminism, we discussed patriarchy, which in the its general meaning states that the head of a household or group is a male, however in “The X-Files” Kill Switch, this is not the case as Scully along with other females lead a group of investigators and also combat male counterparts. From this week’s lecture, a lot of the topics we discussed did not relate to the readings/episodes that we were required to read/watch but what stood out to me most was Afrofuturism. A lot of the readings we have mostly focused on during the semester were mainly based on white cultured writing but Afrofuturism brought upon the inclusion of African culture with technology to the field of science fiction. A prime example of Afrofuturism would be the Black Panther movie. Afrofuturism took SF to another level by including cultural symbols and themes that had not been seen in previous SF writings. While feminism itself was a breakthrough in SF, Afrofuturism itself raised the bar of inclusion in SF and also introduced the world to new, abstract and creative ideas.
This week lecture the the topic of feminism in Science Fiction was continued, however this time the main focus was Ursula K Le Guin, a woman that was also mentioned in last week’s lecture for her book Left Hand of Darkness, a book considered to be really important in Feminist SF. Ursula K Le Guin grew up in a family surrounded by famous anthropologists, Alfred Louis Kroeber and Theodora Kroeber so it’s no surprise that her works included a lot of anthropology. She is most well known for her Hainish stories, aka Hainish Cycle, the Earthsea Cycle and as mentioned before, the Left Hand of Darkness. Ursula K Le Guin was extremely successful, having won five Hugo Awards and six Nebula Awards during her lifetime. Another significant woman of that time was Octavia E. Butler. So significant in fact that she was the first SF writer to receive the MacArthur “Genius” Grant. Her works included themes of slavery, victimization, classism, racism and identity. She is most well known for “Kindred”, the “Patternist” series and “Xenogenesis” series. Lastly, in this lecture the topic of Afrofuturism was also included. Afrofuturism explored African diaspora by using technoculture and more importantly science fiction. Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler, authors that we have previously learned about, were both contributors of Afrofuturistic work. A modern example of Afrofuturistic work that I can think of is Black Panther from Stan Lee’s Marvel Comics
In this week’s lecture is the continuation from last week’s feminist science fiction, and Afrofuturism. At first, we went over with two female writers, Ursula K. Le Guin, the writer of “Nine Lives” (first published in Playboy, Nov. 1969). Le Guin got a high education background. She received a masters from Columbia in romance literatures of the middle ages and renaissance. The second writer was Octavia E. Butler, the writer of “Speech Sounds” (Asimov’s Dec. 1983). Octavia was the first African American science fiction writer. Her works including slavery, and racism. One of the things that stood out to me most was the story that Prof. Ellis mentioned about Dana, and Kevin in Antebellum. The reason why it really stood out to me was I remember watched a movie named “Antebellum” from last year. This movie has a strong theme of slavery and racism, set in the modern time, and kept the black people hostage in a Civil War reenactment park. And the history of this was very dark and cold blood for suffering. At last, we have Afrofuturism. This is the future and science fiction cultural aesthetic about African. For example, Marvel’s Black Panther is a great way to define its meaning. Set in Africa and have a strong culture of history and living style to relate to the science fiction stories and the world of its own. I would call Octavia E. Butler a genius, and a well deserve Hugo Awards for her works of bringing a culture and history into a science fiction. She literally combining two things together into one genre.
Octavia Butler’s “Speech Sounds” is a really interesting story. It is set in a world that seems to be similar to our own, but with one difference. People living in that world have a strange illness. Some can’t talk. Some can’t write. Some become dumb. I love how the author builds the world. It combines both familiar elements close to us and the strangeness that piques our curiosity and makes us want to read more.
Ursula K. LeGuin’s “Nine Lives” reminds me of my intro to biology class. I understood what they were saying in the story while I was reading it. But it makes me think that what about people who aren’t familiar with it. Will they enjoy the piece just as much? It seems to me that incorporating hard science in our stories sets up a threshold that readers have to step over. That’s why science fiction targets a specific group of audience. A less rigorous science fiction like Star Trek will be more popular towards the general audience. This story also raises an ethical issues. If we can just clone smart or strong people, then the world will be running with countless Albert Einstein. Would that really be a good idea? Or even worse, some mad scientists might clone and raise a dozen of Adolf Hitler. It’s a scary thought. Cloning is dangerous.
I learned three goals of Afrofuturism. It should (1) tell a good science fiction or speculative fiction story. (2) Recover the past and reconsider the present in their light. (3) Imagine or inspire new futures based on these recovered histories and culture.
This week’s lecture is continuation of Feminist SF and we learn about Afrofuturism. We learned about two more feminist SF writers, Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia E. Butler. Ursula K. Le Guin has won many awards with her writing. Her works focus on anthropology. I learned anthropology is the study of human beings and their culture. Three characteristics of her stories are that her novels usually follow a certain trajectory, her fictions are called anthropological, and her fiction stories are informed by eastern taoist tradition. We read “Nine Lives” by Ursula K. Le Guin published in 1969. It’s about two men having to work with ten clones who are reliant on themselves. All but one dies of the clones. And that clone has to learn a social relationship with the two men. The next writer we learn about is Octavia E. Butler. Butler was the first well known African-American woman writer in SF. The type of science fiction she writes are time travel, biological sciences, biology, and social sciences. The themes are slavery, victimization, classism, racism, and identity. We read “Speech Sounds” by Octavia E. Butler published in 1983. It’s about a post-apocalyptic world where a pandemic kills tons of people. Leaving survivors crippled. Survivors having neurological damage. The next thing we learned about is Afrofuturism. Afrofuturism is a speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of 20th century technoculture. Three goals of Afrofuturism I learned is to tell a good science fiction story, recover the past, and imagine/inspire new futures based on recovered histories.
Some things I have noticed are Ursula K. Le Guin’s father was a famous Anthropologist. His name was Dr. Alfred Lewis Kroeber. Another interesting thing is that Ursula K. Le Guin’s mother was Theodora Kroeber who was a famous anthropology writer. Ursula K. Le Guin’s work is known for writing about a person being the connecting factor. Her second point that is seen from her writing is anthropological. Her stories also kind of represent or reflect humans and what is considered to be. The third characteristic is her fiction is balanced. Octavia E. Butler was the first well known African American Science Fiction writer. She also was the first in Science Fiction to get a reward known as the MacArthur Grant. Her writing has a lot of biological and social science in her books. Some of the themes she writes about is victimization, classism, racism, and a person’s identity. Kindred was one of her famous novels where a black woman and her white husband go back in time where she has to keep a white child safe because that white child was the one who raped her ancestor to have her exist. It is a messed up thing. Afrofuturism is Science Fiction from an Afrodiasporic perspective. It has helped to make sense of their place in the world. I liked how they use Science Fiction to make sense of things. It is also an insight on how they can change things for better in the present and future. It gives an idea of an alternative view.
In the week 13 lecture, we continued the discussion on feminist SF. We started talked about Ursula K. Le Guin who had a very interesting background that obviously impacted her work. Both her parents practiced anthropology which gives reason for her own work to have content of an anthropological nature. Her work has been described as anthropological fiction. our reading for the week was called “Nine Lives” and you can see these topics addressed. The story is about two men who are sent off to another planet in search of Uranium for Earth, because of apocalyptic events and the near extinction of human clones are made to help with these missions. We then moved on to Octavia E. Butler. She was the first well-known African American woman writer in SF. the type of science fiction she wrote was time travel, biological sciences, and social sciences. Her themes were slavery, victimization, classism, racism, and identity. We then spoke about one of her pieces called “Speech Sounds” which was published in December 1983 This story really correlates with what we’re experiencing now. I enjoy the topic that Butler has written about because it is one that could be a possibility, and she explores possible behavior patterns that could occur to those that survive.
The week’s lecture continues with feminism SF and Afrofuturism, Afrofuturism not being a subgenre of SF but an intersection. Mark Dery is a theorist who coined the term Afrofuturism during an interview for “Black to the Future” to describe the African diaspora culture with technology. In continuation with feminism SF a writer by the name of Ursula K. LeGuin who won 5 hugo awards and 6 nubula awards for her writing experienced her first and only dose of sexual prejudice when she wrote Nine Lives in 1969. Her novelette Nine Lives was published in Playboy and according to Playboy a female author would make its readers nervous so it was better to just use her initials. In using her initials U.K. LeGuin, she concealed her identity, appeasing the readers of Playboy magazine. This story plays on the dependence of clones that basically operate altogether and with this fearmongering thought instead of them working together and being better they cause chaos that leads to their downfall. There’s a message in that story that people should be able to work alone and not just work for and with others becoming dependent on people and not yourself. The story “Speech Sounds” written by Octavia E. Butler in 1983 is about people that lost their ability of verbal communication after an apocalyptic event which causes people to be very angry and jealous towards others who may be able to communicate better than them. The character Valerie Rye can still communicate verbally but still feels jealousy when she meets Obsidian because he can also speak verbally, she installs her trust in him and she is able to make it through madness and at the end even comes out with adopting 2 orphaned children that can also speak. In this story, you can see that opposite of Nine Lives, the people worked against each other but the ones that helped themselves were able to help others better.