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Dec. 6th, 2014
SF and Ferguson
Dec. 6th, 2014 03:27 pmImagine the kind of future you'd like to live in. Read it, write it, paint it, buy it. Challenge the status quo. Rock the fucking boat.
If you look at what I'm writing, you'll see a lot of interaction among diverse characters. They use their different cultural backgrounds to solve problems in creative ways. You can see alternative justice methods, different economies, all kinds of governments. It's not just in science fiction; I do that in fantasy too. But my leading SF projects, Schrodinger's Heroes and The Blueshift Troupers, are both very strong on diversity and less-violent problem solving. So is another that I helped inspire, Nine for the Nebula's Heart. For me it really comes out of something that Martin Luther King, Jr. said to Nichelle Nichols about playing Lt. Uhura: "You show that we SURVIVE." That's the kind of SF I grew up with, not this modern dystopic shit that looks like the news.
We survive. The people I put in my futures are the faces of all my ancestors. I may be pinkish on the outside right now, but well ... I can pass for white, until I open my mouth. Read me and the true colors show right through. These are the kinds of world I want to live in. I want my future back.
What are some of your favorite SF futures? What are some of your favorite writers or works of color?
If you look at what I'm writing, you'll see a lot of interaction among diverse characters. They use their different cultural backgrounds to solve problems in creative ways. You can see alternative justice methods, different economies, all kinds of governments. It's not just in science fiction; I do that in fantasy too. But my leading SF projects, Schrodinger's Heroes and The Blueshift Troupers, are both very strong on diversity and less-violent problem solving. So is another that I helped inspire, Nine for the Nebula's Heart. For me it really comes out of something that Martin Luther King, Jr. said to Nichelle Nichols about playing Lt. Uhura: "You show that we SURVIVE." That's the kind of SF I grew up with, not this modern dystopic shit that looks like the news.
We survive. The people I put in my futures are the faces of all my ancestors. I may be pinkish on the outside right now, but well ... I can pass for white, until I open my mouth. Read me and the true colors show right through. These are the kinds of world I want to live in. I want my future back.
What are some of your favorite SF futures? What are some of your favorite writers or works of color?