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The Black Culture Thread |OT7| Luigi took our stare

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I told J10 I'd drop in here and do a little science-fiction coverage from black authors and non-black authors who regularly have black main characters, so here it is.

Let's lead off with a catch all site: http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/
The title is pretty self-explanatory. The website is ugly as sin, but they cover new and old fiction by black authors in most of the speculative genres.

Science-Fiction (Black Authors):

Octavia Butler:

The Queen of Black Science Fiction, Octavia Butler not only is well-regarded in the science fiction world, but also in the literary world for books like Kindred, a time travel story where a modern black woman is transported to 19th Century Maryland, where she meets her ancestors -- a white slave owner and his slave.

But she also writes straight up, badass, science fiction, including the Patternist series (a secret history that ranges from Ancient Egypt to the far future, involves telepathy, aliens, etc.) , the Parable duology (about a girl with hyperempathy and the collapse of American civilization), and Lilith's Brood (about humanity being saved by aliens after a nuclear war).

Butler is a take no prisoners writer. She doesn't blanche from tackling racial and social issues head on in her writing.

Samuel Delany:

One of the greatest writers in the genre, full stop. Samuel Delany is a gay black man whose work dominates science fiction. He's been inducted to the Science fiction Hall of Fame. He's been awarded four Nebulas and two Hugo awards, putting him in a very small class with people like Arthur C. Clarke. And his writing buries most of the rest of those guys.

The Einstein Intersection: The surface story tells of the problems a member of an alien race, Lo Lobey, has assimilating the mythology of earth, where his kind have settled among the leftover artifacts of humanity. It digs deeper, though, with discussions of what it's like to deal with a majority culture to which you don't entirely belong.

Dhalgren: One of the great science fiction novels, it's primary plot is about a city cut off from the rest of reality, with a protagonist who has lost his memory. One of the most complex science fiction novels written, sometimes mentioned in the same breath with classics like Finnegan's Wake by Joyce. People have been teasing new meaning out of this book for decades now.

Return to Nevèrÿon (series): These stories take place before history, and feature an nearly all black or brown set of protagonists, as the white barbarians to the south aren't ready for any sort for civilization yet. Essentially sword and sorcery books, these go well with other black fantasy, like Sword and Soul (which we'll get to in the next post).

Steven Barnes:

Steven Barnes is one of my favorite black science fiction writers, although he deals with less "black themes" than some of the others on this list. He's a hard science-fiction writer who has a history of working with Larry Niven (who is one of my absolutely favorites...Ringworld!)

The Dream Park Series (with Larry Niven): Before there was matrix, there was the Dream Park, where anything could happen, including terrible malfunctions that killed the people playing in the Dream Park. Niven and Barnes create four wonderful romps through this world, including Dream Park, The Barsoom Project, The California Voodoo Game, and The Moon Maze Game.

The Heorot Series (with Niven and Pournelle): Straight up interplanetary fiction. colonists settle on a world only to discover it contains an alien species they name "grendels." A great duology, full of action, cool interplanetary science, and giant monsters that need some killing.

The Insh'Allah series: A duology about a world where the Islamic Africa is the center of the technological world, while Europe remains a backward, parochial place. If you want to see Arab warriors battling Aztecs, while Europe is still a bunch of tribes taken as slaves by the dominant African culture, this is for you.

Barnes has about thirty novels out there, most of which are worth reading. He's recently been writing with his wife, Tananarive Due, who will be discussed in the fantasy portion.

Walter Mosley

You may know Walter Mosley from his novel Devil in the Blue Dress, which was made into a movie starring Denzel. Well, he also writes science fiction, and it's very, very good stuff. I stumbled on his stuff in the library one day and went out and bought most of it.

Blue Light: A blue light hovers over North Carolina and everyone it touches either dies, goes mad, or gains a new power. Cool and freaky.

Futureland: A collection of science fiction short stories by Mosley, it's full of interesting ideas and fascinating characters.

I love Mosley's writing and characters, and while his science is sometimes a little soft, it never bothered me in the slightest.

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Okay, if people are interested, I'll do black fantasy writers next, then some non-black writers who have series that are of special interest tou readers into multiculturalism and black protagonists.


Oh snap, I actually met someone who know who Octavia Butler is. Man I've been waiting for so long to discuss her stuff and thanks for the shoutouts to other authors.

Out of her books which do you find is the best? The last one I read was Kindred, it was good, but the one thing that dissappointed me was
they never explained why the time traveling was occurring. Was she a mutant, was her ancestor one? We don't know. I would think if it was a mutation then it would have been from her because otherwise Doro would've snatched him up
.

I found Parable of the Sawyer to be a little boring so I didn't bother with the sequel.

Out of the Patternist series I found Clay's Ark to be the weakest, the only good part was the fight at the end.
I really hated how they just killed off Anyanwu at the end of Mind of My Mind. She was so badass in Wild Seed (her best book) then she just has her commit suicide in the last page and she was hardly even in the book.

Also hell yeah, Tokyo Ghetto Pussy.
 

Zeliard

Member
Someone should start a thread about how the terms ofay and cracker are terribly devastating to white people and comparable to other slurs.
 

Slayven

Member
You can call me peckerwood if you want, Slay.
Still lame, I want to know the white versions of Moon Cricket.

Someone should start a thread about how the terms ofay and cracker are terribly devastating to white people and comparable to other slurs.
i am resting up for black face halloween threads.

Pretty much any thread with women (or a minority) asking to be treated like an actual person is met with so much hostility and defensiveness. Like how dare we want some basic decency and respect.

Listen devo you are asking people to relate to something that is unquantifiable.
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
At some point, the middle class is probably going to stop pointing all their guns at each other and start pointing them at the wealthy and they're gonna just go take what they're owed. But we're not anywhere near there yet. Still too complacent.

Been reading some articles about how people apparently aren't aware of how bad income inequality actually is.
 

Jado

Banned
This has never bothered me at all. I just want good movies with a compelling storyline, I dont really care if they are black or white, the current formula works fine IMO.

Watching action flicks with a female lead is very hard. Gravity kind of films work fine, but watching a Die hard movie with a female lead....yikes.

I like Alien, those kind of movies work great with a female star.

My response:
This is a really shitty post. You deserve more flak or a bad tag for some of the awfully dumb shit you say on GAF. I feel like your reputation/adventures and Euro white boy good looks grant you a lot of leniency.

Too harsh? I swear this guy has said some infuriating shit in the past and no one calls him out cuz he's an old GAF favorite and "really attractive" Euro dude.
 

DrFunk

not licensed in your state
Foxx playing mike Tyson...HOLLYWOOD STAPH

Btzdv5ECAAAae-V.jpg
 

Slayven

Member
Ofay huh? Learned something today lol. Ofay doesn't look and sound offensive, like you can find it on the makeup aisle

I am kind of hurt I never knew it before today. Being raised in the south, thought I knew them all.

Ofay sounds like something that costs 15 bucks a piece at Whole Foods.
 
My response:


Too harsh? I swear this guy has said some infuriating shit in the past and no one calls him out cuz he's an old GAF favorite and "really attractive" Euro dude.

So he finds it hard to watch a female john mcclain fuck terrorists up in an office building but Ripley running around a ship in her undies fucking aliens up is fine?

My head....
 

ishibear

is a goddamn bear
Pretty much any thread with women (or a minority) asking to be treated like an actual person is met with so much hostility and defensiveness. Like how dare we want some basic decency and respect.

It's fucking disgusting.

Guys in there acting like victims because Asian women are disgusted by being fetished.

It's like pulling the reverse racism line. And it's creepy.

I do think it's good that more people are calling out guys for what they're doing. Yellow fever is just another form of minority oppression tbh.
 
It's fucking disgusting.

Guys in there acting like victims because Asian women are disgusted by being fetished.

It's like pulling the reverse racism line. And it's creepy.

I do think it's good that more people are calling out guys for what they're doing. Yellow fever is just another form of minority oppression tbh.

Anything that involves self-introspection regarding objectifying women (and in this case one of the worst ways, racist stereotypes) is met with so much pushback.

It's great that calls to be treated like a human being is met with "well I like what I like."

Be more obtuse please.
 

ishibear

is a goddamn bear
I hate to bug mods but isn't this worthy of a warning or something? There's people outright disregarding a direct plea for respect, and this hostile response only for the sole purpose of viewing women as objects.

You can tell it's rooted in sexism and racism because Asian women calling out creeps has gotten a harsh, dismissive response and not one person in that thread has considered listening to the arguments, instead they're mocking it and taking pride in it, even trying to tell people to get over being fetished like it's a compliment.

I'm honestly uncomfortable with that. I've gotten targeted by someone with "jungle fever" before and it was very disturbing. I feel like I'm being told I should have taken the compliment~ but it wasn't a compliment. It was degrading. :(
 
I hate to bug mods but isn't this worthy of a warning or something? There's people outright disregarding a direct plea for respect, and this hostile response only for the sole purpose of viewing women as objects.

You can tell it's rooted in sexism and racism because Asian women calling out creeps has gotten a harsh, dismissive response and not one person in that thread has considered listening to the arguments, instead they're mocking it and taking pride in it, even trying to tell people to get over being fetished like it's a compliment.

I'm honestly uncomfortable with that. I've gotten targeted by someone with "jungle fever" before and it was very disturbing. I feel like I'm being told I should have taken the compliment~ but it wasn't a compliment. It was degrading. :(

Thread needs a weed whacker. It's an extremely childish affair in there. Threads would go more smoothly if the people who act completely obtuse to the problem in question were thrown out on their ass. No one cares if you have preferences, people care if you're an intrusive, creepy asshole about it. And guess what, if you're getting angry about asian women (or other women) talking about the problem, YOU'RE part of the problem.
 

ishibear

is a goddamn bear
Thread needs a weed whacker. It's an extremely childish affair in there. Threads would go more smoothly if the people who act completely obtuse to the problem in question were thrown out on their ass. No one cares if you have preferences, people care if you're an intrusive, creepy asshole about it. And guess what, if you're getting angry about asian women (or other women) talking about the problem, YOU'RE part of the problem.

Agreed.

I'm appalled how disrespectful they're being! I dare to say I don't think they would have the gall to say these things in any other topic about women's rights. Or at least they'd be careful with what they say. I mean, there's at least 3 people admitting to having yellow fever like it's no big deal and instead of guys attacking them (the assholes that got this movement started with their ignorance) they're lashing out at the woman in the OP's video for touching on the topic.

It's fucked up. We have Asian GAFfers on here and it's like they're being flipped the bird. I don't like that shit at all.

Edit: thanks bunches Besada! I really didn't want to be a bother but it's getting very uncomfortable in there. :(
 

DY_nasty

NeoGAF's official "was this shooting justified" consultant
Kraftwerk you really made an ofay thread for honkeys to cracker on about being called whitey?
One time, right before an interview, a receptionist read out my entire name and the entire office waited for a white guy to stand up instead of me.

It was awful
 
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