blktype
Are there any AfroCarib Science Fiction writers in the UK? Know of any good stories?

Well the idea is to try to see what our idea of future space is, how we imagine the future.
Perhaps a compilation of short stories.

Not many that I know of.

However try Nalo Hopkinson born in Jamaica.

http://nalohopkinson.blogspot.com/

For more simply google her name.

Thanks Peacemaker, I am trying to find people that would be interested in writing a short Afro Caribbean Sci-fi piece rather than they are actually Sci-fi writers. I want to know how we as a people view the far future, as so much of our writing is about the past.

Profound point Ackees;

So what do you make of that. Is it because Blacks lack imagination about the "without" as opposed to the "within" - Music, religion etc. Or is it because Blacks lack an understanding of themselves and their place in the order of things - thus the constant revisiting of the past to try to figure it out?

I do not believe there is a lack of anything, it's just that elements of the past have been so 'difficult' that it has taken up a lot of attention. Also if you walk forwards and look backwards all the time you bump into something unexpected.

I do find it strange since there is no shortage of black readers or watchers of scifi in general. I know many people who are writting or learning to but nobody who is interested in doing scifi unfortunately.

I don't think it has anything to do with the past since that didn't stop writers like Octavia using the future to describe the past several times and more to the point, most fiction writters are caught up in the immediate present. The here and now, not the past.

This is the kind of thing we need to take a closer look at 'the here and now, not the past', the idea is not linear (you can say that 'the here and now' is the past, or the present, or the future), the idea is about seeing exactly what we want it to be about.

I question the need for it and would say its just another form of mimicry we can do without.

There are a number of assumptions with most science fiction.

1) White people still run the galaxy
2) Science is a linear neat progression
3) That civilisation's actually progress in their thinking and do not become more barbaric.
4) That science can solve anything and everything.
5) The denial of spiritual realities.
6) More machines and 'artificial intellenge' equals progress and that there is no critical point to be reached when nature reduces man to limited technology thorugh force. ( Think global warming).

Would a story of human beings with pronounced spiritual powers/ through heightened training and a shift in the education of humans be African/ African Caribbean science fiction? Is science limited to the physical realm?

Just some of the things that it brings to mind.

BT said

There are a number of assumptions with most science fiction.

1) White people still run the galaxy
Obviously a black writer would write that differently. Lots of works have aliens doing this or other beings as well.

2) Science is a linear neat progression
Nope. Surely you've read just as many apocalyptic books in mad max type futures as progressive ones. Also the trend in some books is towards a pastoral future in which man has moved beyond techno toys and into pure mentalic thought beings. I've read LOADS of stuff like that. And if you mean in terms of linear time then you should know that there is nothing SF writers enjoy more than playing with time. Going back and forth, going in loops and into nothingess. Especially relativity. Alaistar Reynolds is good at that, describing relativity in time and SOL travelling.

3) That civilisation's actually progress in their thinking and do not become more barbaric.
If you could get past how boring he is and his writing style, then Gene Wolfes books are set on an earth 1000s of years in the future with ridicolous technology but very different people. They have professional and apprentice torturers for one thing. Pit fighting and so on. But the best example of this is Asimovs foundation. That is the be all and end all imo of what you're talking about. The book begins with describing a galatic empires fall into barbarism.

4) That science can solve anything and everything.
LOL I am legend? Meddling scientists trying to cure cancer wipe out the world. Sure Will Smith found the cure, but after 3 years and everybody is dead? What about zombie movies like 28 days... evil virus from scientists. Man even the whole game/film franchise "resident evil". The whole world as zombies because of the deliberate machinations of evil big business scientists looking for a workforce. Dr Jekel and Mr Hyde? How many mad evil scientist stories do you need me to name lol. They all end in disaster. Modern books don't quite use the old phrase "there are some things that man wasn't mean to know" but they use the same old boring sentiments. Okay skip that... what about (again) post nuclear apocalypse movies?

5) The denial of spiritual realities.
You gotta be kidding! You know how much room there is for that in scifi? I mean thnk of Star Wars. What on earth is "the force"? Listen to the way they even speak about the force. "Search your feelings" "Use your heart Luke" "It connects all living things" If that isn't spiritual then...

6) More machines and 'artificial intellenge' equals progress and that there is no critical point to be reached when nature reduces man to limited technology thorugh force. ( Think global warming).
Actually as Asimov put it, there are two types of AI fiction. One with robot as a friend or progressive helping people along to wherever. Or one with robot as an exterminating enemy (terminator, matrix etc) or that foe that simply by existing makes us irrelevant and lazy. Doesn't always turn out the same way. Even the cartoon transformers, I recall a planet where the people were so "advanced" they sat like babies in plastic wombs being fed and petted by mechanical arms in their laziness. They were obviously baddies lol and had no actual lives, needing to steal experiences from other peoples minds.

Would a story of human beings with pronounced spiritual powers/ through heightened training and a shift in the education of humans be African/ African Caribbean science fiction? Is science limited to the physical realm?
Not a black writer but check out Peter Hamiltons "night's dawn trilogy". It's effin brilliant. A basic synopsis is that a guy breaches the gap between dimensions in a mistake (lots of details) that results in the dead coming back to possess people and escape hell. Not a Dante type of hell but a void of eternal nothingness with countless billions feeding off each others emotions, able to sense the world but not take part. Now they have bodies (ours) and won't give them up. It's a very good story and certainly not in the physical realm It's not one on it's own either. My particular bent isn't towards that sort of writer but there is a wealth of it if yours is.

Just some of the things that it brings to mind.

Also my general point is... whatever is lacking in white writing a black writer can do better and make more relevant. If it's not spiritual enough, then include that. For you to portray a whole genre in the way you have is disingenous BT. There are hopeful books and pessimistic ones. Techno future ones and ones where technology has been a bad thing (think Gattaca or Equilibrium). SF as a whole enables people to describe all manner of societies and situations their imaginations let them. I definately see a need for black voices in that.

Well SCi Fi has moved on quite a bit since the last I read which was HG Wells and some short stories by Asimov (neither impressed me) quite a few years ago mind you..

I'll reserve judgment on it seeing as you brought certain authors to light..maybe Im biased because it aint my thing.

HG Wells was writing before our fathers were born lol!! You'll find most white folk writing of that time with that sort of superior bent and theme tbh.

But I'm thinking of his books and even they aren't about white men running things in a happy future. The time machine describes a future where techology devolved humans into two mindless classes and it's definately pessimistic. War of the worlds has martians coming to bash us all up lol and Dr Moreau is about men playing god with evil consequences.


Asimov's flaws lie in his character development. He generally writes enthusiastically about things and societies and concepts but not really about individuals and so on. Makes the stories a little stale. Generally though, many of the points you made do apply to his writing.


What you have to do is take things in the context and time they were written. I think of it in terms of comic books lol. In the old days every superhero gained his power through serums and potions. Then after the 50s they all gained their power through atomics and nuclear accidents. Later it was cosmic rays and things from outer space, then in the 80s and 90s everything was genetic enhancement. Not only that but things like the baddies in action movies change. From Germans to Japs to Russkis and now Arabs.

You can tell a piece of any type of fiction from what time it was written.

Back to SF the thing I've noted which changes mostly is optimism/pessism. Writers of different eras and different cultures see the world differently. I can see why the Indians sang songs about the end of the world and armageddon at the same time Euros were thinking of Galactic domination and so on.

You can have a flood of happy fiction in a given period but watch a depression or recession affect that years novella very quickly.

Dolly the sheep was born and everybody wrote books about super evolved humans and genetic tampering and record crop growths. Then Dolly died early due to genetic defects and it was found that cloned vertebrae have deficiencys, suddenly the fiction is all doom and gloom again lol.


BT given the things you've said I reckon you would REALLY enjoy Octavia Butler's work. I think you should read Seed to Harvest. I believe it would totally convince you of the benefits of black SF writers.