“Racism in Science Fiction” by Samuel R. Delany

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In “Racism in Science Fiction,” Delany speaks to his experience being considered as the “first” African-American science fiction writer, an “originary label [worn] as uneasily as any writer has worn the label of science fiction itself.” He reflects on his experience at a particularly charged Nebula Awards, in which a speaker publicly denounced Delany’s work and, to defuse the tension, our beloved Asimov joked that “You know, Chip, we only voted you these awards because you’re Negro…!”

While his untimely comment may seem both crude and uncalled for, Delany explains that Asimov’s quip held a much weightier significance, as it suggested that “the concept of race informed everything about [him].” Delany goes on to cite other names that have frequented our class discussions, Judith Merril and James Blish, whom referred to Delany, in print, as a “handsome Negro” and a “merry Negro,” respectively.

While Delany’s experience with racism in the science fiction community may feel foreign to us now, over 20 years later, it is essential that we (as science fiction consumers, and some of us, writers) recognize the importance of supporting a diverse group of voices that, for better or worse, are imagining and extrapolating our collective futures.

Full essay: https://www.nyrsf.com/racism-and-science-fiction-.html

Syntactical Rebellion in “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman”

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As we discussed in class, Harlequin is a rebel who symbolizes disruption and threatens order and societal expectations. While the middle-class considers him “vulgar” and “shameful,” the lower classes view him as a “Robin Hood…a Jesus” (369). Considered dangerous by the upper echelons of society, Harlequin is a threatening presence because of his unpredictability and unwillingness to abide by the rules of a society governed by adherence to time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things that I loved about Ellison’s short story is that Harlequin’s inability and lack of desire to follow rules is represented in the way in which Ellison writes his character. When Ellison references the Ticktockman, the length of his sentences range from normal, for lack of a better word, to short and clipped. On the other hand, when Harlequin has his inner monologue about jelly beans, one continuous sentence stretches for ten lines. While we mentioned in class that these inner long monologues are representative of Harlequin’s movement and activity throughout the story, I think that they also serve as a textual representation of Harlequin’s disruptive nature; not only does he rebel against the Ticktockman and the society in which he lives, but also against expected norms of syntactical and grammatical structure.

Question of Diversity in SF

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For this week’s web search, I focused on the topic of diversity in the science fiction genre. In “How Science Fiction is Getting More Diverse,” Alex Abad-Santos expresses frustration that, while science fiction is about exploring possibility and creating worlds different from our own, our “mainstream cultural gatekeepers” have a penchant for ignoring non-white and non-male characters. While he notes that representation in mainstream science fiction has improved in the last couple of decades, depictions of people of color in mainstream science fiction sometimes do lean into debasing stereotypes. He cites series like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon with examples of Asian people or white actors in yellow-face portrayed as villains and also includes this poignant demographic to demonstrate the types of diversity lacking in the most popular science fiction movies as of 2014:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ultimately, Abad-Santos stresses the importance of representation for non-white and non-male characters–if “science fiction is about depicting the future, and that future features only white people, then it sends a message to non-white audiences that there’s no place for them in the future.”

Article link: https://www.vox.com/2014/8/18/6000019/how-science-fiction-is-getting-more-diverse