April 26, 2009

Samuel Delany On Race, Etc.

Since I've never read any of his works, my respect comes from the wisdom of others that I respect.

[ via Cecily ]

The New York Review of Science Fiction: "Racism and Science Fiction" by Samuel R. Delany

For better or for worse, I am often spoken of as the first African-American science fiction writer. But I wear that originary label as uneasily as any writer has worn the label of science fiction itself. Among the ranks of what is often referred to as proto-science fiction, there are a number of black writers. M. P. Shiel, whose Purple Cloud and Lord of the Sea are still read, was a Creole with some African ancestry. Black leader Martin Delany (1812 — 1885—alas, no relation) wrote his single and highly imaginative novel, still to be found on the shelves of Barnes & Noble today, Blake, or The Huts of America (1857), about an imagined successful slave revolt in Cuba and the American South—which is about as close to an sf-style alternate history novel as you can get.

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Posted by ronn at April 26, 2009 04:37 PM

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