Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (BR)

[Travis]

This will be the folder for a BR of Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, edited by Sheree Thomas.

EDIT: The entire anthology can be checked out through the Internet Archive.

We'll aim for two stories per week.

Here's a schedule (which we can adjust any time):

June 20: "Sister Lilith" by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers and "The Comet" by W. E. B. DuBois

June 27: "Chicago 1927" by Jewelle Gomez and "Black No More" by George Schuyler

July 4: "separation anxiety" by Evie Shockley and "Tasting Songs" by Leone Ross

July 11: "Can You Wear My Eyes" by Kalamu ya Salaam and "Like Daughter" by Tananarive Due

July 18: "Greedy Choke Puppy" by Nalo Hopkinson and "Rhythm Travel" by Amiri Baraka

July 25: "Buddy Bolden" by Kalamu ya Salaam and "Aye, and Gomorrah..." by Samuel Delany

August 1: "Ganger (Ball Lightning)" by Nalo Hopkinson and "The Becoming" by Akua Lezli Hope

August 8: "The Goophered Grapevine" by Charles Chessnut and "The Evening and the Morning and the Night" by Octavia Butler

August 15: "Twice, at Once, Separated" by Linda Addison and "Gimmile's Songs" by Charles R. Saunders

August 22: "At the Huts of Ajala" by Nisi Shawl and "The Woman in the Wall" by Steven Barnes

August 29: "Ark of Bones" by Henry Dumas and "Butta's Backyard Barbecue" by Tony Medina

September 5: "Future Christmas" by Ishmael Reed and "At Life's Limits" by Kiini Ibura Salaam

September 12: "The African Origins of UFOs" by Anthony Joseph and "The Astral Visitor Delta Blues" by Robert Fleming

September 19: "The Space Traders" by Derrick Bell and "The Pretended" by Darryl A. Smith

September 26: "Hussy Strutt" by Ama Patterson and "Racism and Science Fiction" by Samuel Delany

October 3: "Why Blacks Should Read (and Write) Science Fiction" by Charles R. Saunders and "Black to the Future" by Walter Mosley

October 10: "Yet Do I Wonder" by Paul D. Miller and "The Monophobic Response" by Octavia Butler

[Travis]

First up is "Sister Lilith" published in 2000 and "The Comet" from 1920.

One review I saw described "Sister Lilith" like this: "Lilith, first woman, gives her perspective on her replacement by trophy wife Eve and the men who enabled Adam’s contemptible behavior."

"The Comet" is in the public domain (and is, imho, totally and completely phenomenal). Nisi Shawl wrote about it for Tor and Saidiya Hartman recently wrote about it for Bomb magazine (spoilers at both links!).

[Gabi]

I'm eager to start! Thank you for putting up the wonderful overview, Travis.

[Cheryl]

The Comet is indeed a wonderful story. Timeless theme (unfortunately).

[Jemppu]

Starting today. I just recently read W.E.B. Du Bois' Darkwater, including The Comet, which is one of those writings you'd indeed hope time (a full century) would've made irrelevant. Some day.

[Jemppu]

Loved the percipience of "Sister Lilith". Introduced such life and depth to the story of Cain and Abel. Perfectly imagination inspiring in it's brevity.

[Cheryl]

Is Sister Lilith avl. online for free, like so many magazine stories are nowadays? I can't get this book, so will have to focus on stories in the public domain. Or is it likely that The Comet will be the only one I can read?

[Travis]

I'm really enjoying the editor's choice not to put these stories into chronological order. I haven't read "Sister Lilith" yet (plan to tomorrow morning), but am I right that both the first two stories are in their own ways retellings or reimagining of Genesis? If so, that, I think, makes for a super interesting opening pair!

[Gabi]

Yes, Travis. To put those two together with the similarity of genesis reference was a really good choice. I loved it how the scene in the second story instantly brought the first to mind.

[Joelle.P.S]

Wow, The Comet was really intense! Nervewracking, and so evocative.

[Travis]

Cheryl wrote: "Is Sister Lilith avl. online for free, like so many magazine stories are nowadays? I can't get this book, so will have to focus on stories in the public domain. ."

I couldn't find "Sister Lilith" online, sorry! But I'll look around for subsequent stories and try to post links when they're available.

[Cheryl]

Thank you, Travis.

[Travis]

"Sister Lilith"

(view spoiler)[I really enjoyed this one. I loved how it's just this wee story with such huge ambitions. I'm still thinking about that final line -- "All I got forever in this world is to be a watcher" -- and the idea of Lilith as a strong Black goddess watching over the centuries saddened by how much more we've inherited from Adam than from her. (hide spoiler)]

[Travis]

"The Comet"

(view spoiler)[This story just kills me. That Saidiya Hartman link I posted above gets at why:

The paradox is that human extinction provides the answer and the corrective to the modern project of whiteness, which Du Bois defines as the ownership of the earth forever and ever, the possessive claim of the universe itself. The stranglehold of white supremacy appears so unconquerable, so eternal that its only certain defeat is the end of the world, the death of Man. Neither war nor rights have succeeded in remaking the slave into the human or in eradicating racism. In the wake of the disaster, the messenger, the last black man on earth, will be permitted to live as a human for the first time. “I am alive, I am alive,” he could shout in the streets of Manhattan, without fear of punishment or reprisal. He is alive because the world is dead.

I'm also curious what others make of the very ending, when Jim's wife appears totally out of the blue holding their dead baby. The final three paragraphs seem so unexpected, almost like they're tacked on... Is her appearance meant to save the story from total despair?
(hide spoiler)]

[Gabi]

Travis wrote: ""The Comet"

"

I was also wondering about the ending. (view spoiler)[ It felt like an anticlimax for me. A 'look, here is your place, here you are allowed to be happy'. If the writer would have been white I would have taken it for an attempt in soothing, in taking away a bit of the stinging. But so I'm not sure what to make of it. (hide spoiler)]

[Gabi]

Travis wrote: ""Sister Lilith"

[spoilers removed]"

I totally loved this one! Powerful and frustrating indeed.

[Dawn F]

I agree, putting Sister Lilith and The Comet next to each other was a smart move. The Comet was brilliant, riveting and upsetting.

[Monica]

I actually have owned this book since it was first published. It has sat on my shelf since 2000. I am going to try and participate. I am terrible w/ monthly reads and buddy reads but will try and contribute as appropriate. At 2 stories a week, I think I can I think I can I think I can... ;-) I've read both the Nalo Hopkinson stories and Black No More the novel is one of the books I have targeted to read in 2020.

[Dawn F]

Better late than never, Monica! The two a week seems manageable to me too.

I’ve also already read the two Nalo Hopkinson stories, as well as the one by Ovtavia E. Butler.

[Travis]

Up this week:

Jewelle Gomez's "Chicago 1927" (2000), which is set in the same world as The Gilda Stories but written nine years after that novel.

And an excerpt from early on in George Schuyler's Black No More, a 1931 Harlem Renaissance satire about a Black scientist who can change people's race. (I enjoyed reading this piece about Schuyler's "messed up politics" and "merciless" satire: https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/01....)

[Travis]

OMG. Just finished "Chicago 1927" and, though I tend to veer away from horror, LOVED it. Lestat can't hold a candle to Gilda. Makes me want to go back to the first Gilda book. Really curious to hear from anyone who has read this story and The Gilda Stories.

[Kaa]

I loved both the story and the original book. I think "Chicago 1927" is a great snapshot of the ethos and perspective of The Gilda Stories, so if I would definitely recommend the book to you, Travis.

[Kaa]

Also, The Gilda Stories doesn't include enough sci-fi to have been eligible for our next poll, but I would consider it hopepunk.

[Gabi]

"Chicago 1927" was a sweet one! I had a bit problems with the way folks talk (always my problem with English novels regarding that times), but this was only minor stuff I probably didn't get. I put the Gilda stories in my TBR.

[Kaa]

I've now read through the excerpt from "Black No More", and I am really appreciating Sheree Thomas's editing skills. The ordering of the stories is excellent and so far is very effective at highlighting themes in the stories.

Sister Lilith: So powerful! And what a perfect way to start the anthology.

The Comet: With some help from Saidiya Hartman's incredible essay, I read the ending (view spoiler)[as a contrast to the moment immediately before other people appear, when Julia sees Jim as her partner in continuing the human species. He has been reunited with a woman he loves, but it's bittersweet at best - even as the future looks considerably brighter for humanity overall, the future for Jim's family is far more uncertain. (hide spoiler)]

Black No More: I struggle a bit with reading novel excerpts in anthologies, but I understand why this was included. I appreciated reading the article Travis posted first for some additional context.

[Travis]

Kaa wrote: "I've now read through the excerpt from "Black No More", and I am really appreciating Sheree Thomas's editing skills. The ordering of the stories is excellent and so far is very effective at highlig..."

Ending of "The Comet"

(view spoiler)[That really helps, Kaa. I've read it a couple of times now, and both times it felt like falsely hopeful. But the ending is looking forward to the future. As you suggest, it indicates hopeful prospects for whites and uncertain, even frightening prospect for Jim and his family. That seems much more closely aligned with the other Du Bois I've read. (hide spoiler)]

Re. Black No More: I too struggle with novel excerpts, but I'm not sure I'd ever read the full novel, so I was happy to see it here. The other place I've seen this concept is, funnily enough, Dr. Seuss's The Sneetches and Other Stories. Whenever I've read that story with my kids it's felt a bit cringy: veering close to a color blind moral. I appreciate that Schuyler doesn't do anything of that sort (to say the least!).

[Travis]

By the way, if you're looking to read any of these online, I just saw that the whole anthology can be checked out for 14 days from the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/darkmatte....

You'll need to create an account first.

[Travis]

Up this week:

"separation anxiety" by Evie Shockley, which I've seen described as a story about family relationships and the way home can feel both comforting and constricting.

"Tasting Songs" by Leone Ross, also reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: 14th Annual. I could be wrong, but I think Ross is the first non-American writer so far in the anthology.

[Gabi]

Oh sugar ... I'm already behind on the readings, have to hurry!

[Jemppu]

Same! Thanks for the reminder, Travis!

[Travis]

Gabi wrote: "Oh sugar ... I'm already behind on the readings, have to hurry!"

At least with short stories, you can pop in and out whenever you have the time!

[Gabi]

I just read "Black no more". This looks like a lot of fun. I loved the satirical approach and need to read the whole novel. What a great idea!

[Joelle.P.S]

Gabi wrote: "I just read "Black no more". This looks like a lot of fun. I loved the satirical approach and need to read the whole novel. What a great idea!"

I also wanna read the whole novel!
(TBR shelf groans in the background....)
:-)

[Kaa]

Travis wrote: "Re. Black No More: ... The other place I've seen this concept is, funnily enough, Dr. Seuss's The Sneetches and Other Stories. Whenever I've read that story with my kids it's felt a bit cringy: veering close to a color blind moral. I appreciate that Schuyler doesn't do anything of that sort (to say the least!)."

The two stories that came to mind for me with a similar concept were Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia, wherein technology can change race, sex/gender, and sexual orientation; and Iron Sky, a movie I only recently realized was written by Johanna Sinisalo, in which Nazis are the ones who've come up with technology to turn Black people white. I did wonder whether Delany had Black No More at all in mind when writing Triton, especially as Triton is already in conversation with at least one other work (Le Guin's The Dispossessed).

[Jemppu]

Kaa wrote: "...Iron Sky, a movie I only recently realized was written by Johanna Sinisalo,..."

...I had not realized this, either, until just now as you point it out.

Interesting thoughts, though. I'd be surprised if Black No More didn't inspire/affect Delany in some way.

[Gabi]

"separation anxiety": I liked the topic of conservation against progression

[Gabi]

... a lot (sorry, I'm on the app and can't edit posts or take back the ones I sent too early), but the end felt somehow lukewarm for me. (and I'm no fan of writing without capital letters. Makes reading more difficult and I can see no enhancement of the text by doing this)

[Travis]

Kaa wrote: "I did wonder whether Delany had Black No More at all in mind when writing Triton, especially as Triton is already in conversation with at least one other work (Le Guin's The Dispossessed)."

Wow. I haven't read Triton (yet), but I'd love to know if this is right.

[Travis]

It lays it on a bit thick, but here's my favorite line from "separation anxiety" (page 57): "'i'm feeling it heavy peaches. i don't think you can put a box around a culture. and i don't like feeling like somebody's anthropology project.'"

[Gabi]

Travis, this sentence perfectly captures the essence of the story.

[Travis]

"Tasting Songs" was one of those short stories that had me wishing it was a novel. I wanted more development and would especially have loved some sections from Sasha's, Jake's, or Brianna's POV. But that said I still really enjoyed it -- especially the final image of Jake watering his garden.

[Travis]

Next up:

"Can You Wear My Eyes" by Kalamu ya Salaam, a slim five-pager with this whopper for an opening line: "At first Reggie wearing my eyes after I expired was beautiful..."

Tananarive Due's "Like Daughter," a story about cloning. If you want content warnings for this one, you can get a mostly spoiler free description here: https://jaffalogue.wordpress.com/2015....

[Gabi]

"Tasting Songs" touched me. I was feeling with Brianna so much that the end left me rather melancholic.

[Joelle.P.S]

Wow, "Can You Wear My Eyes" is short but intense! 👁️👁️

[Gabi]

@Joelle, it was. Yet at the same time it didn't move me the way the previous story did.

[Travis]

Gabi wrote: ""Tasting Songs" touched me. I was feeling with Brianna so much that the end left me rather melancholic."

Me too.

[Amanda]

Well, "Like Daughter" has just left me a sobbing wreck...

[Gabi]

Totally understandable, Amanda. I just finished it. Uff! What a punch in the gut - especially the last paragraph. What a terrific author! I have to check out her novels.

[Travis]

Up this week:

"Greedy Choke Puppy" by Nalo Hopkinson, a contemporary adaptation of a West Indies legend.

And Amiri Baraka's "Rhythm Travel." The marginal notes penned into my used copy say "people travel through music. they become sound waves."

[Gabi]

"Greedy Choke Puppy" was my second read of it so (view spoiler)[ I knew how it ended. But when I read it the first time I admit, I was fooled. I thought it was the grandmother and was surprised with the last scene. (hide spoiler)]

"Rhythm Travel" was ... hmm ... don't know ... didn't do anything for me.