Over at io0 they’ve posted an excerpt from the introduction to Dr Langer’s book Postcolonialism and Science Fiction.
On 23 May 2005, I met writer Nalo Hopkinson in a Swiss Chalet restaurant at Bathurst and Bloor in Toronto, Canada, the city where I was born and where Hopkinson moved from Jamaica when she was sixteen. She was kind enough to allow me to tape our conversation. We chatted over chicken and chips about her books, my research, and race and postcolonialism in general. Soon, the conversation moved to the relative lack of voices of colour and postcolonial voices in science fiction. “It’s like the elephant in the room,” Hopkinson said. “Actually, no; it’s like there should be an elephant, but instead, there’s an elephant-shaped hole.”
Shockingly enough, at the time of dropping this thing in the hopper (January 4th, 4:25P) the comments were… good. I mean really good. I mean, damn. Thoughtful critique, if snarky, about the use of language (overly-academic writing can put off the very audience that would most benefit from this kind of discussion — which is why I try to keep it pretty low-key here) and concerns about the authors analyzed in the book. Dr Langer chimes in and responds in an equally-thoughtful manner.
Which makes me ask where the fuck am I and who stole the Internet?