Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Multiculturalism in SF

This essay talks about reasons for writing multicultural science fiction.  It's not bad.  But really?  If you need an article like this in the first place, it's probably not going to help much.  The really good futurists  have no trouble looking at a diverse world and envisioning a diverse future, or peeling off slivers that are something other than the currently fashionable powerbase.  Consider Firefly, for instance.  That's one of the most chromatically plausible futures I've seen, despite the fact that my crisis litany ends with "... and thank the gods we don't live in a universe scripted by Joss Whedon."
Tags: ethnic studies, networking, reading, science fiction, writing
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  • 18 comments
rix_scaedu

rix_scaedu

April 14 2012, 07:47:10 UTC 9 years ago

I liked the explanation someone came up with for why everyone in the background in Buffy's hometown in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' was white - only the white people were stupid enough to disbelieve the evidence of their own eyes and ears and thus stay. ['Neck rupture' as a plausible cause of death?]

Everyone else took a few months, at most, to suss out what was going on then left for somewhere (almost anywhere really) healthier.
ysabetwordsmith

*laugh*

ysabetwordsmith

April 14 2012, 14:51:43 UTC 9 years ago

That's pretty much what I figured. Hispanic and black cultures in particular tend to be threat-aware and folklore-fluent, at least until you get into the assimilated upper class, particularly in comparison to a white mainstream. There were a few people of color represented among allies and vampires, but for the most part, it looks like everyone with a brain scrammed out of town.