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

Untapped Potential in SF

This article talks about untapped potential in SF.

Untapped?  I've been banging it like a rented drum since I could hold a pencil.  So have lots of other writers I know.  So have my favorite shows.  There's a reason most of my favorites run high in diversity, and why I've taken to dicing up ensemble casts to make a good mix.  It's how I want to see the future.  Plus I have an increasing tendency to look at the cast first when considering a new show.  All white male?  Back on the shelf it goes.  Some female, multicultural, disabled, etc. representation?  Flip it over and read the back.  The higher the mix, the more likely I am to buy it.

Steampunk?  It's not just for white blokes anymore.  Superheroes?  Explosion in a paint factory.  Far-future SF?  All my diversity, let me show you it!

I also used material created by and for people of color to entice prison inmates to read poetry and fiction -- to show them that people like themselves could be writers, heroes, could have a future.  It's one of the most subversive things I've done, and it worked.

But every time somebody says "untapped" or the like, they are dismissing  decades worth of awesome accomplishments by all us folks who have been make this stuff.
Tags: ethnic studies, networking, reading, science fiction
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  • 11 comments
je_reviens

je_reviens

November 22 2014, 15:21:15 UTC 6 years ago

I love that you got prison inmates to read poetry. AWESOME!!!
ysabetwordsmith

Well...

ysabetwordsmith

November 22 2014, 18:45:10 UTC 6 years ago

It was easy. All I had to do was show them things by poets like Lorna Dee Cervantes and Langston Hughes. We consistently had 1-2 guys in every class who absolutely caught fire with it. Most of the rest were intrigued, and their essays showed that they were engaging with the material. There were always a handful of indifferent students who didn't really care to be there, but that's par for the course. It made a significant difference for the majority.