Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446525839 ISBN 13: 9780446525831

Publisher: Aspect - Warner Books, 2000

Synopsis

This volume introduces black science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction writers to the generations of readers who have not had the chance to explore the scope and diversity among African-American writers.

About this title

About the Author

" SHEREE R. THOMAS edits the literary journal Anansi: Fiction of the African Diaspora and has contributed to national publications including the Washington Post, Black Issues Book Review, and QBR: The Black Book Review. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Ishmael Reed's Konch, Drumvoices Revue, and other literary journals. A native of Memphis, she lives in New York City."

Reviews

A first anthology of speculative fiction by black writers: 25 stories, 3 novel excerpts, and 5 essays, the oldest piece an 1887 tale of a bewitched vineyard, the majority from this year. Included are a couple of acknowledged classics: Samuel R. Delany's Aye, and Gomorrah, about the effects on sexual behavior caused by astronauts who are themselves asexual; and Octavia E. Butler's wrenching masterpiece, The Evening and the Morning and the Night, about a genetic disease whose victims helplessly mutilate themselves. In an excerpt from the 1931 novel Black No More, George S. Schuyler wonders what would happen if black people simply and easily became white. Derrick Bell imagines alien visitors whose only desire is to depart with all America's blacks. In W.E.B. Du Bois's 1920 tale, a comet kills everyone in New York except a poor black man and a rich white woman. Other topics encompass: Adam and Eve, vampires, music, modern folk tales, astral traveling, VR, multigenerational starships, female warriors, an American woman caught in the gears of an African civil war, the Ark, Santa, alien contact, UFOs, alien abduction, and robots. The essays are equally fascinating. Delany examines racism and science fiction--it's largely unconscious but present, he reports. Walter Mosley predicts an imminent explosion of new, black SF writers. Charles R. Saunders becomes generally unhinged about Mike Resnick's African fables. Paul D. Miller explores music and black identity. And Octavia E. Butler wonders how much reality is too much.Read. Enjoy. Ponder. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

The striking central metaphor that Thomas (who edits the literary journal Anansi: Fiction of the African Diaspora) chose for this first collection of SF stories and essays by black authors is "dark matter," the scientific term for a non-luminous form of matter not directly observed, but whose existence is deduced from its gravitational effects on other bodies. Ranging from Charles Chestnutt's self-parodying 1887 tale "The Goophered Grapevine," to more than a dozen brilliantly diverse selections dated 2000, this big anthology includes 26 stories and excerpts from two novels, as well as five thoughtful essays from the leading black authors in the field. Accurately observing in her introduction that black writers have been engaged with speculative fiction for far longer than is generally thought, Thomas hopes her collection will inspire more black authors to enter the field, since, as Walter Mosley observes in his essay "Black to the Future," this genre speaks clearly to the dissatisfied through its power to imagine the first step in changing the world. Almost all of these stories explore the profound sense of loss central to the "black diaspora"Dloss of self-respect, loss of identity, loss of a sense of humanity itself. In manyDnotably "Sister Lilith," Honoree Fanonne Jeffers's biting contemporary vision of Eve as Adam's trophy wife, Samuel R. Delany's widely praised "Aye, and Gomorrah," where sexuality is sacrificed to spacefaring, and Steven Barnes's searing "The Woman in the Wall," which hurls an American black woman artist into a hellish African concentration campDthe brutal common denominator is the depredation of the soul through the violation of the body. Several of these stories are almost unbearably poignant, like Ama Patterson's "Hussy Strut," and many are ferociously angry, like Derrick Bell's savage "The Space Traders." All manifest a powerful effect, far stronger for being largely unacknowledged, and perhaps heralding, as Mosley projects, a coming explosion of black SF. Agent, Marie Dutton Brown. (July)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ranging in variety from the lilting cadence of Nalo Hopkinson ( Greedy Choke Puppy ) to the understated bleakness of Derek Bell ( The Space Traders ), this collection of 28 tales by African American sf and fantasy authors showcases a wealth of talent that spans over 100 years. Including early stories by Charles W. Chestnutt (1887) and W.E.B. Du Bois (1920) as well as contributions from Olivia Butler, Samuel Delaney, Steven Barnes, Tananarive Due, and other modern authors, this anthology contains a broad diversity of styles and subjects. A selection of essays provides thoughtful commentaries on the state of speculative fiction and the significant, and often overlooked, contributions made by African Americans to the genre. Highly recommended for most libraries! sf or short story collections.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Twenty-eight pieces of fiction, both short stories and novel excerpts, and five critical essays make for a stout anthology. African American writers of speculative fiction have apparently been quite busy. But then, the book's definition of speculative is an expanded one that includes almost any fictional cogitation of the African diaspora. That expanded conception doesn't open the door to low quality or restricted literary scope, though. With contributions ranging historically from W. E. B. Dubois to Samuel Delany to Octavia Butler to new rising star Nalo Hopkinson, how could it? The critical essays' authors include, besides Delany and Butler, Charles Saunders, Paul Miller, and mystery superstar Walter Mosley; they consider what sf has said or, as often, left unsaid about the African American experience, and usually say something worthwhile, albeit not always all that accessibly. Perhaps of even greater value on the African American studies shelves than in the sf stacks, the collection should appeal especially strongly to those who like critical and analytical approaches to sf. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Aspect - Warner Books
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0446525839
• ISBN 13: 9780446525831
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 427
• Editor: Sheree Renée Thomas