Current Events > This article wants you to "decolonize" your sci-fi

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://bookriot.com/decolonizing-my-sci-fi-reading/

As bookish people, we are all mostly aware on some level that the diversity of the publishing industry doesnt reflect the diversity of the country, much less the English-speaking world. Back at the beginning of 2018, I stopped reading books by cis-het white men because they are over-represented in publishing. Since then, Ive made a concerted effort to read more authors of color, although I confess that at the moment my obsession with cozy mysteries and audiobook thrillers has skewed my stats toward white women something I am focused on changing for 2022.

One of my favorite genres is science fiction. I dearly love a good space story, but it is a tenet of the very sub-genre that it deals with colonization, often as a result of the speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method, to quote Robert Heinlein. To put it another way, science fiction is what happens when we imagine what humans would do with more technology than we currently have. Based on the way that humans interact with technological developments, it is a fair bet that we as a species would attempt to disseminate our way of life to other places and if they exist beings. And that, my friends, is colonization.

Science fiction is, at its core, an exploration of the human psyche and condition, particularly as it interacts with science and technology. It is a way for readers to plumb the depths and scale the heights of what could happen if we were not, for all intents and purposes, limited to Earth and occasionally the Moon. What if our technology was other worldly? What if we could reach other planets? And most importantly, what if those other planets were already home to cognizant forms of life? How would we adapt, survive, and thrive?
[..]
One of the ways I am working to decolonize my science fiction reading is to diversify it. White cisgender male authors are vastly over-represented in science fiction, and they come from the dominant gender and race of the English-speaking world, whether they are consciously buying into the narrative or not. A good way to mitigate that narrative is to read it from different perspectives, and those perspectives are usually written by authors who are either non-white and/or not male.

I usually don't take the bait on this, it's just worded poorly. Just say you're looking for diversity and new writers without the rest, lol

I see nothing wrong with any of that. What do you specifically feel was worded poorly?

Mass Effect was pretty good at that

In the plot the concept of "race" kinda lost importance once aliens were discovered and we had a brief war with one.

"Humans" became much more unified and things like space colonies tended to be either funded globally or by world wide investors rather than 1 country

most of the population is now mixed race and natural blonds are rare.

The developers of ME2 actually had to be reminded of this when Miranda was made blond initially

While default Shepard is white (Canadian game after all) the variety of NPCs is very diverse

My original shep was a black dude who never even visited Earth until the start of ME3

indica posted...

I see nothing wrong with any of that. What do you specifically feel was worded poorly?

Could have been positive without the negative. Should still read "cis-het" white men among the rest, proportionately. It's unnecessary to isolate what you're not going to do instead of what you're going to do

Yeah none of that seems wrong.

If I hadn't made a similar effort to diversify my reading like that I'd have never discovered The Three Body Problem, and Rage of the Dragon

Doom_Art posted...

Yeah none of that seems wrong.

If I hadn't made a similar effort to diversify my reading like that I'd have never discovered The Three Body Problem, and Rage of the Dragon

It's not the diversity part, it's intentionally isolating who you're closed off to

TroutPaste posted...

Could have been positive without the negative. Should still read "cis-het" white men among the rest, proportionately. It's unnecessary to isolate what you're not going to do instead of what you're going to do

How could they not write about the negative aspects when that's what the article is about? Simply saying they want to read more diverse takes wouldn't explain "why" they do.

lolife67 posted...

How could they not write about the negative aspects when that's what the article is about? Simply saying they want to read more diverse takes wouldn't explain "why" they do.

It's the absolutism of not reading white men
Instead, just don't read them and keep it to yourself, platform on the positive new people emerging

i dont really give a shit about a blog post masquerading as an article one way or the other and shes free to do as she wants, but i do admit its really funny she simultaneously admits in a throwaway sentence to trying to break her addiction to women-penned mysteries and thrillers which are 90% of the time stories by the whitest people ever about white people doing the whitest things ever

It feels like using that particular term is very forced to try to sound more enlightened. Personally, I dont even know the authors in the like 70% of the shit Ive read, so I dont really get the writers viewpoint. While the sentiment certainly isnt bad in any way, the article just comes off as smarmy.

TroutPaste posted...

It's the absolutism of not reading white men
Instead, just don't read them and keep it to yourself, platform on the positive new people emerging

Why should they "keep it to themselves" when writing articles like this is their job? Lol

Hell, even if it wasn't their job, why not explain the rationale behind the decision?

TroutPaste posted...

Could have been positive without the negative. Should still read "cis-het" white men among the rest, proportionately. It's unnecessary to isolate what you're not going to do instead of what you're going to do

I think he was just mentioning the elephant in the room--it would have probably been odd if he didn't address it. White cisgender men have had the privilege of being able to live vicariously through the protagonists of nearly every single sci-fi and fantasy book, TV show and movie, and most probably never even questioned how marginalizing this was for others who couldn't share that experience...

lolife67 posted...

Why should they "keep it to themselves" when writing articles like this is their job? Lol

Hell, even if it wasn't their job, why not explain the rationale behind the decision?

I was contesting the logic behind the article, not the existence of the article. Constructive criticism

it's no big deal, I'm half asleep with a cup of coffee, maybe I misunderstood

"Decolonize" is a weird word to use here, but overall I agree with the sentiment.

TroutPaste posted...

It's the absolutism of not reading white men
Instead, just don't read them and keep it to yourself, platform on the positive new people emerging

I think the point is being aware

For example in Star Trek (minor spoilers)

its established that aliens made first contact with us in Montana.

I didn't think much about that and just unconsciously accepted "of course they made contact with America "

It wasn't until 40 years later in Enterprise that a Japanese character points how fucking terrified Japan and the rest of the world was when hyper advanced aliens turned up and straight away made an alliance with the US.

It was a fantastic point and one that went right over my head because of my own biases

Youwon't see a lot of stories where aliens come and make contact with Chille. or where the captain of the ship is Indian.

Only Indian captain I can think of is from 7 Days A Skeptic and he's not the main character

it is good food for thought

Just seems like reductive bullshit tbh.

"not reading from white guys"
why
"decolonizing my scifi"
why
>unexplained

Also I find it incredibly presumptuous to assume that white male authors = space colonization as opposed to any other race/gender considering space exploration.

Guide posted...

Just seems like reductive bullshit tbh.

"not reading from white guys"
why
"decolonizing my scifi"
why
>unexplained

Erm..

it was explained

White cisgender male authors are vastly over-represented in science fiction, and they come from the dominant gender and race of the English-speaking world, whether they are consciously buying into the narrative or not.

A good way to mitigate that narrative is to read it from different perspectives, and those perspectives are usually written by authors who are either non-white and/or not male.

I even gave 2 examples
he has a point

Guide posted...

Also I find it incredibly presumptuous to assume that white male authors = space colonization as opposed to any other race/gender considering space exploration.

the point is different perspectives and inherent biases lead to different attitudes and stories

UnfairRepresent posted...

Erm..

it was explained

White cisgender male authors are vastly over-represented in science fiction, and they come from the dominant gender and race of the English-speaking world, whether they are consciously buying into the narrative or not.

A good way to mitigate that narrative is to read it from different perspectives, and those perspectives are usually written by authors who are either non-white and/or not male.

I even gave 2 examples
he has a point

the point is different perspectives and inherent biases lead to different attitudes and stories

That is the one part that explains itself, nothing about "decolonizing" or what "the narrative" is. Yes, there are different perspectives to be had, but there were three other paragraphs, there.

Guide posted...

That is the one part that explains itself, nothing about "decolonizing" or what "the narrative" is. Yes, there are different perspectives to be had, but there were three other paragraphs, there.

wut, he says what the narrative is

White cisgender male authors are vastly over-represented in science fiction, and they come from the dominant gender and race of the English-speaking world, whether they are consciously buying into the narrative or not

The idea that white western English speaking males are the superior, most important beings on Earth.

And it's hard to deny that presence in mainstream Sci fi.

Hell in the pilot of Star Trek the 2nd in command was a woman and the network complained and made them change it. Picard has to be the least French Frenchman in TV history

And I'm picking on Star Trek because they were the Sci fi show that recognised the bias and tried to oppose it

These things can be subtle and unintended but they're clearly there

I don't get how you can watch/read mainstream Sci fi and deny it.

and I think it's telling that you ignore examples given while complaining that you don't understand the point

UnfairRepresent posted...

White cisgender male authors are vastly over-represented in science fiction, and they come from the dominant gender and race of the English-speaking world, whether they are consciously buying into the narrative or not

The idea that white western English speaking males are the superior, most important beings on Earth.

What. It's saying they, they authors, are coming from the dominant gender and race of the English-speaking world, not the scifi characters. Unless you mean to say lots of scifi protagonists are author-spacefarers, which, lol.

I don't get how you can watch/read mainstream Sci fi and deny it.

I don't

and I think it's telling that you ignore examples given while complaining that you don't understand the point

leave pissiness in the topic that spawned it pls

Guide posted...

unexplained

I mean it's pretty clear the explanation was that they were tired of the same perspective in everything, c'mon

I think the article has it all backwards.

Yes, there is definitely racial and gender imbalance among science fiction authors. But there was also a similar imbalance among science fiction readers. That has been changing recently, but for most of the history of the genre, sci-fi was specifically marketed to young men.

Changing that perception will do likely more for diversity than discriminating against authors. I've read lots of sci-fi stories by female authors that feature male protagonists.

My theory: it's not the author, it's the industry.

The characters come from the brains and the perspective of the authors.

I'm not following why you think there is a distinction. Even a gay black Jewish midget from China written by a (or a team) of 43 year old white dudes is going to be written with attitudes and perspectives common to western male life.

I even pointed out at length how Star Trek tried to account for this but still fell into the same patterns due to unconscious bias.

Which you ignored, then agreed to, then got mad at me for pointing out you ignored.

I'm reminded of Night of the Living Dead in the 60s where there's a scene where the black male main character punches out a white chick and the actor was uncomfortable with the implications of the scene and asked them to scrap it but the white director/writer didn't understand why and refused.

There's more levels to the continuity of your life and your thoughts than crude decisions like saying "I'm a racist who hates da gays!"

Even the most well intentioned open minded dudes are still victim to their own mind and experiences . And if 90+% of all mainstream content of a specific genre comes from those minds, tropes and attitudes are created and embedded into the zeitgeist.

I really don't think his point is wrong at all. And I say that as a big Sci fi fan. it is SUPER western and male oriented.

I Don't think that's due to malice or agenda, but it has worked out that way

and more stories from more perspectives would be nothing but a net gain

There's a reason Elizabeth Moon is popular and its not because she is a good writer

That was a touch moronic.

UnfairRepresent posted...

The characters come from the brains and the perspective of the authors.

bruh just admit you read it wrong first

The idea that you need to exclude authors on the basis of race/gender in order to diversify what you read is very obviously antithetical to inclusivity.

Just make sure your book selection process accounts for the biases/overrepresentation, and then read whatever sounds interesting. Theres no need to be bigoted about it.

I only read genre fiction by dead guys...

Seeking diversity is great. Flat out exclusion of races/genders/orientations is not.

g980 posted...

The idea that you need to exclude authors on the basis of race/gender in order to diversify what you read is very obviously antithetical to inclusivity.

Not unless you're a publisher

g980 posted...

Just make sure your book selection process accounts for the biases/overrepresentation, and then read whatever sounds interesting.

If you do that you're only going to read the mainstream because that's all you're going to see.

It's like telling people it's not inclusive to watch Hotel Rwanda and Brazil because MCU movies are much more prevalent and you'll have to go out of your way to see the others

Reminds me of Ravenous. Where the studio wanted a stoner comedy about cannibals but the female director made it into a horror/epic about masculinity and drug addiction, homosexual desires with several shots at Hollywood

And I'd bet $5 you've never heard of it let alone seen it but can name me several stoner comedies

And don't misquote me. I'm not saying things are good because they are different . Just that the logic of "Don't try to look for new things! that's not inclusive " will leave you only with generic mainstream pulp

it's a bad attitudes

Seems like an awfully needlessly wordy article for what amounts to "Oh wow, there are minority science fiction authors I never knew about? I should check out their works"

UnfairRepresent posted...

Not unless you're a publisher

If you do that you're only going to read the mainstream because that's all you're going to see.

It's like telling people it's not inclusive to watch Hotel Rwanda and Brazil because MCU movies are much more prevalent and you'll have to go out of your way to see the others

Reminds me of Ravenous. Where the studio wanted a stoner comedy about cannibals but the female director made it into a horror/epic about masculinity and drug addiction, homosexual desires with several shots at Hollywood

And I'd bet $5 you've never heard of it let alone seen it but can name me several stoner comedies

And don't misquote me. I'm not saying things are good because they are different . Just that the logic of "Don't try to look for new things! that's not inclusive " will leave you only with generic mainstream pulp

it's a bad attitudes

I think i must have articulated my thoughts poorly: i agree that you will probably have to step outside of the mainstream, and that a conscious effort to find new things is how you offset the overrepresentation

My disagreement with the author is the idea that you have to exclude anyone on the basis of race in order to do so.

I thought this was gonna be about how almost every sci-fi has an empire in it trope.

Just read what you want.

Bill Gaines already did this in the 50s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EC_Comics#.22Judgment_Day.22