Okay, I need to read more African sf
Interesting article on what is described as 'current mainstream African science fiction books and films' (I've read Lagoon and that is probably just about it: but most of it sounds as though it may be movies and comic books which I consume a great deal less than books. However, open to recs.).
However, I can't help thinking that this plaint: the majority of them are based on alien invasion, post apocalyptic settings, super powered (Marvel and DC style) super heroes. This isn’t bad at all, however, I noticed that the authors in most cases are conservative(or perhaps doubtful of) the ability of the African to conduct space exploration, or create the machine that could change the world, or even to build the ultimate war machine.
is not at all dissimilar to comments being made more generally about The State of SF and what happened to the Big Universe-Spanning Stories and the Sense of Wonder, etc etc and that space exploration and space opera are way down from where they used to be as definitive elements within the genre. So maybe it's a more general zeitgeisty thing?
Though it sounds as though there may also be going on what is described in the article stop pigeonholing African writers that I posted recently? Not to mention, the usual marginalisation of genre as 'less important/significant/meaningful'. This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2305737.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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