![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
FMK #18: Writers of Color
Last week's F win was a tie between The Dragon and the George and Goblin Quest. I am waffling over which one to pick. Goblin Quest had discussion in the comments, but on the other hand, reading it would break my unbroken streak of not having read any of the many Hines novels I own.
K winner was the Callahan. I am going to keep Callahan's Crosstime Saloon but this may be the nudge I needed to just drop the rest.
Anyway, this week's FMK theme is SF by Anglophone Writers of Color. We will pretend the reason it was tough to get a set of ten together for this is that when I get one of these it doesn't linger as long on the to-read pile. (Actually, it was tougher than I expected because finding out race for a lot of SF writers - especially older and more obscure ones - is not simple. There does not seem to be an easily accessible and accurate masterlist of SF Writers of Color out there. And at some point, for some of then, I found myself thinking that if they aren't interested in making their ancestry part of their public bio, I need to not be looking this hard. I never did figure out if Philip Jose Farmer is actually in any way Hispanic.)
How FMK works, short version: I am trying to clear out my unreads. So there is a poll, in which you get to pick F, M, or K. F means I should spend a night of wild passion with the book ASAP, and then decide whether to keep it or not. M means I should continue to commit to a long-term relationship of sharing my bedroom with it. K means it should go away immediately. Anyone can vote, you don't have to actually know anything about the books.
I pick a winner on Friday night (although won't actually close the poll, people can still vote,) and report results/ post the new poll on the following Tuesday, and write a response to the F winner sometime in the next week.
Link to long version of explanation (on first poll)
K winner was the Callahan. I am going to keep Callahan's Crosstime Saloon but this may be the nudge I needed to just drop the rest.
Anyway, this week's FMK theme is SF by Anglophone Writers of Color. We will pretend the reason it was tough to get a set of ten together for this is that when I get one of these it doesn't linger as long on the to-read pile. (Actually, it was tougher than I expected because finding out race for a lot of SF writers - especially older and more obscure ones - is not simple. There does not seem to be an easily accessible and accurate masterlist of SF Writers of Color out there. And at some point, for some of then, I found myself thinking that if they aren't interested in making their ancestry part of their public bio, I need to not be looking this hard. I never did figure out if Philip Jose Farmer is actually in any way Hispanic.)
How FMK works, short version: I am trying to clear out my unreads. So there is a poll, in which you get to pick F, M, or K. F means I should spend a night of wild passion with the book ASAP, and then decide whether to keep it or not. M means I should continue to commit to a long-term relationship of sharing my bedroom with it. K means it should go away immediately. Anyone can vote, you don't have to actually know anything about the books.
I pick a winner on Friday night (although won't actually close the poll, people can still vote,) and report results/ post the new poll on the following Tuesday, and write a response to the F winner sometime in the next week.
Link to long version of explanation (on first poll)
Poll #18611 FMK #18: SF Writers of Color
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 39
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler (1993)
The Fall of the Towers by Samuel R. Delany (1970)
The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton (1968)
Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston (1939)
Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest by A. Lee Martinez (2013)
The Tempest Tales by Walter Mosley (2008)
Border, Breed nor Birth by Mack Reynolds (1972)
Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe by George Takei (1979)
The 51st State by Nkosi White (2010)
Amped by Daniel H. Wilson (2012)
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
And after you read The Parable of the Sower, read this.
no subject
no subject
I did not enjoy the one Martinez book that I tried, but I think that was more of a case of mismatch between reader and author than the book being bad. As I recall, it was humorous but not in a way that worked for me.
I hesitated over the Reynolds. I haven't read that one, but I read a different book of his that had a young woman talking about men trying to rape her and her having 'raped them right back.' That kind of flew over my head at the time, beyond me not being sure it made sense, but seems really, really icky in hindsight because I'm pretty sure it only really made sense from a 'if you're constantly open to sex, you can't be raped' angle. Looking at his Wikipedia page, that book was co-written with (finished after his death by?) Dean Ing, so I have no idea how typical it was.
I have not read Parable of the Sower because, when I got my hands on a copy, I was at a point in my life when I didn't feel I could face it. Since then, I've had trouble reading all but the fluffiest novels, and Butler's work is never, ever fluffy. I still voted M on that one because the other things of hers I've read were simply that good.
no subject
Yeah, I read one Butler book and it was really good but also really tough and that's why all of her others are still on the unread pile.
no subject
I think he might not have been-- Wikipedia says "After attending the U.S. Army Marine Officer’s Cadet School and the U.S. Marine Officer’s School, he joined the U.S. Army Transportation Corps in 1944..." The Marine Corps started segregated units for blacks in 1942 (also per Wikipedia), but those units had white officers. "...proceeded in stages from segregated battalions in 1942, to unified training in 1949, and finally full integration in 1960." Unless Reynolds was passing, he probably wasn't black.
no subject
I liked Fall of the Towers a lot. It's probably not as clever as it thinks it is (Delany was very young, and it was his first series), but it says some interesting things, and is very well written.
no subject
I would like to like Delany! I haven't ever read any of his except a couple of comics though.
no subject
I have only read short stories, his memoirs (best description of what it felt like to be in a gay orgy goes to...), and this trilogy. I mean to get to other works.
no subject
no subject
no subject