In the latest wave of science fiction, authors of color take space to imagine multiple new societies Salon 2 hrs ago The female engine, woman as a machine Getty Stock Photo
The year 1968 was one of racial progress and retreat: the year athletes raised their fists in a Black power salute at the Olympics, the year Martin Luther King Jr. was slain. In the world of science fiction – far ahead in an invented future – the period brought more progress. Star Trek aired the first kiss between two characters of different races on television. And in literature, Ursula Le Guin launched the Earthsea Cycle, a series whose protagonist had red-brown skin, Le Guin s attempt to correct a canon populated by pale heroes.
Books of 2020
With Serious Music
December 11, 2020
There is no other way to put it. From authoritarianism, murder, riots, and even a bona fide plague, 2020 has been one of the darkest years I have ever experienced. One way I have tried to cope is by immersing myself into horrifying and macabre literature, as well as moving deeper into my love of heavy metal. That’s just the kind of guy I am. But why horror, you ask? Why heavy metal? Why in this year of all godforsaken times? And I answer, exactly because of the times. Horror. Crime.
Explorations of the dark side of society and ourselves are always the easiest way to gauge the hopes and fears of a people. Horror is a mirror. The underworld is the negative image of the world in which we tell ourselves we live. But in 2020, it seems like all those fears have bled over into reality. And now we are all in need of an exorcism. Thankfully, books and music can save our souls by forcing us to confront and deal with the horrors we