5 Ways to Explain Scifi Obsession to Friends
We all have that one friend who doesn’t get science fiction. Some of us have probably gone through the annoying experience of trying to explain it and realized how futile such a thing really is. But maybe we’ve failed because we haven’t bothered to try one of the following five options: –I’m an Alien!Look, your friends already think you’re insane for having Star Wars figurines lining your walls or stacks of science fiction books filling up your shelves. What harm could it do to take that insanity to the next level? Explain that your love for the genre is due to a long lost urge to reclaim the glory of your former galactic empire! At least there might be something strangely normal about saying that (especially if you’re British). –Theater BirthMaybe they’d understand you if they thought you had been born during the opening credits of Star Wars, or shared a birthday with twelve of the greatest science fiction writers of all time (thanks to some clever quasi-time-travel handiwork). Heck, you could even tell them your first word was a Wookie war cry thanks to a year of clever brainwashing by your scifi-crazed parents, in which you were exposed, twenty-four hours a day, to non-stop scifi goodies. Your friends will understand. Really. –Speculative PrescriptionThere’s nothing like explaining away one level of “crazy” than by claiming you’re crazy in a different way, and that your new crazy is medication. There are all sorts of weird treatments out there, and it wouldn’t be that difficult to accept that some radical psychiatrist out there wants to treat your mental defects with a bit of spaceship-and-explosions-laced fun. If you really wanted to, you could cook up some fake prescription notices to your local Blockbuster. Might be fun… –Only Wimps Get OldSome people see science fiction obsession as a sort of desperation to remain a child. After all, it’s all escapist garbage, right? And you should just grow up and be like everyone else. I mean, come on, being into science fiction is like being a forty-year-old fat man with a beard hanging out at an Anime convention; it happens, but it’s just not natural…But screw that. Tell them you don’t want to grow up. You’re a Toys’R’Us kid, or something like that, and you’ll be damned if you’ll throw away all your fun for a suit, a tie, and a mediocre cubicle in the 9-to-5 grind. Science fiction is about life (and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness)! You’re seizing the day, as the ancients used to say. –The Economy Needs Lovin’ TooStill, there’s nothing like explaining to your friends just how important science fiction is to the economy. Just show them the sales figures of the last ten years of science fiction film in the U.S. and you’ll have ample evidence as to why the genre makes the world go round. And that’s not including books, action figures, collectible cards, board games, pajamas, t-shirts, food products, and novelty bedroom attire for the ladies (nothing like a little Spidey lingerie, eh?). Without sciffy nuts like you, the sales industry would be a damned boring place. And don’t forget to mention all the advances in technology thanks to science fiction: everything from new ways to make films to new technologies and ideas that make our lives easier. Plus, our current President is a sciffy fan, and if it’s good enough for the President, it’s good enough for you, right? But maybe all these options are a little too over-the-top for you. You can stick with the same old boring answers if you want, but these five suggestions might spice things up a bit. If you’ve ever tried anything like this, let me know in the comments. I’d like to know the different ways you folks have tried to explain your obsessions to your friends, science fiction-based or not!
Why I’m Sick of the Term “Race”
To get into this discussion, I’m going to have to toss out all of my beliefs that there is no such thing as race (a belief Edward James Olmos not only agrees with, but managed to have changed in the United Nations, adding weight to the importance of science fiction in the world of today). The reason is that my disbelief in the entity of race is irrelevant: I and Edward James Olmos, and a handful of others, are a minority; as much as we might tell ourselves and others that the very concept and belief in race is ridiculous and detrimental to society, people still cling to the prospect of race and divisional lines and all those things that operate as othering mechanisms, turning one type of person into “bad” and another into “good.” That is the problem I want to talk about here. I am sick of the term “race” because it is one of the most terrifying forms of multidirectional cultural violence currently in existence that is not only clung to by people who sit in the majority, but by people in the minority as well, in any space on the planet (yes, that means even places where White is not the dominant skin tone). Race is like an infection, and the fact that mankind has struggled so hard to maintain it and use it as a basis for everything, either (perceived) good or bad, is absurd on so many fronts that for someone who tries so hard not to think in terms of race, there is nothing but an impenetrable barbwire-covered wall spanning the great distance between reality and perception. I am sick of the term “race” because of the reality that we cannot think about anything in society without also thinking about race, about othering others, on both sides of the spectrum. “Race” is so much like a virus that it has infected even those who have, in the West, at least, been most affected by the inception of the term. All arguments against the idea of “reverse racism” are veiled attempts to ignore a certain humanistic reality: we all harbor within us the possibility of othering. And that othering is wrong, regardless of the justification. It is no more right to assume another to be “racist” based on their skin tone than it is for another to treat someone of a historically discriminated position poorly (even horrendously) for the same reason. It matters not what reason one chooses to turn another into the other; the very act of doing so is cultural violence, it is the sacrificing of a part of our humanity for the preservation of a systemic knowledge-base that we can only combat by fighting to stop using it. I am sick of the term “race” because the people who have pioneered it as a system, a term, and an institution, and those that followed in the near past, present, and, no doubt, the future, have infected everyone else with “race” and othering and all the terrible things that come with constantly having to think and engage with others based on the idiocy that is “race.” The fact that I have to know how to deal with African American students at a public university tells me that “race” is always waiting to indoctrinate, to feed and attach itself to you, because you cannot escape it, no matter what you do; it is always there, always ready to go. I am sick of the term “race” because it is not only a basis for the unfair treatment of others, but also the basis for forced non-racism: the very accusation of being “racist” causes a stir in most individuals, and, regardless of whether or not one is actually “racist,” their consequential action from accusation is a desperate attempt to prove oneself non-racist, to accommodate the other. But even that, that accommodation, is exactly what is wrong with “race” in the first place, because what you are doing is acknowledging that race is important, that some races are “special” (for good or for bad) and deserve special treatment (again, for good or for bad). You are complicit in the perpetuation of “race” without even knowing it; a good deed, thus, can become yet another factor of “racist” pathology. And I am sick of the term “race” because for all that I have spoken of here, I still have to talk in some format that accommodates the term “race,” that lets it feed like a parasite on my thoughts and on you who are reading this. No matter what we do, we are stuck with the cultural violence of “race,” and to escape that would require an astonishing amount of effort on the part of all people to abolish it from our thinking processes and our vocabularies. In the end, “race” is stupid. It shouldn’t exist. The fact that it still does, not just in the form of “racism,” but in how we engage with other members of the same species, makes me question the value of mankind. And so long as it does exist, it will change and shape how we act with one another, not just in white vs. black, but in all combinations and cross-relationships. There’s a saying from a relatively famous Broadway musical called Avenue Q. It goes something like this: everyone’s a little bit racist, sometimes. The question is, if that is true, where do we go from here?
Book Shopping Etiquette
I recently returned from an enormous book sale in the Gainesville area and have a few thoughts on the issue of book shopping etiquette, since clearly nobody at the sale had any idea what etiquette was. So, I have compiled this list of good book shopping etiquette in crowded browsing situations: 1. Form a directional order to sectional browsing. Everyone should go the same direction, aisle by aisle, to facilitate proper browsing for multiple people. Having twelve people coming from all directions doesn’t help.2. Don’t push, crowd, or rush past people who are clearly waiting politely for someone else to move. Honestly.3. Say “excuse me” if you need to get by for some reason. It’s common decency. We used to have that once, when we were still British and knew how to queue.4. Allow people to switch places with you if you are going particularly slow so that they can get to look at the stuff on the other side of you. Snails gum up the works.5. Don’t sit down in the middle of an aisle or near a shelf and start looking through the books you’ve already picked, especially when it’s clear that other people want to browse there. Jackass.6. Don’t take other people’s books. You’d think this would go without saying, but apparently people do this, and I’ll have you know that I will carry a fork from this day on especially for those folks.7. Let the folks who are trying to rapidly restock the shelves do exactly that. At a big sale like the one I went to, where things aren’t alphabetical, those folks rushing in with new boxes of books are just trying to keep the stock fresh. That’s good for everyone, including you, Mr. Book Fanatic.8. Do not bring your infant child to a book sale that you know is going to be crowded and full of boxes with sharp corners. While I may be more than willing to give you leeway, others with more rabid book buying tastes have no qualms bashing your kid in the face with a box or an elbow.9. Let old people go first. They’re likely not looking for what you want anyway, and they’re old.10. Wear deodorant. Seriously.11. Brush your teeth. Other people have to smell your breath in cramped quarters, and someone might kill you as a result… I’m sure there are other good rules, but I’ll let you all think of them. For now, that’s what I’ve got!
I Know What Un-American Is
Do you? Well, if you don’t, maybe you should consider the following: 1. Sending U.S. soldiers into Iraq to die under the spoken claim that a) Iraq was a direct threat to the United States (false) and b) Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (also false). What exactly are they defending in Iraq? You should also consider whether or not there is such a thing as freedom in the forceful overthrow of an oppressive government and the forced installation of a supposedly free democracy, but, hey, no need to think back to the history of colonialism and imperialism.2. Worse still is the fact that injured Iraq and Afghanistan vets return home to find themselves deprived of what should be excellent and necessary medical aid to get them back on their feet so they can at least become productive members of society, rather than dissolve into the den of homelessness and internalized terror. Heaven forbid that our soldiers might want a little gratitude from us for not dying in battle.3. Disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters, over and over, who were either predominately black or Democrat by using illegal methods such as caging voters and the like, and then refusing to prosecute people caught doing such things, time and time again.4. Stopping the recount of votes some 170,000 short and ceasing all investigation into serious issues of voter fraud and illegal activities in key states, despite realistic concerns from voters and representatives about the vote itself.5. Stopping independent investigative committees from looking into the 9/11 terrorist attacks.6. Illegally wire-tapping hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans.7. Taking days to get significant quantities of support into New Orleans to evacuate thousands of people, some of which died of dehydration or other ailments as a result of being exposed to sewage, etc.8. Imprisoning hundreds of people in Guantanamo Bay for years, without being charged for any crimes or given trials.9. Torturing said people and then lying about doing it, and then, when the truth comes out, saying that it was for the best, despite being against the Geneva Convention, which we signed, and our own laws about the treatment of POWs, without any conscious thought about how such action might affect the treatment of our own soldiers in the future.10. Denying someone the right to be with their dying loved ones based on a prejudiced (and illegal) belief.11. Denying people of “opposite” races to marry because it might cause problems for their future children (also illegal, by the way).12. Denying people the right to marry someone of the same sex based on an unconstitutional inclusion of Biblical law. (To those five states with marriage for homosexuals: may you forever prosper above those states that trade in hatred.)13. Killing people based on a) sexual orientation, b) race, or c) political orientation. And that’s just a few of the un-american things that have happened in the last ten years. Imagine what this list would look like if I included the previous thirty… That is all.
Racist/Sexist Editors: Still Bad Even If They’re Not
So, apparently if you’re an editor and you don’t publish enough women or people of color in an anthology or magazine, but it’s because your slush pile contained primarily white males, you’re still a sexist or racist bastard. At least, that’s what oldcharliebrown says. It seems that no matter what, even if you have a legitimate excuse, if you don’t publish enough women or people of color, you’re a sexist or racist bastard. Period. No argument. That’s it. Because if your slush pile didn’t have enough women or people of color in it, then you, the editor, clearly didn’t spend enough time “reaching out.” Well I’m calling bullshit. Blaming editors like this is like blaming a police officer in another county for not stopping a drunk driver from driving into a tree. Sound frakked up? That’s because it is. It makes no logical sense. I’m not saying that there aren’t sexist/racist editors out there, but the idea that an editor can only work with what is submitted to him or her is 100% true. The whole idea of “reaching out” is neither here nor there. Whether you “reach out” or not does not suddenly make you a sexist/racist bastard—not by a long shot. The fact that some people are still actively condemning editors even when they are not at fault suggests a mindset that is quite disturbing to me. It’s almost as if some people want editors to be sexist/racist bastards so we have someone to blame for the disparity in minority representation in SF/F. I don’t honestly think there is anyone to blame for this except culture. There are probably dozens of reasons why there are not a lot of women or people of color in the SF/F community, and that long list does not include dozens of different ways to say “racist” or “sexist.” Sometimes racism/sexism is responsible; sometimes it’s not. Let’s not forget that historically speaking, science fiction (and publishing in general) has been a masculine enterprise, or that there seems to be far more people of color writing about issues such as colonialism/imperialism than there are about space ships or magic swords. That’s not to say that there aren’t women who write science fiction (there are quite a few, many of them damn good ones) or people of color who write SF/F (there are a few that I can name off the top of my head, though, to be fair, there could be more that none of us know about because names rarely indicate someone’s skin color). What I’m saying is that there very well may be other factors influencing the percentage of women and people of color in slush piles that have nothing to do directly with editors working today (editors in the past, yes, but today, not so much, with exception). But, then, you have to wonder how anyone knows how many people of color are in those slush piles in the first place if names are not good indicators of skin color…editors do not typically ask for one’s skin color (though a name can indicate sex, but that’s not always a sure thing, particularly if you’re dealing with writers from countries with non-English names like India or China). What needs to be done is for all aspects of the community to reach out, not just editors. History is working against women and people of color, and there’s no reason why we cannot circumvent historical tradition. But, history also does not make editors today sexist or racist bastards just because they do not publish enough women or people of color. If we want to talk about racist/sexist bastards, then we need to go back in time and point a finger at the people who dominated the publishing industry in the first place, and then at society, who played the race and gender game for centuries. The point of all of this is that, yes, it is a viable excuse to say that the reason for gender/race disparities in your work is due to a low percentage of women or people of color in the slush pile. That’s a perfectly acceptable excuse, and whether or not an editor should spend time reaching out is an entirely different argument. I think the problem is that people need someone to blame, and why not an editor? They have their hand on the big button, after all. But there’s more at work here than just an editor. This is a community problem and there are no individuals that can be blamed. That is all.
How to Know You’re a Crazy Liberal: Move to Florida
I’m a graduate student at the University of Florida, as some of you well know (studying science fiction and fantasy and postcolonialism and anything that fits into the cracks). The experience, thus far, has taught me a few things about what it’s like to be a graduate student and a teacher, and about myself. That last part is what this post is about. I’ve always considered myself to be fairly moderate in my political beliefs. Yes, I am for universal healthcare (though I would be willing to settle for significant regulation if someone would bother to come up with something that makes sense) and I am also for gay rights (particularly marriage, which I could go into here, but won’t). But I don’t go so far as to think that we should tax the living hell out of the rich (although I think we should punish the rich accordingly whenever they screw up and not give them passes just because they have money). I could go on and on about my beliefs, but I think ultimately it will either paint the picture that I’m fairly liberal or at least somewhat moderate. But all that changed when I moved to Gainesville. I was moderate in Santa Cruz, but here I am a crazy liberal. I don’t know what to make of that, except that I know I have to be very aware of my personal beliefs when it comes to teaching my classes. Contrary to popular opinion, not all liberals are out to brainwash your children and turn them into tree-hugging hippies. In fact, I don’t want to brainwash any kids (not really, anyway, though I may joke otherwise). I do, however, want to expose them to different beliefs and ideas, because if they’re going to be useful, productive members of society, they have to be capable of actually thinking about things, even if it goes against what they believe in. Living in a vacuum does these kids no good whatsoever (and if the conservative or liberal fascists who think otherwise, that’s their problem, not mine; I can’t be bothered to deal with people who think it acceptable behavior to intentionally provide their children with an exceedingly limited and biased viewpoint of the world, and then get upset when they grow up and actually want to know what the world is really like). This is all part of the south, though, right? After all, the University of Florida was the first time I saw public praying on a university campus, and also the first time I have been accosted by born again Christians looking to save my immortal soul at school. Even my students have completely opposite views from me and I suspect that they think me remarkably crazy leftist as a result. Maybe, but I don’t know if I’m that deep in the south in the middle of a university. Such places tend to be a little more liberal than the rest of the world. So maybe I should be afraid of what actual red-ville looks like. I suppose what this all amounts to is this: it’s a strange experience to find out you’re actually more insane than you thought you were.