RE: https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116290338892571761
🤦🏿‍♂️Actually, nevermind.
Why is everything like this?
The author supposedly went on an anti-woke, right-wing podcast to promote the movie while trashing other books and movies that do have a "woke" message or that have inclusive representation? But... why?
Why was that necessary?
I'm not saying don't watch the movie or read the book. Do whatever makes you happy.
I'm also not interested in debating how much inclusion is in his stories, whether he realizes it or not.
And I'm not interested in comparing even bigger, "super woke" sci-fi franchises like Star Trek or Star Wars.
I'm just saying that I personally watched the last one (The Martian), and I watched this one (Project Hail Mary), but you can guess if I'm watching the next one.
So many choices in entertainment.
The actions that attract the MAGA customer base will probably alienate me, and vice versa. That's OK!
Whether or not I watch his next movie doesn't really matter that much to him. He's not going to go broke and that's okay. Good actually!
But it's so hard to be an author, let alone a woman author, in sci-fi, who tells stories with good representation? Those authors don't need to be punched down on.
🤔Now I need to buy two IMAX tickets worth of sci-fi books written by authors that aren't anti-woke, just to put my part of the universe back in balance.
🤔Actually to properly balance things out, I have to keep reading new sci-fi books until I find one that I can recommend to thousands of people.
Added to my To Read list!
@Fourth_Dogma @mekkaokereke I heartily second _A Memory Called Empire_. One of the best SF books I've read in the past 20 years. Easily the equal of NK Jemisin's _The Fifth Season_.
Bonus points because the hegemonic colonials in _A Memory Called Empire_ are *not* European-based (they're Mayan!).
@mdm @Fourth_Dogma @mekkaokereke
Arkady Martine based her Teixcalaanli on both the Byzantine Empire and the Aztecs.
(Since she has a PhD in Byzantine history.)
@michael_w_busch @Fourth_Dogma @mekkaokereke That's interesting!
I knew about her degree in Byzantine studies, but I also know an actual Maya scholar in real life, and they said the format of the names in _Empire_ such as "Michael9", and "6Mecca" is an interesting Mayan form!
Agree with this. A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine is brilliant.
Check out Martine's CV as well. Fascinating personal history.
@mekkaokereke can I piggyback on the great recommendations that have been rolling in on this thread? I'm looking for kid-friendly science fiction (say, for ages 6-10).
I absolutely adored the Tom Swift III series around first and second grade, but the portrayal of the sole female character (Anita Thorwald, the "volatile redhead," who was actually one of my favorite characters) turns my stomach now. (You can find a PDF here: https://ms.z-library.sk/book/yqvB1m0Vj1/terror-on-the-moons-of-jupiter-tom-swift-third-series-book-2.html?dsource=recommend and search for "redhead" to get an idea.)
My daughter has enjoyed Diane Duane's "Young Wizards" books, although those are more fantasy than science fiction (even if the wizards like to hang out on the Moon).
@michael_w_busch @mekkaokereke this is a great series! I read the first few books back in middle school.
I aged out of the series and never got to "A Wizard Alone," which features a Black autistic character. I'll note that there seems to be a consensus that he is written considerably better in Duane's later (Ebook-only?) revision (https://dduane.tumblr.com/post/36422359487/are-you-going-to-do-a-new-millennium-edition-of-a).
I can only speak to the revised versions - I did not read the originals when I was young.
@trurl @mekkaokereke As a kid, “Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine” was one of my favorites. (Funny how much later in life I became a programmer!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dunn_and_the_Homework_Machine
@iDGS @mekkaokereke I also read Danny Dunn, but I haven't gone back to it yet. I'm concerned it will not have aged well, too.
There are decades of children's novels about going out into space that I read (Norby the Mixed-Up Robot, The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, ...), but the Tom Swift really worked.
I have been tempted to revise them myself, but I could also just leave the old stuff to the past and invite in other voices.
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