Speculative Blackness: The Future of Race in Science Fiction

292 Pages·2016·4.361 MB·English

by  André M. Carrington

Speculative BlackneSS
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Speculative BlackneSS
The Future of Race in Science Fiction
andré m. carrington
University of Minnesota Press
Minneapolis
London
A version of chapter 4 appeared as “Drawn into Dialogue: Comic Book Culture and the
Scene of Controversy in Milestone Media’s Icon,” in The Blacker the Ink, ed. Frances
Gateward and John Jennings (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2015). Por-
tions of chapter 6 appeared as “Dreaming in Colour: Fan Fiction as Critical Reception,”
in Race/Gender/Class/Media, 3d ed., ed. Rebecca Ann Lind (Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Pearson, 2013), 95–101; copyright 2013, printed and electronically reproduced by per-
mission of Pearson Education, Inc.
Copyright 2016 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy-
ing, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press
111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290
Minneapolis, MN 55401- 2520
http://www.upress.umn.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carrington, André M.
Speculative blackness: the future of race in science fiction / andré m. carrington.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8166-7895-2 (hc)
ISBN 978-0-8166-7896-9 (pb)
1. American fiction—African American authors—History and criticism. 2. Science
fiction, American—History and criticism. 3. Race in literature. 4. African Americans in
mass media. 5. African Americans in popular culture I. Title.
PS374.N4C37 2016
813.009’896073—dc23 2015008724
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper
The University of Minnesota is an equal- opportunity educator and employer.
21 20 19 18 17 16 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand
on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.
— Langston HugHes
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contentS
Introduction The Whiteness of Science Fiction and the
Speculative Fiction of Blackness 1
1 Josh Brandon’s Blues Inventing the Black Fan 30
2 Space Race Woman Lieutenant Uhura beyond the Bridge 68
3 The Immortal Storm Permutations of Race in Marvel Comics 89
4 Controversy and Crossover in Milestone Media’s Icon 117
5 The Golden Ghetto and the Glittering Parentheses
The Once and Future Benjamin Sisko 156
6 Dreaming in Color Racial Revisions in Fan Fiction 195
Coda 238
Acknowledgments 243
Notes 247
Index 269
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introduction
The Whiteness of Science Fiction and the
Speculative Fiction of Blackness
the point of departure for my research on speculative fiction
(SF) was a desire to spark informed dialogue that would build on the
lessons I have learned from critical reflections on literature and media,
while also making the concerns that animate my career as a Black intel-
lectual more legible within these conversations. The tradition of intellec-
tual inquiry into popular culture points toward speculative fiction as an
exemplary venue for understanding how the production of literature and
culture fits within the structure of societies in which it takes place. In par-
ticular, there has been a generation of cultural criticism published about
the ways in which popular texts resonate with the interests of attentive,
actively engaged fans and academic researchers concerned with gender,
sexuality, class, national identities, and changing technologies. With def-
erence to research in these areas, however, I have come to believe that
scholarship does not yet provide all of the tools required to articulate what
science fiction, fantasy, and utopia mean to Black Americans. Some of the
most important questions that speculative fiction provokes for scholars
who think, as I do, that race and racism should be paramount concerns
in any inquiry into the relationship between popular culture and its social
context are just beyond the reach of prevailing approaches to the genre.
I intend to bring them closer.
The interest I take in SF texts and the ways in which I negotiate my role
as a fan and critic of the genre are closely bound up with what it means for
me to be Black and what it means for me to be an academic. This is a book
about what speculative fiction, in the many ways we encounter it and
embody it, has to say about what it means to be Black. It is also about how
placing Blackness at the center of discussions about speculative fiction
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