Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction
Essays on speculative/science fiction explore the futures that feed our most cherished fantasies and terrifying nightmares, while helping diverse communities devise new survival strategies for a tough millennium.

The explosion in speculative/science fiction (SF) across different media from the late twentieth century to the present has compelled those in the field of SF studies to rethink the community’s identity, orientation, and stakes. In this edited collection, more than forty writers, critics, game designers, scholars, and activists explore core SF texts, with an eye toward a future in which corporations dominate both the means of production and the means of distribution and governments rely on powerful surveillance and carceral technologies.
 
The essays, international in scope, demonstrate the diversity of SF through a balance of popular mass-market novels, comics, films, games, TV shows, creepypastas, and more niche works. SF works explored range from Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi, 2084: The End of the World by Boualem Sansal, Terra Nullius by Claire Coleman, Watchmen and X-Men comics, and the Marvel film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, to the MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood, The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wandering Earth by Liu Cixin, and the Wormwood trilogy by Tade Thompson. In an era in which ecological disaster and global pandemics regularly expose and intensify deep political-economic inequalities, what futures has SF anticipated? What survival strategies has it provided us? Can it help us to deal with, and grow beyond, the inequalities and injustices of our times?
 
Unlike other books of speculative/science fiction criticism, Uneven Futures uses a think piece format to make its critical insights engaging to a wide audience. The essays inspire visions of better possible futures—drawing on feminist, queer, and global speculative engagements with Indigenous, Latinx, and Afro- and African futurisms—while imparting important lessons for political organizing in the present.

Contributors: Ben Abraham, Emmet Asher-Perrin, Brent Ryan Bellamy, Gerry Canavan, Andrew Ferguson, Fabio Fernandes, Dexter Gabriel, M. Elizabeth Ginway, Sean Guynes, Ouissal Harize, David M. Higgins, Veronica Hollinger, Allanah Hunt, Nicola Hunte, Nathaniel Isaacson, Ayana Jamieson, Darshana Jayemanne, Gwyneth Jones, Brendan Keogh, Sami Ahmad Khan, Cameron Kunzelman, Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada, Isiah Lavender III, Caryn Lesuma, Karen Lord, Sarah Marrs, Farah Mendlesohn, Cathryn Merla-Watson, Hugh Charles O’Connell, B. Pladek, John Rieder, Lysa Rivera, Kim Stanley Robinson, Steven Shaviro, Rebekah Sheldon, Alison Sperling, Alfredo Suppia, Bogi Takács, Taryne Jade Taylor, Sherryl Vint, Kirin Wachter-Grene, Ida Yoshinaga.
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Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction
Essays on speculative/science fiction explore the futures that feed our most cherished fantasies and terrifying nightmares, while helping diverse communities devise new survival strategies for a tough millennium.

The explosion in speculative/science fiction (SF) across different media from the late twentieth century to the present has compelled those in the field of SF studies to rethink the community’s identity, orientation, and stakes. In this edited collection, more than forty writers, critics, game designers, scholars, and activists explore core SF texts, with an eye toward a future in which corporations dominate both the means of production and the means of distribution and governments rely on powerful surveillance and carceral technologies.
 
The essays, international in scope, demonstrate the diversity of SF through a balance of popular mass-market novels, comics, films, games, TV shows, creepypastas, and more niche works. SF works explored range from Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi, 2084: The End of the World by Boualem Sansal, Terra Nullius by Claire Coleman, Watchmen and X-Men comics, and the Marvel film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, to the MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood, The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wandering Earth by Liu Cixin, and the Wormwood trilogy by Tade Thompson. In an era in which ecological disaster and global pandemics regularly expose and intensify deep political-economic inequalities, what futures has SF anticipated? What survival strategies has it provided us? Can it help us to deal with, and grow beyond, the inequalities and injustices of our times?
 
Unlike other books of speculative/science fiction criticism, Uneven Futures uses a think piece format to make its critical insights engaging to a wide audience. The essays inspire visions of better possible futures—drawing on feminist, queer, and global speculative engagements with Indigenous, Latinx, and Afro- and African futurisms—while imparting important lessons for political organizing in the present.

Contributors: Ben Abraham, Emmet Asher-Perrin, Brent Ryan Bellamy, Gerry Canavan, Andrew Ferguson, Fabio Fernandes, Dexter Gabriel, M. Elizabeth Ginway, Sean Guynes, Ouissal Harize, David M. Higgins, Veronica Hollinger, Allanah Hunt, Nicola Hunte, Nathaniel Isaacson, Ayana Jamieson, Darshana Jayemanne, Gwyneth Jones, Brendan Keogh, Sami Ahmad Khan, Cameron Kunzelman, Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada, Isiah Lavender III, Caryn Lesuma, Karen Lord, Sarah Marrs, Farah Mendlesohn, Cathryn Merla-Watson, Hugh Charles O’Connell, B. Pladek, John Rieder, Lysa Rivera, Kim Stanley Robinson, Steven Shaviro, Rebekah Sheldon, Alison Sperling, Alfredo Suppia, Bogi Takács, Taryne Jade Taylor, Sherryl Vint, Kirin Wachter-Grene, Ida Yoshinaga.
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Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction

Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction

Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction

Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction

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Overview

Essays on speculative/science fiction explore the futures that feed our most cherished fantasies and terrifying nightmares, while helping diverse communities devise new survival strategies for a tough millennium.

The explosion in speculative/science fiction (SF) across different media from the late twentieth century to the present has compelled those in the field of SF studies to rethink the community’s identity, orientation, and stakes. In this edited collection, more than forty writers, critics, game designers, scholars, and activists explore core SF texts, with an eye toward a future in which corporations dominate both the means of production and the means of distribution and governments rely on powerful surveillance and carceral technologies.
 
The essays, international in scope, demonstrate the diversity of SF through a balance of popular mass-market novels, comics, films, games, TV shows, creepypastas, and more niche works. SF works explored range from Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi, 2084: The End of the World by Boualem Sansal, Terra Nullius by Claire Coleman, Watchmen and X-Men comics, and the Marvel film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, to the MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood, The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wandering Earth by Liu Cixin, and the Wormwood trilogy by Tade Thompson. In an era in which ecological disaster and global pandemics regularly expose and intensify deep political-economic inequalities, what futures has SF anticipated? What survival strategies has it provided us? Can it help us to deal with, and grow beyond, the inequalities and injustices of our times?
 
Unlike other books of speculative/science fiction criticism, Uneven Futures uses a think piece format to make its critical insights engaging to a wide audience. The essays inspire visions of better possible futures—drawing on feminist, queer, and global speculative engagements with Indigenous, Latinx, and Afro- and African futurisms—while imparting important lessons for political organizing in the present.

Contributors: Ben Abraham, Emmet Asher-Perrin, Brent Ryan Bellamy, Gerry Canavan, Andrew Ferguson, Fabio Fernandes, Dexter Gabriel, M. Elizabeth Ginway, Sean Guynes, Ouissal Harize, David M. Higgins, Veronica Hollinger, Allanah Hunt, Nicola Hunte, Nathaniel Isaacson, Ayana Jamieson, Darshana Jayemanne, Gwyneth Jones, Brendan Keogh, Sami Ahmad Khan, Cameron Kunzelman, Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada, Isiah Lavender III, Caryn Lesuma, Karen Lord, Sarah Marrs, Farah Mendlesohn, Cathryn Merla-Watson, Hugh Charles O’Connell, B. Pladek, John Rieder, Lysa Rivera, Kim Stanley Robinson, Steven Shaviro, Rebekah Sheldon, Alison Sperling, Alfredo Suppia, Bogi Takács, Taryne Jade Taylor, Sherryl Vint, Kirin Wachter-Grene, Ida Yoshinaga.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780262543941
Publisher: MIT Press
Publication date: 12/20/2022
Pages: 360
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Ida Yoshinaga is Assistant Professor of Science Fiction Film at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Sean Guynes is Acquiring Editor, Lever Press. Gerry Canavan is Associate Professor of English at Marquette University. He is the author of Octavia E. Butler.

Table of Contents

Introduction: It's the End of the World as We Know It-or So We Hope Ida Yoshinaga Sean Guynes Gerry Canavan xi

I Emergence 1

1 Samuel R. Delany, "The Star Pit" (1965) / Moving On, as Far as You Want Kirin Wachter-Grene 3

2 Lionel Davidson, Under Plum Lake (1980) / YA Time Out of Joint Rebekah Sheldon 11

3 Brian Henson and Rockne O'Bannon, Farscape (1999-2003) / Radical Compassion Emmet Asher-Perrin 19

4 Shovon Chowdhury, The Competent Authority (2013) / CTRL+ALT+DELETE Humanity Sami Ahmad Khan 27

5 Sofia Samatar, "How to Get Back to the Forest" (2014) / Shaping and Sharing Feelings Steven Shaviro 37

6 Tade Thompson, Wormwood Trilogy (2016-2019) / Africanfuturism's Salvage Utopianism Hugh Charles O'Connell 47

7 Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij, The OA (2016-2019) / Science Fiction's Affective Praxis Sherryl Vint 57

8 Craig Laurance Gidney, A Spectral Hue (2019) / #OwnVoices and Intergroup Solidarity Bogi Takács 65

9 Jonathan Hickman, House of X and Powers of X (2019) / Ecological Activism and Radical Sovereignty David M. Higgins 73

10 Rebecca Sugar, Steven Universe Future (2019-2020) / Camp Redemption B. Pladek 81

II Rupture 89

11 Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland (1884) / Unflattening Scientific Worldviews Karen Lord 91

12 Karel Capek, War with the Newts (1936) / Comic Jeremiad journalism John Rieder 99

13 Ursula K. Le Guln, The Tombs of Atuan (1970) / Remaking the Bond Sean Guynes 105

14 Joan Slonczewski, A Door into Ocean (1986) / Peaceful Ecological Defiance Gwyneth Jones 111

15 SCP Foundation (2008-) / Collaborative Canons Andrew Ferguson 119

16 Kléber Mendonça Filho, Recife Frio (2009) / Visualizing Disparity In Brazil Alfredo Suppia M. Elizabeth Ginway 127

17 Virginia Grise, blu (2011) / Queer Latinx Aesthetics of Apocalypse Cathryn Merla-Watson 135

18 Claire Coleman, Terra Nullius (2017) / Aboriginal SF's Realities of the Imaginary Allanah Hunt 143

19 Liu Clxin (2000) and Frant Gwo (2019), The Wandering Earth / Deimperializing Empire Nathaniel Isaacson 153

Interlude 163

20 Science Fiction Studies 3.0: Re-networking Our Hive Mind Ida Yoshinaga 165

III Transformation 177

21 Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed (1974) / Permanent Feminist Revolution Kim Stanley Robinson 179

22 Joanna Russ, We Who Are About To … (1976) / There Is No Planet B Farah Mendlesohn 187

23 Eleanor Arnason, Ring of Swords (1993) / Queer-Feminist Peace Work Veronica Hollinger 193

24 Margaret Atwood, MaddAddam Trilogy (2003-2013) / Interspecies Coalition-Building Alison Sperling 201

25 Buried without Ceremony, The Quiet Year (2013) and The Deep Forest (2014) / Mechanics of Resolution Brent Ryan Bellamy 207

26 Undead Labs, State of Decay (2013) / Crafting Community at the End of the World Cameron Kunzelman 215

27 Hideo Kojima, Death Stranding (2019) / Reconnecting in the Time of Climate Change Darshana Jayemanne Brendan Keogh Ben Abraham 221

28 Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon, Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower (2020) / Links to Our Future-Present Ayana Jamieson 229

IV Revolution 239

29 Pauline Hopkins, Of One Blood (1902) / Antiracism and the Counternarrative of the Black Fantastic Dexter Gabriel 241

30 Alan Moore, David Gibbons, and John Higgins, Watchmen, no. 11 (1987) / Autonomous Collectivity against the State Gerry Canavan 249

31 Tobias Buckell, Sly Mongoose (2008) / Inhabiting Hostile Futures Nicola Hunte 257

32 Tochi Onyebuchi, Riot Baby (2019) / Black Lives Matter SF Isiah Lavender III 265

33 Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita, Lunar Braceros: 2125-2148 (2009) / Imagination against Resistance Lysa Rivera 275

34 Boualem Sansal, 2084: The End of the World (2015) / Resisting Censorship Ouissal Harize 285

35 The Russo Brothers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Captain America: Civil War (2016) / The Patriotism of Raising Hell Sarah Marrs 293

36 Princess Nokia, "Brujas" (2016) / Santería's Decolonial Futurisms Taryne Jade Taylor 303

37 Lehua Parker, One Truth, No Lie (2016) / Indigenous Youth Activism through Mo'olelo and YA Literature Caryn Lesuma 309

38 Kim Stanley Robinson, New York 2140 (2017) / Logistic Utopia Fabio Fernandes 317

39 Na Kia'i Mauna, Ka Pu'uhonua o Pu'uhuluhulu at the Mauna Kea Access Road (2019) / An SF Sovereignty Story Bryan Kamaoli Kuwada 325

Contributors 333

Index 343

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