Reading Science Fiction Politically: Diverging Futures

In Palestine +100: Stories from a Century after the Nakba, edited by Basma Ghalayini, as well as other recent books, Palestinian authors have begun to discover the power of science fiction. “Everyday life, for [Palestinian writers] is a kind of dystopia.” In this situation, “The real future –the actual future — is unknowable. But for SF writers, the mere idea of ‘things to come’ is license to re-imagine, re-configure, and re-interrogate the present.”

This spring, the MEP Science and Visionary Fiction reading group will use this exciting new collection — and related political analyses of the war and political situation now as well as additional short fiction published elsewhere–to expand our understanding of the situation and struggle now in Palestine. And we will also use it to reach further into science fiction’s exploration of a future, just society.

And we will deepen our appreciation of this new literature by reading with it other visions of pathways to a livable future, a just social order on Earth, in fiction and nonfiction:

• Parable of the Talents, Octavia Butler’s classic tale of the struggles to build a new society against the ravages of Trump-like right-wing terror, climate crisis and economic collapse.
• Too Like the Lightning, Ada Palmer’s newly published, character-rich story of technologically-driven utopian life two centuries from now and the crisis which arises within it.
• Archaeologies of the Future, by Fredric Jameson, a thought-provoking assessment of utopian literature from Thomas More to the present.  

This list is tentative and subject to change, other short selections or paring back by the reading group.  Here is the tentative meeting schedule:

May 27: Palestine +100
June 3: Palestine +100, Too Like the Lighting, chapters 1-3
June 10: Too Like the Lighting, chapters 3-6
June 17: Too Like the Lighting, chapters 7-10
June 24: Too Like the Lighting, chapters 11-15
July 2
July 8
July 15
July 22
July 29
–summer break–