Resisting Oppression: Reading Science Fiction Politically

Next on Monday September 29, 5:00 pm

We will begin Ryka Aoki’s, Light From Uncommon Stars, our third in a set of three novels of oppression and resistance perfect for times like these. We also read Woman on the Edge of Time and Rosewater, each featuring protagonists living and struggling on the margins of their societies. Each comes to envision a better world for themselves and their communities. Each draws on usual strengths, makes use of new technologies, and finds unusual allies.

• Ryka Aoki’s In Light from Uncommon Stars, Katrina Nguyen, a runaway teen, trans violinist, finds her life entangled with world-famous violin teacher Shizuka Satomi and Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar war refugee, mother of four, and California donut shop entrepreneur. All three address the complexity of technology in oppressive societies, alienation and true aliens, choice and unfreedom in contemporary capitalist social orders. This is a story for our challenging political and social times, a wild and fun read to challenge what it means to create political science fiction.
• In Tade Thompson’s award-winning Rosewater, government agent and former thief Kaaro contends with social and class contradictions in contemporary Nigerian society, the government and alien powers for a positive, freer future for the city of Rosewater and beyond. The first-person novel features mesmerizing collages of scenes and conversations, mirroring perhaps the mysteries of the “Xenosphere” which frames the story. Join us to read this debut novel which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Science Fiction Novel.
• Marge Piercy’s classic Woman on the Edge of Time tells the story of Connie, a working class Latina of the 1970s Los Angeles who envisions and pursues a utopian future from with involuntary institutionalization in the oppressive mental health system.

Written in different eras of our modern times, exploring different communities and peoples, and ultimately defining radical reimagining in unique ways, the three novels together will provide powerful reference points for our own dilemmas and choices.

Our format: we meet every other Monday; we give each monthly selection two takes; we all share responsibilities for shaping the discussion on each work as literature, each writer as a contributor to social change, and each vision as a reflection of and an intervention in our aspirations for a better world.  Drop to read one novel that interests you with us, stay and while if it suits you, and always help shape our course. Our long term reading list.

Also watch for our next selection, Susana Morris’ new biography of Octavia Butler.

Convened by Steve Backman, reading visionary fiction since introduced to the liberating power of Alice in Wonderland and Jules Verne at a very young age.