Maybe purple skin had to do with the genre. Maybe this and maybe
that ... the skin color of a character in fiction, particularly
science fiction, can not be gratis. There has to be a reason. Just
as it is on Earth. Black charachers plunked in place the way banks
used to put up a teller or two will not get it. Marginal writing and
yes, marginal thinking and logic will not do. You have to have
action. Conflict. Resolution. If you have black characters doing
that and if the solution to their confilict is based on technology,
viola. You go.
The notion that Black Characters will not sell is worse than poppy
cock when a potential writer lays down his or her pen because it
appears that generated effort will go un noticed. Again, the reading
skills of some here are questioned by me. One who was there? Here
is another who is there. (Me). I am telling you, earnestly and
respectfully, that Science Fiction with black characters can be sold,
if it is in tune with the genre and above all, if it is very good.
Follow the formula, do your WORK and get on with your life. I am not
expressing theory here. If you say that Science Fiction with black
characters, or even with a racially oriented messgae will not be
published, who do you think you are talking to here? I have done
this. It is not easy. To me, none of this writing is easy. If you
want to give up, fine, but don't (I suggest) say it can not be done
because I have done it. I am frustrated when people say stuff
like "You can't do something" when it is being done in their faces.
Why? Aiming low, I'd say because it is easier to pretend it can not
be done than to go for it. And you will find lots of people to
support you. Don't be brainwashed, like those people who believe
there are more black men in prison than in college! Wake up! Who
was it who said "I could have freed more slaves if I'd gotten them to
see that they were slaves?"
You are in denial if you think black characters can not be published
in science fiction. You almost HAVE to talk the way you do (if you
do) in order to perpetuate the languor. The observation that
publishers want to make money is true, of course. Your sister's
grocery list will not make it. (Terrible exaguration ... sorry ...
you know what I mean.) Very respectfully
jivajiva (President Club Services)
--- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, "Chris Hayden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, "Jesse Miller"
> <aaaclub_services@> wrote:
> >
> > The idea that putting black characters in a story blocks
> publication
> > is distressing to me becasue this is NOT true.
>
>
> (Read it from a guy who was there
>
> The Road to Black Science Fiction
>
> http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/johnfaucette3/road.html
>
> Note these quotes
>
> But before that time arrived, when the sword and sorcery genre was
> big, I wrote one about a swordsman who had purple hair and purple
> skin. I called it THE AGE OF RUIN. Why did he have purple skin?
> Because it couldn't be black.
>
> AGE OF RUIN satisfied the rebel within me ... for a while. It was
> evident the field was totally white and white oriented. I began to
be
> dissatisfied with that. It was always a white man went to a planet
> and kicked the butts of the grey, brown, red, blue or green aliens.
>
> In my ignorance I thought it was racism. I told Donald A. Wollheim
I
> thought he was publishing racist material. I realize now it was
> simply economic self-interest. You don't publish what you don't
think
> there is a market for—especially if it's believed publishing black
> subject matter and/or authors will drive away or alienate the
audience
>
