--- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, "Chris Hayden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: . > > 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. > >(What are we writing when we write SF with extraterrestial or otherworld or fantasy settings?
What was John Carter, the Gray Lensman, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Captain Kirk, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo about? I think we are being dishonest if we do not admit that this is a statement by the writer that he and his kind will rule the Universe. Any fiction is about vicarious participation of the reader. We are stirred by the struggles of Tom Joad. We react with horror at he fate of Bigger Thomas. We hope Edmund Dantes survives. This is even more true about genre fiction. Captain America was created by Jews but they did not make him Jewish. He was Steve Rogers, not Jacob Kurtzburg (Jack Kirby's real name). I'd propose an experiment. Tak Spiderman. Make every thing the same except make Peter Parker Black. How does that work out, you think? You think the producers and directors would take a chance on a Black Peter Parker--when they made the characters of Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea white? Again, I don't see racism here. I won't call anybody a racist because a Black Batman does not click for them, much as I don't think I am a racist if I reject a white man trying to be James Brown (although Roy Head and the early Wayne Cochran did some good takes on him)
