Way too perfunctory, with limited context and analysis. Still, if you know nothing about the subject and don't want to plough through dense tomes, thiWay too perfunctory, with limited context and analysis. Still, if you know nothing about the subject and don't want to plough through dense tomes, this primer is a tantalising glimpse into the diversity of African cosmology and mythology....more
So the Koreans have 120 cuts of beef? One of the many interesting facts in this brief but fascinating look at the flipside of where your favourite burSo the Koreans have 120 cuts of beef? One of the many interesting facts in this brief but fascinating look at the flipside of where your favourite burger patty comes from....more
Written in the tone of the Little Mermaid being quite a 'babe'. But it covers all the historic bases, including Mami Wata, and is a good colloquial inWritten in the tone of the Little Mermaid being quite a 'babe'. But it covers all the historic bases, including Mami Wata, and is a good colloquial introduction to this fascinating subject. I still do not know how South Africa ended up with a mermaid legend from the arid Karoo, but that is the nature of myth, I suppose....more
If there is one mermaid book you need to read, it is this one. A truly fascinating examination of mermaid legends and folklore from around the world, If there is one mermaid book you need to read, it is this one. A truly fascinating examination of mermaid legends and folklore from around the world, including India and Japan, of all places. And it begins with the (in)famous EFF accusation in 2014 of then President Jacob Zuma rumoured to have two mermaids in his Nkandla swimming pool for nefarious magical purposes...
My only caveat is the hilariously inappropriate cover, especially following the recent Little Mermaid remake controversy. If one thing is for sure, mermaids are universal and cannot be appropriated by any culture. Or company, especially Disney....more
'But perhaps the most formally sophisticated rebuttal to fascists comes in the unlikely form of Chuck Tingle’s queer absurdist science fiction erotica'But perhaps the most formally sophisticated rebuttal to fascists comes in the unlikely form of Chuck Tingle’s queer absurdist science fiction erotica. Tingle has often parodied the far right: he created a fake version of Breitbart.com that included the “Top 5 Alt-Right Basements,” and after Trump was elected he went on a mission to reverse this “timeline mistake.”'
Wow, a really important eye-opener on how the alt-right has appropriated SF's 'licence to imagine' as an ideological and epistemological affirmation of 'white' technoscientific supremacy. Um, the Terminator as an ubermensch? Interstellar as promoting Aryan cultural superiority throughout TIME???
Carroll rightly points out that SF has always been vulnerable to being hacked by extremists and reactionary ideologues, simply because that's how the genre started out.
It’s how reasonable fans respond to such misguided incitement that will be the true test of the genre's continued relevance, readability, and appeal to a global audience.
Review to follow ... should have taken a star off for the many typos and sloppy editing in the first half. But this really wrongfooted me just when I Review to follow ... should have taken a star off for the many typos and sloppy editing in the first half. But this really wrongfooted me just when I thought I knew where it was headed. A 'modern' SF novel that riffs off Paul McAuley, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Frank Herbert in a phlegmatic manner quite typical of South African SF....more
Read for the fantastic chapter about Sun Ra and his concept of ‘myth science’, an early forerunner of Afrofuturism long before Mark Dery defined the tRead for the fantastic chapter about Sun Ra and his concept of ‘myth science’, an early forerunner of Afrofuturism long before Mark Dery defined the term in the early 1990s. Lock writes in the introduction: ...Sun Ra, no stranger to accusations of insanity, who cheerfully embraced the impossible – declaring in the 1960s that it attracted him because “everything possible has been done and the world didn’t change – and spent the rest of his life traveling the spaceways, “from planet to planet,” not only promoting but enacting a vision of future utopia....more
I came across this book as a research reference but found myself dipping in and out of its many fascinating articles about deviant behaviour. The secoI came across this book as a research reference but found myself dipping in and out of its many fascinating articles about deviant behaviour. The second edition has 16 new chapters reflecting current trends in the sociology of deviance.
It opens with a useful theory section that covers classic theories such as anomie/strain theory and labelling theory to more modern ones such as life course perspective. Of course, a wide spectrum of deviant behaviours is also discussed. An interesting chapter called ‘Feminism and Deviance’ discusses how patriarchy and sexism help understand how societal views are male dominated and can cause women to be perceived as deviant.
The preface states that the diverse inclusion of criminal deviance (e.g., serial killers, poisoning, and white-collar crime) and non-criminal deviance (e.g., furries, pornography, and self-mutilation) give great insight into the contemporary world of present-day norm-violating behaviour.
Some noncriminal deviances, such as the proliferation of cyber deviance, have only recently emerged on the scene, while others like prescription drug use have been around for a long time but have only recently come under the research spotlight.
On the theoretical front, there has been a change in emphasis from the positivist perspective to a more constructionist one. In research methodology, there is greater use of ethnography at the expense of the traditional use of surveys. All of these latest trends are showcased in this highly authoritative reader. ...more
History books are triggering for me, as it is taught so badly at school level. This is a particularly bad example of modern historiography / hagiograpHistory books are triggering for me, as it is taught so badly at school level. This is a particularly bad example of modern historiography / hagiography. The author travelled worldwide and interviewed a plethora of experts ... only to reduce them to soundbites as fact checkers. It could have been so much more....more
Welcome update of the 2009 Routledge Companion, which did not even have a chapter on afrofuturism. Interestingly, the 2024 edition starts with ‘North Welcome update of the 2009 Routledge Companion, which did not even have a chapter on afrofuturism. Interestingly, the 2024 edition starts with ‘North African, Middle Eastern, Arabic and diasporic science fiction’ by Sinéad Murphy, as opposed to ‘The Copernican revolution’ by Adam Roberts. This indicates the growing importance of indigenous futurisms. The editors write in their Introduction:
We all live in science fiction times. The genre is everywhere, even as it bleeds into all other kinds of cultural production. At the same time, the border between reality and sf grows increasingly porous, a tenuous proposition at best.
It is hard to believe it, but way back in 2009, the world was grappling with social media. I did not even know this, but at the time the Routledge Companion went online to enable easy updating and expansion.
Its hyperlinks make for a pleasurable dérive through the genre, but it remains a little atomised and, inevitably, in a constant race to keep up. The fixed parameters of a physical book exacerbate these problems even as they relieve its editors of much of that burden.
The significance, and prescience, of the original Routledge Companion can be gauged by the editors’ 2009 sentiment that sf scholarship has embraced “the genre as a global phenomenon, not merely in terms of the consumption of texts and practices produced in or by the First World, but also in its ability to express the experience of modernity among peoples excluded from the economic and geopolitical core.”
From the 2024 Introduction:
Indigenous sf and sf from the Global South have been major success stories in the 15 years since we wrote those words, even if far too little of it is available in translation and the examples written in English tend to be published only by small presses. Much of this sf challenges our ideas about the nature and shape of the field, rewiring cyberpunk, planetary romance, space opera, utopia, dystopia, the technothriller and so on, or doing its own beautiful, exciting and exhilarating thing.
Unsurprisingly, the editors remain committed to being “unable and unwilling” to offer a definition of sf. Their argument is that: “Any attempts at definition have more to do with various commentators establishing their relationships to others within the conversation than with a serious attempt to delimit a mode.”
Fair enough, but pity the poor reader trying to keep up with literary scholarship and popular culture, especially when Gary K. Wolfe states baldly that American SF no longer exists. “But nonetheless, there are works that look like sf, swim like sf and quack like sf – and it is helpful to consider them in the company of whatever we might just about agree upon as being sf.”
It is sobering to consider that, since the 2009 Routledge Companion, there has been a new generation of critics and readers (while those of us who are, er, older are grappling with the changes in approach and consumerism.) One comment I do agree with – and it is a contentious debate, especially in the context of afrofuturism – is that the genre has never been interested in prediction or prognostication:
...we are not convinced that the genre has ever had much to say seriously about the future. It has always, via estrangement, allegory, metaphor or whatever, been more about the situation in which its creators have found themselves themselves in – environmental geopolitics, personal identity, new technologies, scientific developments, and so on.
Apparently, the revised edition was nearly derailed by Covid-19 – Adam Roberts stepped down as an editor – but the work trundled along. Readers, scholars, and the simply curious can only be deeply thankful for this. The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction remains an indispensable resource and fascinating barometer of global sf scholarship and fandom. ...more
Mashigo’s ‘Afrofuturism: Ayashis’ Amateki’ (2018) is one of the most important position statements on the 1994 Mark Dery definition after Okorafor’s ‘Mashigo’s ‘Afrofuturism: Ayashis’ Amateki’ (2018) is one of the most important position statements on the 1994 Mark Dery definition after Okorafor’s ‘Africanfuturism Defined’ (2019). Despite the ‘future’ being implicit in the name, I disagree with Mashigo that afrofuturism has to contain futuristic elements. The weakest stories here are the ones that, reluctantly, attempt a space opera vibe. The best are the ones that slip effortlessly between the cracks of any genre definition. As Samuel R. Delany – who was interviewed by Dery for his original 1994 article ‘Black to the Future’ – states in ‘The Mirror of Afrofuturism’ (2020): “Unless we set up our critical mirrors very carefully, arguably there is no such thing as Afrofuturism.”...more
No Joburger takes kindly to Cape Town being portrayed as a ‘model city’, especially when it is probably even more racially and spatially segregated thNo Joburger takes kindly to Cape Town being portrayed as a ‘model city’, especially when it is probably even more racially and spatially segregated than Jozi. This is a good primer, especially if you have international friends who think we live in the jungle, but it is quite repetitive, despite its short length.
I am still scratching my head at Nickolaus Bauer’s main argument: that Joburg started out as a mining camp due to the Gold Rush, which did not even have a proper water source, and quickly turned into a pit of iniquity, criminality, and general dodginess that continues to contribute to, and aggravate, the city’s woes to this very day.
So, Joburgers must be ‘hustlers’ to survive, especially those nimby (not in my back yard) whites who balk against densification, live with a false (and damned) sense of self-security, refuse to walk the streets of this great city, and vote DA by rote in the hope that the urban renewal fairy will wave their magic wand. The rest of the time? They just moan and complain while the city crumbles around their ears.
While that is partially true – we are great complainers – South Africans are also resilient and resourceful. I personally have been mugged twice, and everyone in my close circle has similar stories, including a hijacking/kidnapping (where they steal you and your car, drive you around for hours, and get you to phone your family for money or they threaten to kill you.)
We moved out of a neighbourhood we loved after coming home one evening (yes, we slowed down to check if we were being followed, and if there were any loiterers [or walkers] about) and still someone popped out of the shadows and put four bullets into the garage door after we had just closed it.
This was the last straw. We had lived through someone opening a shebeen in their backyard in the next street, which ran 24/7 with impunity during the lockdown. A brothel opened right across from us (with Mercedes Benzes and the occasional Porsche dropping by at God knows what time at night).
A dodgy German property owner sublet the beautiful old house next to us, and the tenants themselves promptly sub-sub-let the property, which turned into a commune with numerous babies squalling night and day. They kept on flushing nappies down the toilet and blocking the sewerage system, which caused raw sewage to seep out of the manhole in the street.
Oh, and a water pipe burst on the other side of the road, causing the pavement and part of the road to collapse (the brothel was literally teetering on the edge of disaster). It took months to bring this to the attention of the correct city officials, as apparently the middle of our street was the demarcation between two wards, and neither councillor would assume responsibility.
I still have close friends in the area who are hanging on by tooth and nail and I am part of two neighbourhood groups. In my new area, we got into trouble for contributing to a residents’ fund to hire a local contractor to fix potholes. Apparently, the nimby whites are not allowed to be proactive.
More people are going beyond the usual ‘Boer maak ’n plan’ attitude (white nimbys always have a plan) and are becoming involved in local activism and neighbourhood social responsibility. This extends beyond policing substations to prevent cable and transformer theft to genuinely caring for the people in the neighbourhood. And dogs and cats.
The GNU (government of national unity) which resulted from the last national election has yet to filter down to a municipal level. Joburg’s latest mayor had to retract his statement post haste that the Joburg Metro Police Dept would be happy to employ foreigners to fight crime, when he knows that Joburgers are both nimby and xenophobic. Poepol.
The nimby whites did recently venture into the decaying heart of the city to protest against the ongoing closure of the Joburg Library. I think it’s been four years now while the city is apparently fixing the fire protection system.
Bauer does not mention the Great Joburg Library Saga, which is part of a broader debate about the government’s disdain for ‘culture’ as either appropriation, a Western import, or both. Neither are the Great Healthcare or Universal Living Wage debates mentioned, which have all the nimbys clutching their pearls and medical aid cards.
My main problem with the book is that it is heavy on the Sturm und Drang of Joburg’s self-implosion, while the supposed advice and quick-fix tips are either so obvious they are useless, trite, annoying, or all three. Like:
The misconception that the city is not suitable for walkers is irrational and largely down to ignorance. Here Bauer quotes French philosopher Michel de Certeau, who declares that “walking within any urban environment leads to a profound impact on all human experiences and connections.” I get the point, but that ‘profound impact’ is more than likely being bliksemed with a gun or any object at hand in Jozi.
Or: Crime is just a reality you have to contend with… The fact that “almost 50% of Joburgers love on less than R2 000 a month [$112] and spend up to 40% of their income on transport” is, sadly, indicative of South Africa as a whole, and not just Jozi.
Or: The biggest fraud in South African history was committed by a whiteowned business that sat at the heart of the Afrikaner establishment and rivals Enron – America’s biggest fraud in history. What about State capture, mmm? And speaking about America, they can take their hegemony and voetsek.
Or: The apathy from Johannesburg’s citizens is the main issue that got the city into the political mess it finds itself in the first place. A resounding ‘No’ to that last one; it was the DA being hardegat and refusing to play nice in the coalition sandpit.
Also, ‘redlining’ is not necessarily a racial or private sector practice that is dooming such neighbourhoods to return to their lawless mining camp roots, as Bauer insists (like a diehard nimby himself.) It is endemic to global capitalism. As Fanon wrote in ‘The Wretched of the Earth’, there will never be proper decoloniality without violence.
And a bunch of gatvol nimbys will be a force to be reckoned with....more