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"All social organizing is science fiction." adrienne maree brown

ikosmos
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Joined: May 8 2001

Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown were recently interviewed on the Laura Flanders Show. The two were involved in the publication of "Octavia's Brood", a collection of Science Fiction by activists. The title is a reference to Octavio Butler, an African-American woman who wrote "Lilith's Brood" .

Some really interesting remarks follow. Flanders is just f'ing brilliant. I keep telling myself to watch her show more often, then I forget to do so.

Decolonizing the Mind

Quote:
Anytime we try to envision a different world ... we are engaging in a practice of science fiction. ... Be unrealistic in your dreams. All social change that was fundamental and transformative was utterly unrealistic at that time.

Flanders quotes the late Octavia Butler .. a little prayer, of sorts, for social dreamers of all stripes ...

Quote:
All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth is change. Change is God.


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ikosmos
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Joined: May 8 2001

nb - the show is from April 2015. Still worth watching.


Mr. Magoo
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Joined: Dec 13 2002

Quote:
Be unrealistic in your dreams. All social change that was fundamental and transformative was utterly unrealistic at that time.

I can't help but recall legendary (if brief) babbler CourtneyGQuinn, who proposed that we could remedy world hunger through the use of lactating women.  Free nutrition for all, if we could get over the squick factor!  Any babblegeezers remember that?

Dream outside the box.


ikosmos
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Joined: May 8 2001

Imarisha and Brown both drew attention to and honoured the late Octavio Butler. Butler had to put up with a great number of rejections before her SF writing career got off the ground. She was copying the SF of the day - basically the fantasies of adolescent schoolboys - before she developed her own style and subject matter.

It sounds like CG Quinn could have read some more Butler and less of the other stuff.


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