Comments on: WisCon wrap-up

By: SFG

SFG — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:21:58 +0000

You guys must have loved the Matrix; they went as far toward diversity as they could while maintaining profitability. All the major supporting characters are black (Morpheus, Niobe, Oracle); if they’d made Neo or Trinity nonwhite they would have lost ticket sales. (They might have been able to make Trinity Asian.)

I dug up a collection of SF by black people (on sale at Borders in the discount bin, for one dollar) and plan to give it as a gift to a (black) geek friend of mine.

What you say is true, though kind of ironic as ST has always struck me as the more ‘liberal’ of the two major SF franchises, Star Wars involving genetically chosen people whose fate the universe depends on and plenty of heroic violence. I remember reading about ST: Enterprise in both the Nation (where the writer was disgusted) and the National Review (where the writer was pleased); maybe the series took a turn to the right? I never watched it, so I can’t say.

The thing I never got was why make Patrick Stewart, who’s as english as afternoon tea and hiding behind the sofa from the Daleks, a Frenchman? Isn’t that kind of like casting Susan Sarandon as Phyllis Schlafly?

So, what do you have to say about Doctor Who?

By: annalee

annalee — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 16:19:19 +0000

Yay — I’m glad. I always thought of the ST gang as a bunch of cultural imperialists. You know, they don’t use guns or WMDs. Instead, they use the Prime Directive to keep some planetary groups from having access to the “advanced technology of the Federation. And then sometimes they intervene in planetary feuds, but always in a liberal “let’s help the out” sort of way. You know, bring democracy to the galaxy and all that.

By: Lyda Morehouse

Lyda Morehouse — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 14:43:19 +0000

Loved your Wired Blog about the Whiteness of Space. I really wanted to be on that panel and was disappointed when I was on the preliminary programming list and then not in the final… and then I didn’t make it to listen in.

I’ve always had issues with the whiteness of SF (literary and media). I started a huge fight on a listserv of Trekies when I suggested that a black Vulcan was a good thing and that I thought the New Generation was clearly a bunch of colonialist (actually I used a more inflamitory word which invokes racial purists), given that the “French” captain spoke with a British accent as did the “Indian” doctor on DS9.

We never brought up race on the BSG panel and I wanted desperately to. Maybe that can be at the next WisCON. Will you be coming next year?

Oh, and I’m lovin’ SHE’S SUCH A GEEK.

By: Maurice

Maurice — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 22:03:38 +0000

re called â€œWhy Is This Universe So White?â€ interesting comments but no one mentioned SRD which struck me as odd.

id read most of his books before I knew athat he was Black – and completely missed all the Bi/Gay stuff.

By: annalee

annalee — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 01:08:32 +0000

You could always play it as a male character and just tell everybody that you’re female.

By: therem

therem — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 20:51:14 +0000

This is a really weird coincidence. Just yesterday I was wandering through a Target megastore with my friends in Buffalo and decided to buy a copy of World of Warcraft since they were only $20. And last night I looked through the booklet and found myself lingering on the photos of the different races and wondering, “Why the hell are the females so small and delicate?” And then today I see your blog post and link to Andrea’s paper.

Now I feel annoyed and like I don’t want to play the game after all. Grump!