On “Like Daughter”

I really liked Tananarive Due’s “Like Daughter.” When I first started reading, I had no clue where it was going as it did not reveal everything right away. We start off right away with the protagonist getting a call from her friend Denise and she was telling her to come take Neecy. I particularly liked the fact that you don’t learn everything right away, but bit by bit as the story goes on. We learn, throughout the story, that Denise was her best friend growing up and she had had a rough home life compared to the protagonist, spending so much time together they practically were sisters. At a point, cloning becomes a thing and Denise, wondering how she would have turned out without all the harshness and trauma that she grew up with, decided to clone and raise herself, giving her the life she wished she had had, This is significant in and of itself because it made me ponder: if I were in her shoes, would I do the same? I am not sure, but it is interesting to think about. I liked that cloning could be used as a way to do it all over, one could say, like a second chance at life. But could someone really raise their young self? And aside from genes, is it really her since Neecy is living a completely different life than Denise? Are clones just clones or are they individuals themselves, regardless of their copied DNA? These are questions to think about. In the end, Denise is distraught that her husband left her and is falling apart because of the fact she couldn't give Neecy the idyllic childhood she imagined. Because of this, Denise wants the protagonist to take her, and she ultimately does. What would it be like to not only see your childhood friend exactly as they were when they were young, but also now raise them? I wonder. It would be weird, for sure, and especially to face the fact that they aren’t exactly who your friend was. When Professor Due ws discussing this in class, she mentioned that she decided to center the protagonist because she wanted the lens of a loved one seeing another loved one go through such a situation. I think this decision was great because it really drives in the emotional aspect and makes you put yourself in those shoes. Would you be able to care for the clone of a dear and beloved friend? I don’t know if I would. “Like Daughter” was an enjoyable read and I’m glad for it.

On “Greedy Choke Puppy”

“Greedy Choke Puppy” by Nalo Hopkinson was really interesting to read and I very much enjoyed it! Right off the bat, the creole language in the dialogue jumped out at me. It was new and different for me, but not in a bad way. I liked that it pushed me to start reading it in a kind of accent as it was a smoother reading experience that way. Not only did it expose me to the creole language, but it taught me Caribbean mythology. As this story centers around the soucouyant, a Caribbean counterpart of the vampire. The audience learns that the soucouyant usually takes the form of an old woman and once their skin is taken off and in the form of a fireball, they take to the skies in search of babies so they can feast on their life force. At this point, the author has introduced the protagonist, Jacky, and her grandma, who saw a Lagahoo in their backyard pigeon peas patch. This Lagahoo is a donkey with gold teeth who also has, funnily enough, a waistcoat, pocket watch, and tennis shoes. The grandmother does not easily dismiss this sight, warning Jacky to be safe when she goes out as the last time that she saw a Lagahoo was right before her daughter, Jacky’s mother, died in a car accident. The portent of the Lagahoo turns out to be true indeed. Jacky’s friend, Carmen, has just had her baby boy. In the story, we see the soucouyant’s narrative as they suck the life out of the baby. This portion was very interesting as it is in the soucouyant’s point of view and we see as they hunger for, and then devour, the baby’s life force. When the soucouyant returns to their home to put their skin back on, however, the soucouyant is burned—the grandma had rubbed it with hot pepper, an old tactic used to find out the soucouyant. The readers learn that the soucouyant is Jacky herself. This, of course, came as a huge surprise because the description of the soucouyant, that is, as usually taking the form of an old woman, led me to believe that it was likely to be the grandmother. It was a shocking, but pleasant surprise nonetheless. Looking back on it now, there were possible hints that it was Jacky. For example, Jacky dearly longed for a child of her own, or so it seemed. In her relationship with Terry, they only dated him for approximately two weeks before they broke up because he was not ready to settle down. This could be the soucouyant’s hunger for a child revealing itself. Once the grandma exposes Jacky as the soucouyant, she holds her skin hostage, threatening it with a knife and pleads with Jacky to stop killing, to not be so greedy as her mother was. With her pleas going nowhere, the grandma tears her skin apart and throws it in the backyard, sentencing Jacky to death as sunlight is fatal to such creatures. This was particularly heartbreaking. The relationship between Jacky and the grandma throughout the story is beautiful and it is painful when the grandma kills Jacky. Not only that, but she had also killed Jacky’s mother. I couldn’t even imagine how hard that would be, to kill your own family because they are dangerous. Nalo Hopkinson’s “Greedy Choke Puppy” is an amazing short story, one that will leave you both surprised and heartbroken.

On “Herd Immunity”

“Herd Immunity” by Tananarive Due was an intriguing read. In this world, a virus has spread around the world. Unfortunately, unable to produce a vaccine and establish herd immunity, the virus was free to spread around. It becomes clear that spread it did indeed, decimating the majority of the population, so much so that when the protagonist sees another living human being, she is compelled to follow him. She believes, or rather assumes, he is naturally immune, like her, and hopes to befriend him and settle with him in a community. The first thing that this story brought to mind is the COVID-19 pandemic that we are still living through today. It’s scary to think that if COVID-19 was far more deadly, or if another lethal virus showed up, and if we were unable to produce a viable vaccine, our world could possibly look somewhat like it does here: a crumbled and desolate society. To live in such a post-apocalyptic world is to not only be faced with surviving on one’s own, but it also means dealing with the all too painful memories of the past, of how it used to be. When the protagonist looks at her bone-thin body, she is reminded of her grandma and how she used to remind her to eat. This instance is particularly hard-hitting because as she deals with having to provide food for herself, she is also remembering her loved ones and I can’t even imagine how difficult that must be. Another thing that jumped out at me was the violence that permeated everyday life. When she considers the fact that the guitar player might claim the treasure he’d found all for himself, the protagonist knows that her .38 would go a long way in convincing them to share it with her. The fact that she so easily can turn to threats in order to get what she wants is very indicative of the violent world that she is forced to live in and adapt to. One aspect that makes this all the more heartbreaking is that the protagonist does not want to hurt anyone. In fact, she wants someone to be there with her, to keep her company and survive together. Despite yearning for love and warmth, the world does not allow for it. She certainly tries, however. When the man is asleep, she kisses him. Unfortunately, he is not naturally immune and she passed the virus to him, sentencing him to death. When she did that, I was absolutely shocked. Why would she do that? Why compromise the man that could have been her companion, albeit with some distance? Of course, she did not know, but the risk was there nonetheless. That’s the part that I was left a little muddled by, but it just goes to show what a person will do when they have been bereft of companionship, when the world has fallen apart.

On “Sorry to Bother You” (2018)

“Sorry to Bother You” (2018) is an excellent film that touches upon important and critical themes that are very much relevant today. We follow Cassius Green as his career as a telemarketer takes off, but throughout this, he has to grapple with his girlfriend, Detroit, and his friends who are protesting against the telemarketing company’s corporate oppression. One of the themes that is made clear throughout the film is code switching. When Cassius starts off as a telemarketer, he is not very good at his job and several people hang up on him immediately. However, when Cassius adopts a “white voice,” he is immediately much more effective at his job and is able to sell many products to customers. This depiction of code switching is very important because it highlights that people of color, in order to be able to succeed, must adopt the language and mannerisms of white people. Cassius’ career indeed took off when he began using his “white voice” and the speed with which it did so was astonishing, for both the viewer and for Cassius himself. He is offered a spot in the top floors of the building where the eminent telemarketers reside and Cassius jumps at the opportunity to make big bank. First, however, Cassius crosses the picket line. The theme of assimilation and complicity is ever so clear here: crossing the picket line not only means that he is not standing with Detroit and their friends who organized the protest in the first place, but also means that Cassis is willing to betray his principles in order to gain money and status. As someone who had been living in his uncle’s garage, and who felt he had to do better for Detroit, Cassius of course accepted the promotion. The scene itself where Cassius crosses the picket line is rendered funny when he is hit in the head with a can and he subsequently becomes a meme, but it actually has very sad implications. Cassius' situation reflects the reality that people of color are forced to assimilate into larger society in order to be successful and, in doing so, become complicit in the injustices being wrought. Of course, it’s not always really a fair choice when it comes between putting food on your table and a roof over your head or protesting for what is right—especially when doing the latter doesn’t help keep you well fed and sheltered. These themes of code switching and assimilation and complicity are very salient throughout the film, but this only scratches the surface of the depth to Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You.”

My Earthseed Community

One of the real-life issues that make it necessary to build my Earthseed community is climate change since our environment is increasingly being damaged, resulting in extreme weather conditions as well as devastating environmental crises, such as the rampant fires and drought in California.. The other issue my community is seeking shelter from is the highly uneven and unequal globalized world system where the US/West holds immense power and, through neoliberalism, exerts control and influence over “the rest”/other countries. The first verse that is foundational to my Earthseed community is “Earthseed / Cast on new ground / Must first perceive / That it knows nothing.” This verse is very important for my community because to learn all the skills we need to survive as an entire cohesive unit, people must be able to acknowledge that they do not know everything and are able to learn from anything and anyone, no matter the source of such teachings. The second verse to be applied to my community is “We are Earthseed / The life that perceives itself / Changing.” This verse is also critical because the fundamental goal of my community is to create a safe haven from the issues of climate change and an unequal global system and in order to be able to build such an environment, people must be open to changes not only in the community if, say, something is not working, but also open to changes in one’s self so as to learn how to live a new and ultimately better life. My Earthseed community will not be permanently created or built anywhere as we will be a mobile people who travel around the globe. This will make our community safe as the places where we settle will be temporary homes and will allow us to not be located and targeted by any state or nation. We will, however, have a ship that enables us to move around the world, but more on that later. Those who can join my Earthseed community are people who have valuable knowledge and skills, such as being a doctor, lawyer, dentist, botanist, farmer, architect and the like. People of all ages can join so there is a mix of young, middle-aged, and old people.. People of all ethnicities are also welcome so it is a culturally heterogeneous community. People who are not allowed to join are those who either represent or embody the forces that created the issues we face such as climate change deniers, oil company executives, people in high positions of power, and the like. The leadership model for my community is kindness, intelligence, cooperation, determination, and a willingness to learn and change always. Each member should embrace these qualities and living in the community itself should indeed engender them. A future technology that will not only improve, but be at the forefront of my Earthseed community, is a self-sustaining ship. This ship will help my community move to new places whenever we so choose, whether by choice or so as to avoid detection and/or climate disasters. My community will survive by temporarily settling in various places and living off the land, sustainably of course. We will, for example, forage, cultivate plants, and raise cattle in areas where we settle for longer periods of time. My community will help to build a better future by first living in a sustainable manner, such as growing our own food, in order to not devastate the environment. Secondly, we will educate others on our terrible history in order to avoid repeating it.

On Delany’s “Aye, and Gomorrah”

As a fairly new science fiction lover, Samuel R Delany’s “Aye, and Gomorrah” was an interesting and enjoyable reading experience. While I have read a few tales of space travelers before, it was nothing like Delany’s story. Immediately thrown into Delany’s constructed world, we follow a spacer, who, as their name implies, works in space, whether it be building water conservation units on Mars or servicing communication relay towers on the Moon. These spacers, the readers learn, were altered: selected at a young age for their sexual unresponsiveness, these people were permanently neutered. I found this aspect particularly intriguing: to work in space, one must be neutered. The story itself presents a reasoning for this entire operation: the levels of radiation simply would not allow for any kinds of sexual activity in other worlds anywyas and, aside from that, the protagonist themself states that they were looking for any reason whatsoever to reduce the number of children, especially the “deformed” ones. The idea that a state would target a population who deviates from the norm for such an alteration in order to perform this space work comes as no surprise. Why wouldn’t a government first sacrifice those who they do not view as valuable? History itself has seen this play out. As a  result of the alteration of their bodies, spacers have no gender. Essentially, they are Othered. The protagonists’ gender, for example, is ambiguous and left so, perceived as having the look of a female in one instance and of a male in another. Either way, as the spacer themself says, their gender before the alteration does not matter. The fact that Delany renders these spacers genderless and centers these Black queer characters in his work is important, especially considering this story was first published in the late 1960s. Not only are the spacers genderless, but they are consigned to a life with no love, to a life of loneliness, always on the move. This is demonstrated throughout the short story as a group of spacers travel to various places in a short time-span and, unable to have love in the way that people usually think of love, the spacers can only turn to frelks. Frelks are people with a free-fall-sexual displacement complex, that is, they are those who desire spacers for the fact that they are spacers. As described by a frelk, they desire, and even worship, spacers because spacers can’t want them. If someone actually wanted them, they would be repulsed. I found this aspect very interesting because these characters are afraid of love and are unable to accept that someone could desire them. What does it mean, however, for the spacers that the only ones who could want them are those that are afraid of love? What Delany’s intention was with these characters and dynamic, I do not know, but I find it fascinating. The world and characters that Delany built are very intriguing, unlike anything I have read before, and I highly recommend it.