[The Typing Baker] As a Writer, Activist, and SF Author on Discrimination Against Women and People of Color

by Kim Chulhyun

Published 31 Jul.2020 14:46(KST)

How Long Will It Take to Reach the Black Future's Moon?

Humanity faces two choices: living on a planet polluted by environmental disasters or escaping into space; life forms emerging in cyberspace as human society expands; a colonial planet where only a Muslim female researcher survives during space exploration; trade negotiations with alien life forms in the 23rd century... The world depicted in N. K. Jemisin's How Long 'til Black Future Month? is far from purely bright. While it sometimes envisions a perfect utopia, there are also apocalyptic scenarios where only humans vanish. The author imagines the future with creativity, but this future does not remain solely in his mind. It is a future shaped by the reality he lives in. This is why he describes the book as "a chronicle of my growth as a writer and activist."

Jemisin is widely known for winning the Hugo Award for Best Novel three years in a row with the Broken Earth trilogy. Since the Hugo Award was established in 1953, this was the first time anyone achieved three consecutive wins. His first short story collection, How Long 'til Black Future Month?, contains 22 works. The common thread throughout is a diverse cast of characters and a consciousness of resistance against old orders and frameworks. The author took the book’s title from an essay of the same name, which discusses how difficult it has been to love SF and fantasy as a Black woman. In the introduction, he confesses that even within the industry dealing with SF and fantasy, he had to fiercely fight against internalized racism. He also admits that he was afraid because no one believed in the future, but eventually began writing the future he wanted to see.

The first story, "The Ones Who Stay and Fight," features the city of Um-Hellat, inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." The name phonetically evokes Omelas and also brings to mind African city names. It is a city full of happiness and prosperity, technologically far more advanced. The author discusses the scapegoat that sustains this city and presents a challenging but never easy choice in the conclusion. The same applies to "Walking Awake," inspired by Robert Heinlein’s short story "The Puppet Masters," which deals with body-snatchers controlling human bodies.

The author also approaches the potentially bleak theme of "the end" in a familiar and approachable way. "At Rex Ganga" features gods and spirits wandering aimlessly or queuing at Starbucks after humanity suddenly disappears from Earth, with no believers left to trust them. "Zero Probability" depicts the daily life of an ordinary citizen adapting to New York, where disasters like subway accidents frequently occur, but serious illnesses are easily cured, reversing the probabilities of events. The characters in "Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows" crave connection with others in a reality where everything except online records resets daily.

Amid this diverse feast of thought experiments, the author never lets go of the reality that women and people of color are marginalized, a reality that will be no different in the future. He revealed that he consistently included Black characters in his stories because he could not exclude himself. Especially in "The Witch of Red Soil," set in 1960s Alabama during the civil rights movement, which depicts a woman’s struggle to protect her daughter from an evil fairy; "The Effluent Engine," which tells a romance between a female spy from Haiti?the first Black republic freed from slavery through revolution?and a mixed-race American woman; and "Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Spirits of the Quiet City," set in hurricane-stricken New Orleans, portraying characters fighting hatred embodied as "monsters," the raw face of racism we confront is vividly revealed. This reflects the author’s appeal that the future is shaped by our actions today. Even after closing the book, the author’s words, "So look. There’s the future. Let’s all go," leave a powerful resonance.