The Writer as his own Space Station

The DS9 episode we saw last week was the first Star Trek episode that I have seen in its entirety. I was very interested in the relationship between the writer’s reality and the conception of his story throughout the episode. One particular scene of interest was when the writer looked out the window to see 1) his reflection, 2) the captain of the space station in his story. This scene showed premise to the rest of the episode, as we see more instances where he experiences “hallucinations” as the Captain of the space station in his story & dream, and he often cannot discern how or find what it means.

This collapse in spaces is important because it blurs the dichotomy between “what is right” and “what is.” These two phrases have been the reasons why his story had not been published, but with the writer’s hallucinations, we as viewers see that these two binaries converge into the writer’s body. Is there really a difference? What constitutes the line between the binaries?

To speculate on this question, I will cite the scene when he discovers that he has been released from his job. During this poignant scene, the writer collapses as he utters the words, “it exists in my mind. I created it. The future. It’s real. I created it.” He consistently points to his temples as he says these phrases to signify the connection—while it exists in his mind as a conceptualization, by speaking these words, he gives the authority to its existence as a statement. The movement from conceptualization to realization signifies this collapse in spaces because these phrases move from his mind (private space) to an audience (public space).

I think that this episode reiterates and reinforces Kodwo Eshun’s concept of “Afrofuturism” because of the convergence of spaces in one body (the writer is the writer and his subject). The collapse of temporal spaces echoes the need to (re)write stories of the Middle Passage (e.g. Mayer) from the African (American) perspective because much of the voyages were undocumented and unknown. By writing a Future before it even happens, by being adamant of its existence despite obstacles, the Dreamer manifests the Dream as his will to self-determination. “It’s real. I created it” boldly asserts his power to write his own story, and not live through what somebody else wrote for him.

attack of the massa's clones

For this blog post, I want to delve into three specific concepts in Shawl’s short story in order to relate my interpretation of its colonial/post-colonial narrative: uploads & downloads, clones, and "neuropathy."

First, Shawl’s “uploads” and “downloads” indicate the presence of a hierarchal dichotomy, where Point A serves as the source of information to be downloaded, and Point B as the subscriber of this.

The Psyche Moth was a prison ship. Like those on board, Wayna was an upload of a criminal’s mind. The process of uploading her had destroyed her physical body (12).

Within this passage, Shawl mentions the criminalization of Wayna’s “upload” to suggest its inferior and disruptive nature. Shawl uses this description to reiterate the subjugation of colonized people. Through subjugation, everything about their people, culture, language, and lifestyles are deemed as something that is out of the “law” (Order of things, or the way things are). This passage tries to justify that the reason for colonization is to “un-criminalize” and to prevent the spread of criminal tendencies from a people. Shawl also tries to comment on one way of “un-criminalize” people: one is by using a physical model/appearance of an “orderly” person--if a colonizee is a criminal, then the oppressor must be “orderly.” Shawl seems to critique this concept of making physical replicates of the oppressor with a colonized mind: “their bodies came from, were copies of, the people against whom they’ve rebelled. The rich. The politically powerful” (17). With this, Shawl describes a common strand in post-colonial histories/stories where the colonizee empowers him/herself by rebelling against his/her subjugation through a revolution. I also think that this remarks on the benevolent aspect of colonization where the oppressor fashions his subject into becoming someone and everything like him. It reinforces the idea of a unilateral relationship through “downloading [order, success, progress]” that transfers the flow of power. Wayna is a clone if her master, that becomes ruined by having an “upload” with a colonizee’s nature.

Why is this destructive?

Shawl tries to move away from this notion of completely removing oneself from his/her colonizer as the only way to amend “criminals.” Will isolation from the master’s culture ultimately cure Wayna’s “neuropathy?” (12) Wayna’s dependence on Dr. Ops to find an alternate body signifies the complex relationship between a colonized person and his/her oppressor. “But Wayna’s body was hers. No one else owned it, no matter how different it looked from the one she had been born with. How white” (17). This line speaks of two different layers: 1) that a sense of ownership and awareness of Wayna’s situation allows her to discover what is wrong with her body, and what is necessary; 2) that being “white” gives her this privilege of having the access to these alternatives. Shawl subverts from one mode of interpretation, to suggest that the relationship between a colonized and the oppressor:

In my hands, massa’s tools don’t dismantle massa’s house -- and in fact, I don’t want to destroy it so much as I want to undertake massive renovations -- they build me a house of my own. (Hopkinson 8)

Shawl comments on how a colonizee does benefit from the tools that his/her oppressor brings, even at the expense of the people. It’s not enough to just advocate for complete separation and isolation from the “massa” because this simplifies the relationship into something that is easily achieved. This is why I think that Shawl is writing from a very displaced perspective, such as Fanon’s “third space,” in order to explicate this underlying problem that is rarely addressed.

the problem with veils.

Edit: I am going off on a tangent. I saw the prompt after I wrote this, so I will write another response - the following is not my BP4.

This is in response to the comment in class last Thursday about the "hypocrisy" in W.E.B Dubois' "Souls of Black Folk" and "The Conservation of the Races" by affiliating with and writing about one's ethnic identity or race, while arguing for the end of racism.

For the question of affiliation, I will refer to DuBois’ “How does it feel like to be a problem?"

I think it is very difficult not to (& to be) associate with his or her ethnic or racial identity, when there has been an inconsistency in how “Americans” treated people who are not white. In my observations of American History, first race and ethnicity was a way of dehumanizing a person, then two, ignorance of these “categories” equated to invisibility – not recognizing a group on the census, for example, suggests that they do not exist. With a history of being treated horribly and indifferently, DuBois addresses these issues by shedding light to them. In doing so, he gives VOICE to the people who have been forcefully silenced through violence, maltreatment, and “shut out from their world by a vast veil” (DuBois). By writing about issues and associating himself as an “African American” (loosely; by referring to his Negro identity, and American identity) man, he brings up questions of:

Can we ignore these categories and expect racism to disappear? Is it possible not to categorize people based on their race or ethnicities? Can a person be American even if he or she is NOT white?

As a colored man, DuBois uses the “veil” as a dichotomous material that blinds and hides a person from revealing (and revealed to) his or her identity:

[The] Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world--a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world.

By associating himself with an “African American” identity, he uses a concept that was used to “dehumanize” people as an empowering tool to uplift himself as an individual. He appropriates a word--formerly used to dehumanize people by blood--to remove the “veil” that blinds a people from seeing their greatness, free them from hiding, and to strengthen them. It is important to recognize that he is a product of the Reconstruction era, the U.S. was fresh off the Civil War, which tore the country apart because of many reasons, the disagreement on slavery was one of these.

Has time really changed in the present? Have we moved on from the issues DuBois (“Souls of Black Folk” – 1903) wrote about a century ago? Is it possible to say that associating/writing about one’s ethnic or racial identity has become pointless? What about the “South Korean” who gunned down students in VT? Even now in the news, race and ethnicity is still being used to associate the Other. Why is that?

Thieves in the Night by Talib Kweli & Mos Def

"Give me the fortune, keep the fame," said my man Louis
I agreed, know what he mean because we live the truest lie
I asked him why we follow the law of the bluest eye
He looked at me, he thought about it
Was like, "I'm clueless, why?"
The question was rhetorical, the answer is horrible
Our morals are out of place and got our lives full of sorrow
And so tomorrow comin later than usual
Waitin' on someone to pity us
While we findin beauty in the hideous
They say money's the root of all evil but I can't tell
YouknowhatImean, pesos, francs, yens, cowrie shells, dollar bills
Or is it the mindstate that's ill?
Creating crime rates to fill the new prisons they build
Over money and religion there's more blood to spill
The wounds of slaves in cotton fields that never heal
What's the deal?
A lot of cats who buy records are straight broke
But my language universal they be recitin my quotes
While R&B singers hit bad notes, we rock the boat
of thought, that my man Louis' statements just provoked
Caught up, in conversations of our personal worth
Brought up, through endangered species status on the planet Earth
Survival tactics means, bustin gats to prove you hard
Your firearms are too short to box with God
Without faith, all of that is illusionary
Raise my son, no vindication of manhood necessary

[M.D.] Not strong
[T.K.] Only aggressive
[M.D.] Not free
[T.K.] We only licensed
[M.D.] Not compassioniate, only polite
[T.K.] Now who the nicest?
[M.D.] Not good but well behaved
[T.K.] Chasin after death
so we can call ourselves brave?
[M.D.] Still livin like mental slaves
[both] Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
[both] Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice

[Mos Def]
Yo, I'm sure that everbody out listenin agree
That everything you see ain't really how it be
A lot of jokers out runnin in place, chasin the style
Be a lot goin on beneath the empty smile
Most cats in my area be lovin the hysteria
Synthesized surface conceals the interior
America, land of opportunity, mirages and camoflauges
More than usually -- speakin loudly, sayin nothin
You confusin me, you losin me
Your game is twisted, want me enlisted -- in your usary
Foolishly, most men join the ranks cluelessly
Buffoonishly accept the deception, believe the perception
Reflection rarely seen across the surface of the lookin glass
Walkin the street, wonderin who they be lookin past
Lookin gassed with them imported designer shades on
Stars shine bright, but the light -- rarely stays on
Same song, just remixed, different arrangement
Put you on a yacht but they won't call it a slaveship
Strangeness, you don't control this, you barely hold this
Screamin brand new, when they just sanitized the old shit
Suppose it's, just another clever Jedi mind trick
That they been runnin across stars through all the time with
I find it's distressin, there's never no in-between
We either niggaz or Kings
We either bitches or Queens
The deadly ritual seems immersed, in the perverse
Full of short attention spans, short tempers, and short skirts
Long barrel automatics released in short bursts
The length of black life is treated with short worth
Get yours first, them other niggaz secondary
That type of illin that be fillin up the cemetary
This life is temporary but the soul is eternal
Separate the real from the lie, let me learn you
Not strong, only aggressive, cause the power ain't directed
That's why, we are subjected to the will of the oppressive
Not free, we only licensed
Not live, we just excitin
Cause the captors.. own the masters.. to what we writin
Not compassionate, only polite, we well trained
Our sincerity's rehearsed in stage, it's just a game
Not good, but well behaved cause the ca-me-ra survey
most of the things that we think, do, or say
We chasin after death just to call ourselves brave
But everyday, next man meet with the grave
I give a damn if any fan recall my legacy
I'm tryin to live life in the sight of God's memory
Like that y'all

[Mos Def]
A lot of people don't understand the true criteria of things
Can't just accept the appearance
Have to get the true essence

[Talib Kweli]
They ain't lookin around

[M.D.] Not strong
[T.K.] Only aggressive
[M.D.] Not free
[T.K.] We only licensed
[M.D.] Not compassioniate, only polite
[T.K.] Now who the nicest?
[M.D.] Not good but well behaved
[T.K.] Chasin after death
so we can call ourselves brave?
[M.D.] Still livin like mental slaves
[both] Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
[both] Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
[both] Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice
[both] Hidin like thieves in the night from life
Illusions of oasis makin you look twice

[Mos Def (singing)]
Stop hidin, stop hidin, stop hidin yo' face
Stop hidin, stop hidin, cause ain't no hidin place

thievery

Thursday’s film reminded me very much of the song, “Thieves of the Night” by Mos Def and Talib Kweli where each artist relates his own story of alienation and how it has forced him to “steal.”

In the context of this song “thievery” is a way to re-claim or redeem a(n) object/self/concept that was once stolen or withheld from any oppressed person. According to this song, cheating the oppressive institution is stealing from it, but also asserting his refusal to be a victim of cultural theft. In the film, George Tate mentions how African Americans have endured theft through “cultural dislocation, estrangement, and alienation” from the Middle Passage and slavery. As a people, they have been forcefully displaced to foreign lands, where their cultural identities have been reduced to less than human. Likewise, I think Tate plays around with our obsession with alien visitors, and our desire to examine the foreign by means of physically dissecting them. Through this process of examination, or subjugation, African Americans have been “robbed” of their efficacy to succeed through their culture. The concept of “African American” has been historically reduced to merely a slave to the dominant culture.

What the song and the film suggest is that by “stealing” from the institution that has “robbed” you of your identity, you take part in the empowerment of your people. By appropriating “theft” as a way to re-claim what was rightfully yours, you have somehow redeemed a sense of self, and sense of claim in your culture.

For artists such as Sun Ra, dressing up in regal attire is a way to reclaim high stature, which is opposed to the status of a slave. Through this practice, Sun Ra tries to instill pride in his African identity, and argues for an African civilization—glorified like the Egyptian civilization—that is not barbaric, “uncivilized” and “savage.” He tries to refute old Christian beliefs that justified for the enslavement of Africans, by suggesting that Africa is a seat for civilization through Egypt.

I found this film, and the song (that I have provided as a recommended ‘read’/’hear’) hold very empowering messages that are universal. They also pose the question of law and order: can a thief be punished for stealing bread, when his/her circumstances have forced him/her to do so?

scratching history

One definition of “modernity” assumes that there is a linear movement to progress. Kodwo Eshun’s essay on “Afrofuturism” and Doug Pray’s documentary Scratch challenge this definition of “modernity” by appropriating “turntablism” as a way to disrupt its dominant, linear narrative of progress and history through vinyl records. Through a “scratch” turntablists--"human-machine interface" (Eshun 6)--disrupt the flow of music by disturbing the way a record is expected to spin, and interrupt how music is heard as it is inscribed onto the vinyl. Through this movement, they also control the linear progression of time by moving the vinyl back and forth to create a disruptive noise. A “scratch” creates a new genre of music and lifestyle that embodies a new element of African American identity that is empowering because it is an: "[assembly] of countermemories that contest the colonial archive, thereby situating the collective trauma of slavery as the founding moment of modernity" (Eshun 1).

While a vinyl record is dependent on “memories” of notes that is inscribed onto its surface, a “scratch” counters this history of notes by interruption, and by prohibiting it from being reiterated. It is important to recognize this disruption because it is done purposely and without hesitation as a chance to enable oneself to participate in other forms of expression and memories. Turntablists “scratch” because it is an empowering action that encourages the idea that a person can control and manipulate concepts, time, and space with their hands. For example, in Scratch, QBert reflects on DJ sessions with Mix Master Mike when they call and respond to each other using a "scratch," beats, and ensembles on turntables.

A scratch

[creates] temporal complications and anachronistic episodes that disturb the linear time of progress, [by] adjusting the temporal logics that condemned black subjects to prehistory (Eshun 7).

By complicating the logic of “prehistoric black subjects,” turntablists reinforce Eshun’s Afrofuturism by creating sounds that are “ahead of their time” (Scratch). They are forging temporal spaces for identities that have been marred and displaced through “imperial racism” (Eshun 1). The logic of “imperial racism” suggests a single strand of narrative from the perspective of the imperialist: that black subjects were uncivilized and thus treated as less-than-human. Turntablism complicates this “imperial” progress as it is written, by admonishing history as a single genre of music. Turntablists "sample" from different genres within different time periods such as jazz, classical, country, rhythm and blues, electronica, etc. This combination of genres refutes the dominant strand of perspective because it presents alternate histories that complicate, reinforce, or reiterate a hierarchy implicated by imperialism. Turntablism risks the destruction of old vinyl records of history by "scratching" them. If vinyl records represent a fabricated time line based on history, then turntablists are also "revisionists" (Eshun 6) that revise and create new visions of a future that is about to be heard.

first post.

This blog is for English 349: Reading Contemporary Afrofuturisms taught by Lysa Rivera on the UW-Seattle campus. It will host to my personal & academic analysis of various texts and films that we view in class.

I have no personal attachment to the genre of science fiction though I've had plenty of exposures to it with films, such as Back to the Future, Star Wars, etc. But I plan to come into it with an open mind as the class pertains to African American science fiction. In any case, I look forward to interesting reads throughout the quarter!