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http://www.afronerd.com/2020/09/star-date-090620airing-in-sector-001.html
Let’s get into it, AFROnerdists! It’s time for a new installment of Afronerd Radio’s Grindhouse broadcast-airing this Sunday at 6pm EST. Join your favorite internet radio hosts as they unravel the following mysteries: the highly anticipated film, Mulan made its way to the Disney plus streaming platform and we give our impressions (quick takes: the great Jason Scott Lee should be getting more gigs and this should have been seen in theaters!); iconic sci-fi author, the late Octavia Butler finally “gets her roses” by finally making it on the New York Times Best Sellers List; our impressions of the first 3 episodes of season two of Amazon’s The Boys:
Cyborg actor, Ray Fisher sets the record straight as WB investigators begin their probe into the Justice League actor’s previous allegations that director Joss Whedon ran a hostile, toxic set during filming; an African history professor, Dr. Jessica Krug might be the new Rachel Dolezal per her disclosure in a recent Medium piece that she has been passing as a black person for many years-Dburt weighs in; “Vought” as a fictional corporation seems to be eerily similar to the real life Trump acolyte, Russell Vought of the WH Office of Management and Budget who announced that his office will be canceling racial sensitivity training among federal agencies;
The days of taxpayer funded indoctrination trainings that sow division and racism are over. Under the direction of @POTUS we are directing agencies to halt critical race theory trainings immediately.https://t.co/dyMeJka9rt
— Russ Vought (@RussVought45) September 4, 2020
Did we speak about screenwriter, John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) writing a black Batman arc or his new comic, The Other History of the DC Universe highlighting the perspective of DC heroes from marginalized groups? And lastly, is Tenet still destined for success during a pandemic with its 100 million dollar box office? Call in LIVE at 508-645-0100.
“I should live in a cave. I should live in a cave and have no friends. No family. I should care about no one. Just live in a cave and go out at night to break bones and teeth….but then…..I’d probably be even more crazy than I already am..“-Matthew Murdock (Daredevil)
AFTER CLICKING ON THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK, GO DIRECTLY TO AFRONERD RADIO!!!
or This link below…..
function openPlayer(s){window.open(“https://radio.securenetsystems.net/v5/”+escape(s),”Player”,”height=630,width=940,modal=yes,alwaysRaised=yes”)}
Let's get into it, AFROnerdists! It's time for a new installment of Afronerd Radio's Grindhouse broadcast-airing this Sunday at 6pm EST. Join your favorite internet radio hosts as they unravel the following mysteries: the highly anticipated film, Mulan made its way to the Disney plus streaming platform and we give our impressions (quick takes: the great Jason Scott Lee should be getting more gigs and this should have been seen in theaters!); iconic sci-fi author, the late Octavia Butler finally "gets her roses" by finally making it on the New York Times Best Sellers List; our impressions of the first 3 episodes of season two of Amazon's The Boys:
Cyborg actor, Ray Fisher sets the record straight as WB investigators begin their probe into the Justice League actor's previous allegations that director Joss Whedon ran a hostile, toxic set during filming; an African history professor, Dr. Jessica Krug might be the new Rachel Dolezal per her disclosure in a recent Medium piece that she has been passing as a black person for many years-Dburt weighs in; "Vought" as a fictional corporation seems to be eerily similar to the real life Trump acolyte, Russell Vought of the WH Office of Management and Budget who announced that his office will be canceling racial sensitivity training among federal agencies;
The days of taxpayer funded indoctrination trainings that sow division and racism are over. Under the direction of @POTUS we are directing agencies to halt critical race theory trainings immediately.https://t.co/dyMeJka9rt
— Russ Vought (@RussVought45) September 4, 2020
Did we speak about screenwriter, John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) writing a black Batman arc or his new comic, The Other History of the DC Universe highlighting the perspective of DC heroes from marginalized groups? And lastly, is Tenet still destined for success during a pandemic with its 100 million dollar box office? Call in LIVE at 508-645-0100.
"I should live in a cave. I should live in a cave and have no friends. No family. I should care about no one. Just live in a cave and go out at night to break bones and teeth....but then.....I'd probably be even more crazy than I already am.."-Matthew Murdock (Daredevil)
AFTER CLICKING ON THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK, GO DIRECTLY TO AFRONERD RADIO!!!
or This link below.....
function openPlayer(s){window.open("https://radio.securenetsystems.net/v5/"+escape(s),"Player","height=630,width=940,modal=yes,alwaysRaised=yes")}
Sigh. Here come the stories that Wonder Woman 1984 is going to be delayed yet again, because Tenet didn’t exactly do well in the American market (just about $20.2 million in the U.S.). Right now, the world of movies is very uncertain, which … yeah, everything is, and instead of just waiting until things are safe for theatrical releases, studios are trying to push movies out and it … clearly isn’t working.
Tenet, which would have made well more than $20 million if this were a normal year (despite bad reviews), wasn’t as successful in the European market as they’d hoped, and without the benefit of also doing a VOD release, the movie was completely reliant on its theatrical box office haul.
And now, with Wonder Woman 1984, they’re looking at pushing it from an October release date into maybe even December—which would then push Dune, which just released a first trailer, into 2021, and … you get the problem here right? We just keep going in a circle with these movie release dates.
And look, I don’t want movies to be released on VOD. I want to see Black Widow and Wonder Woman 1984 in theaters, but right now, it feels like we’re either in an outrage about movie theaters being open or we’re talking about a movie release getting pushed. Those are the two moods. That’s it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: EVERYTHING SHOULD WAIT. We’re so set on trying to return to normal that we’re all being put in danger and delaying that very return by making things worse.
Look, I want nothing more than to go see Tenet and not be afraid. I’d love to be getting ready for Wonder Woman 1984 and not be worried that I could end up getting sick, or get someone else sick, because I want to go to the theater to see it. It’s rough out there right now, and the little joy we do have, in my opinion, is knowing that if we stop and do what we’re supposed to, we can go back to the movies one day and get to see our faves onscreen again.
So yes, Wonder Woman 1984 is probably going to get pushed again, and honestly, it should. I don’t want cases to be connected with people rushing to see Diana Prince. I don’t want that to be her legacy. The world needs to be smart and safe, and if that means waiting until there’s some kind of normalcy again, then fine.
The reality is that the United States is kind of ruining it for everyone because movie studios aren’t going to keep losing money, and so it means the rest of the world, who kind of has their shit together, is also going to have to wait. So … hopefully the U.S. starts to take it seriously (highly doubtful when our president is tweeting ridiculous things about letting kids go back to school when teachers are dying), but until then, we don’t deserve to go to the movies.
(image: Warner Bros.)
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Last week, Octavia Butler reached the New York Times Best Seller list for her novel Parable of the Sower—an incredible achievement, made even more remarkable by the fact that this is Butler’s first time on the list.
Like, ever.
That’s shocking because, in many ways, Octavia Butler almost doesn’t even need an introduction. Her work has powerfully influenced and shaped SFF in groundbreaking ways, and many consider her the “mother” of AfroFuturism. In addition to that, she’s won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards and is the inaugural recipient of the MacArthur “Genius Grant.” Heck, an asteroid and a mountain on Charon (one of Pluto’s moons) are even named after her.
So why is it only now, nearly 15 years after her death, that she is finally being given her commercial accolades?
The issue, I believe, lies in the larger disparity present in traditional publishing and the science-fiction/fantasy genres. Science-fiction has historically been a very homogeneous landscape dominated by white, cis male voices, and traditional publishing has, in the past, grappled with criticism over its accessibility to readers and writers of marginalized identities. Putting these two shortcomings together makes it quite easy to understand the obstacles that Butler faced during her tenure as a Black writer.
(Image: Warner Books)
To begin with, the stories that were often published focused on a very narrow scope of experience that excluded the opportunity for other perspectives/identities to be taken into account. In her essay “Lost Races Of Science Fiction,” Butler herself speaks on the subtle racism that was perpetuated by both her teachers and colleagues when it came to writing stories that featured characters that were anything other than white: “The presence of blacks, my teacher felt, changed the focus of a story, drew attention from the intended subject.” (Lost Races of Science Fiction, 1980).
In addition to that, the publishing industry itself often fell short in its efforts to change the landscape into something more inclusive and welcoming to marginalized writers; Butler had the covers of her books whitewashed on more than one occasion and constantly grappled with questions of how marketable her books could be, simply because she was a Black woman. While white male authors like Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, and Arthur Clarke were household names, Butler still retained a level of obscurity that wouldn’t fully dissipate until her untimely death in 2006.
I personally didn’t come across Butler until I was a sophomore in college, but the moment I got a hand on her stories, I drank them up with a thirst I hadn’t even realized was there, marveling at the sheer genius embedded in every single word of her work. Why haven’t I heard of her before? I remember thinking.
Well, that speaks to the entire elephant in the room, doesn’t it?
The problem certainly isn’t Octavia Butler’s writing; truly, she is one of the most phenomenal and talented authors I’ve had the pleasure to read, but the environment she navigated wasn’t fair to her or the work she put out. It often boxed her in as a niche within a niche or overshadowed her completely.
It treated her, in many ways, as a novelty and an exception, rather than an equal. With all the barriers she already had to face as a Black woman from a working-class family, the inaccessibility of science-fiction and the publishing industry most likely made it nearly impossible, at times, to truly experience the accolades her work deserved, simply because the playing ground hadn’t created room for it.
(image: Abrams Books)
We still see echoes of these issues playing out today: Nnedi Okorafor has spoken out about her own book covers being whitewashed, while N.K Jemisin had to battle racist pushback in the SFF Awards community after winning 3 consecutive Hugo awards for her Broken Earth trilogy. Then, there was the whole debacle of this year’s Hugos and the disrespect that was leveled at the Black literary magazine FIYAH and authors of color.
Just as recently as last week, there was discourse in the book community after a white blogger called The Poppy War boring, opening up the conversation on how easily stories penned by PoC authors are dismissed simply because certain audiences can’t “connect with the voice”.
So why, with all of Octavia Butler’s critical acclaim and far-reaching merit, has she not experienced the same commercial success as her white counterparts? Some might argue that Butler’s appearance on the NYT Best Seller list coincides with the unsettling timeliness of Parable of the Sower‘s themes with the current chaos that is 2020. Others might point to the rush of interest in Black works following the Black Lives Matter protests in June.
But I might argue that it shouldn’t take collective mayhem and Black pain in order to make Black stories successful. It shouldn’t be that Black writers—and writers of color in general—are only afforded proper respect and accessibility when something devastating occurs.
There needs to be an active willingness to shift the climate into one that is open and welcoming to true diversity and inclusion. There are still many layers of racism, discrimination, and plain ignorance to reckon with in order to make that happen, but if there’s anything to take away from this, it’s that Octavia Butler’s foray into the NYT Best Sellers sparks an important question: What would it look like if she’d been there earlier?
And what could it look like now, if we asked the same question about the other authors of color who remain unspoken?
Let’s do our best to create a literary future that reflects that answer.
(featured image: Abrams Books)
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—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—