• Deceptichum@quokk.au
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    2 months ago

    So looking up the Blake story it’s not really sci-fi at all?

    At best it’s maybe alt-history, except if I wrote a story about the next few months that doesn’t mean I’m telling an alternative history.

    Edit: Lola Leroy is set during American civil war, so I guess it’s historical when looking back a few decades?

    And Imperum in Imperio is set in the period it’s written.

    Feels like calling any of those titles Science Fiction is a lot of a stretch. Might as well say the DaVinci Code is SciFi at that point.

    • Drusas@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      You might be right about these not being sci-fi, but sci-fi can take place in the period in which it was written. Alternative history plus sci-fi can definitely be a thing. Or writing sci-fi that’s supposed to take place in just a few years.

      • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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        2 months ago

        And I addressed that. I wouldn’t even feel comfortable calling said title alt-history.

        Do you think a title like the DaVinci Code is sci-fi because it altered history?

        These sound like fictional drama/thriller books in a period piece setting to me.

            • Drusas@fedia.io
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              2 months ago

              In this case, yes. It’s not a serious question. It’s poking at me. Of course I don’t find the DaVinci Code to be sci-fi. The question makes no sense and comes across as aggressive.

              • Deceptichum@quokk.au
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                2 months ago

                The question is because the DaVinci code fits that authors reasoning for why Blake should be Sci-Fi, in that it explores an alternative history.

                It’s a rhetorical question, but that does not belie the seriousness of it.

                • Drusas@fedia.io
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                  2 months ago

                  It explores alternate history but doesn’t contain any sci-fi elements. At least not that I recall. So that made the question seem very unserious to me. Especially since I had already agreed with you that it wasn’t sci-fi.

    • XTL@sopuli.xyz
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      2 months ago

      Speculative fiction is generally a better term to avoid quibbling over details. The speculative step is the important defining thing in any case.

    • TSG_Asmodeus (he, him)@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      So looking up the Blake story it’s not really sci-fi at all?

      You should edit the wikipedia entry then, because it disagrees with you.

      "Samuel R. Delany described it as "about as close to an SF-style alternate history novel as you can get.

      Further, while it incorporates elements of the fugitive slave narrative, Blake’s narrator is also a scientist, whose focus on data collection and research stand in repudiation of the racial science of the day.[10] In fact, this reflects one of Delany’s major themes: that Africa and its contributions to science and math were foundational to the Western world.[12]"

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Considering we’re talking about the era of the belief in Drapetomania, I’d say a slave revolt followed by an attempt by black people to take over Cuba would be considered sci-fi by a lot of readers.

        Edit: Also, sci-fi wasn’t really a thing in 1862.

        • TSG_Asmodeus (he, him)@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          No sci-fi wasn’t an official thing, yet the title of this is ‘were developing the Afro-Futurism/Black Sci-Fi genre…’

          I’d say a fictional story about slaves successfully rebelling and taking over a country, narrated by a scientist, who does science things, counts.

          It is ridiculous how much hair-splitting is done when it’s Black culture, and I’m quite embarrassed by the attempt to claim entire wikipedia sections are ‘wrong’ like this.

          (Not saying you’re saying that, I understand we’re on the same page.)

  • Phoenix3875@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Black Panther the movie actually borrowed some art elements from Afrofuturism. Although it’s not very pronounced.

  • seaplant@slrpnk.net
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    2 months ago

    If you’re into sci-fi and Afro-futurism I really enjoyed Sweep of Stars by Maurice Broaddus (written a couple years ago; cool to see what a long history it’s building on)

  • TSG_Asmodeus (he, him)@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I feel like a certain poster here is conveniently and transparently overlooking the word “DEVELOPING” in the title.

    I notice the wikipedia article is still un-edited, too. Put your money where your mouth is if you’re so confident.