SF - Blog Posts
Africa SF, Paradoxa, avec en couverture une image de l’artiste sud-africain Tito Zungu.
" En 2010, Pumzi (2009) de Wanuri Kahiu, premier film kenyan de science-fiction, remportait le prix du meilleur court métrage au Festival du Film Indépendant de Cannes et District 9 (2009) de Neill Blomkamp, une co-production sud-africaine, était en lisse pour quatre Oscars. En 2011, l’américano-nigériane Nnedi Okorafor était la première auteure d’origine africaine à remporter le World Fantasy Award avec Who Fears Death (2010) et la sud-africaine Lauren Beukes était la première africaine a gagner le prix Arthur C. Clarke Award avec son second roman Zoo City (2010). En 2012, Ivor W. Hartmann publiait Afro SF, la première anthologie de science-fiction écrite par des écrivains africains.
Wanuri Kahiu adapte actuellement au cinéma le roman de Nnedi Okorafor; Neill Blomkamp a été promu au rang de faiseur de blockbusters hollywoodiens avec Elysium (2013); Ivor Hartman a en préparation un prochain volume de nouvelles et Leonardo DiCaprio a acheté les droits d’adaptation télé du nouveau roman de Lauren Beukes, The Shining Girls.
Si la science-fiction africaine n’est pas déjà là, elle arrive à grands pas. "
Ces lignes qui servent d’introduction à l’ouvrage Africa SF, paru en octobre 2013 et dirigé par l’universitaire anglais Mark Bould pour la maison d’édition américaine spécialisée dans la science-fiction, Paradoxa, pourraient à elles seules expliquer le pourquoi de ce livre : une actualité de la science-fiction africaine auréolée de succès médiatiques qui élargit les frontières du genre et justifie que des chercheurs et des universitaires se penchent sérieusement sur le phénomène.
Mark Bould pointe d’emblée la difficulté de l’exercice critique dans l’article qu’il consacre à trois romans emblématiques des périodes coloniales, post-coloniales et néolibérales : Qui se souvient de la mer de Mohammed Dib, La Vie et demie de Sony Labou Tansi et Utopia d’Ahmed Khaled Towfik. En choisissant de les relire à travers le prisme de la science-fiction, l’auteur se demande si il est possible / souhaitable / éthique d’inscrire ces œuvres dans une tradition littéraire occidentale sans procéder tout simplement d’une énième « réappropriation coloniale » : les européens cédant à l’attrait de « l’autre exoticisé » et « les auteurs de la périphérie redéfinissant une production locale à l’aune des gouts de la Métropole »
Pour aborder la SF africaine, il revient donc de se placer dans une perspective historique, d’examiner les rapports avec l’Occident, de penser contre le colonialisme et ses rémanences mais de penser également avec les capacités d’anticipation autochtones avec en toile de fond la globalisation et son modèle économique « star », l’ultra libéralisme.
C’est à partir de ces précautions méthodologiques que la vingtaine (19 précisément) de chercheurs, journalistes, écrivains, artistes a travaillé. Ils offrent de multiples pistes d’interprétations de ce qu’est cette SF africaine, de ses origines jusqu’à ses récents développements ainsi que ses liens diasporiques.
Parmi les nombreux articles tous aussi éclairants les uns que les autres, Malisa Kurtz fait une analyse très pertinente des deux romans cyberpunk de l’écrivaine sud-africaine Lauren Beukes, Moxiland et Zoo City qui fonctionnent comme des grilles d’interprétation de l’Afrique du Sud contemporaine. L’écrivaine se sert de fantômes, de lieux hantés et d'ex criminels « animalés » pour suggérer que dans la société post-apartheid se perpétue sous une forme nouvelle, la dichotomie propre à l’Afrique du Sud : la richesse de quelques uns obtenue par le travail et le maintien dans l’extrême pauvreté de la majorité.
Noah Tsika quant à lui revient sur Kajola (2009) de Omoniyi Akinmolayan qui restera gravé dans l’histoire du cinéma nigérian comme le premier film de science-fiction de Nollywood et la production la plus couteuse à ce jour. Or le film a immédiatement été déprogrammé quelques jours après la projection et est encore invisible à ce jour.
Dans son article l'artiste sud-africaine Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, défend l’usage de la SF comme outil créatif et politique permettant aux africains de réinterpréter la mythologie et les savoirs ancestraux, d’analyser le présent et d’imaginer de futurs possibles.
Il ne s'agit là que de quelques exemples, tous les articles sont passionnants car Africa SF participe à la démonstration que dans un monde multipolaire dont l’Occident n’est plus le centre, la science-fiction apparait comme un formidable potentiel imaginaire pour l’Afrique du XXIe siècle.
Oulimata Gueye
Lire également :
Dismantling the Echo Chamber: On Africa SF de Andrea Hairston parue dans la Los Angeles review of books.
Afrique et science-fiction. Un univers en pleine expansion.
Regarder :
Pumzi, le film : http://youtu.be/IlR7l_B86Fc
L’interview de Wanuri Kahiu dans ce blog
District 9, le trailer : http://youtu.be/7EAO96nYGGE
Lisa McHugh is ready to march! #womensmarch #womensmarchsf #pussypower #sf (at Cole Valley, San Francisco)
La cocina @eltoreadorwestportal with @ms_b_rendan and Lisa McHugh #calilife #sf #homefortheholidays (at El Toreador Restaurant)
Such a fun day yesterday! Great seeing everyone especially my #SF family @slabbitch ! #PhotoToaster
POISON 🦄🦋💝🖤
Call it an off day, hell, an off week.
There's been a handful of new-ish to new tracks I've been wanting to get stoked on enough to post here, but I'm at a loss.
I'm absolutely broke (yet fabulous!) so no outstanding events this weekend to report on. To top it off, the weather sucks. You know, in that way only a Bay Area summer can suck it up, where you wonder, "this is what it must be like living in Seattle year-round."
It's cool, we're still in California folks (well, at least us fortunate ones), so there's that.
Here's an ode to the feeling, to the near rarity, of a warm San Francisco night.
London DJ and producer Gold Panda is killing it. His last LP Lucky Shiner continues to challenge and satisfy it's listeners, while key track "You" could be regarded as a modern electronic classic.
A few months ago he released a remix of Lykke Li's "Sadness Is A Blessing", taking a gorgeous track and making it into something otherworldly. It's on another level.
Catch him play The Independent on October 25.
Brooklyn, NY based noise-poppers Sleigh Bells were remixed earlier this year by maestro and stereo-land favorite Diplo. Here he strips down the opening track off Treats, "Tell 'Em" with fantastic results.
Sleigh Bells kick off two-sold out shows tomorrow, Memorial Day, with Neon Indian at The Independent in SF.
I'll be there undoubtedly with a sunburn left over from this weekend.
Yelle at the Regency Ballroom, SF. May 19, 2011. Sweaty, dancey fun. Forgive my iPhone camera's suckatude.
http://player.vimeo.com/video/20535037?color=cccccc
Yelle's two-part video for singles "Safari Disco Club" and "Que veux tu."
She's another French over-achiever (I sense a theme these past few weeks in stereo land...) and she's playing the Regency Ballroom on May 19th in San Francisco. There's just something about a lovely brunette singing sugary and addictive songs to me in French. Translation: dance.
While I wait for The Sounds show tomorrow, I look ahead to next weekend, when I'll be seeing Brookyln-ites Holy Ghost! open for Aussie synth dance-rock favorite Cut Copy at the Regency Ballroom in SF. Now, this track "Wait & See" seeps with homages to the 80s, completely unapologetically. But instead of ripping the stalwarts like Joy Division and The Smiths, they're taking cues from Information Society and Wang Chung.
Oh my god, I love it, unapologetically.
Shoes give me pain
Camera Obscura SF (2021). Oil on wood. 12 in x 9 in. . When I saw the monet haystacks at the Getty museum early last year, i was trying to figure out what he was exactly painting. Sure, haystacks, pretty straight forward, but also what I think is “time”. He revisits the same subject matter with the shifting seasons influencing light on the haystacks. Lights and shadows changes, reality changes and our perception changes. And at the end of the day, it’s a painting of haystacks. Monet paints haystacks and he paints them well. Also one of my favorite from Monet is his sunrise paintings. . . . . . #art #artwork #painting #paintingoftheday #painter #oilpainting #arte #artistsoninstagram #abstractart #contemporaryart #artcollector #sanfrancisco #color #shape #artoftheday #landscapepainting #smallpaintings #monet #instaart #sf (at Camera Obscura (San Francisco, California)) https://www.instagram.com/p/CNmzamjh6hG/?igshid=1g3cahklirodv
“A bus map you often see is the same thickness and same color line for the whole network: It makes [agencies] look like they’ve got the whole place covered,” says Wiggins. “That’s to the benefit of them and not to the rider.”
Wiggins thinks transit maps designed around coverage ultimately harm the system as a whole. Instead of using the map to find a bus route that works for a particular trip, riders stick to one specific line whose schedule they know—avoiding the map altogether. The result is a ridership that ends up taking a car more than it otherwise might, and one that objects loudly when the agency proposes a system change that would force them to learn a new route.
“I think with a better map, it actually might facilitate people being able to let go a little bit,” he says. “It stops becoming ‘this is my route and this is what I cling to’ and more of a network you can relate to.”
How San Francisco Got Its New Rider-Friendly Transit Map
If you want to read Asimov’s Foundation series, here is some info on the series plus my recommendations!
(The whole shebang is under the cut :3)
There are seven books overall, with The Foundation Trilogy, two Sequels, and two Prequels.
The Foundation Trilogy
Foundation (1951)
Foundation and Empire (1952)
Second Foundation (1953)
Summary: The Galatic Empire has existed for over ten thousand years, and for its Emperor and citizens, there's every confidence it will continue forever. Only mathematician Hari Seldon and his associates know the dire reality: the Empire is dying. Using the advanced mathematics called “psychohistory,” Seldon predicts the Empire's fall and the era of devastating barbarism that will follow. In order to reduce that inevitable dark age from 30,000 years to just 1,000, Seldon establishes two Foundations, guided by psychohistory, at opposite ends of the galaxy.
Sequels
Foundation’s Edge (1982)
Foundation and Earth (1986)
Summary: Former Naval officer and Terminus Council member Golan Trevize, along with his companions, search for the origins of humanity - the planet where humans evolved. (Spoiler/not spoiler - it's Earth)
Prequels
Prelude to Foundation (1988)
Forward the Foundation (1993)
Summary: This is the history of Hari Seldon - leading up to the events of Foundation (1951). With unlikely and unlooked for help, Seldon develops psychohistory to the level needed to enact the Seldon Plan (as it would later be known) and establish the two Foundations.
As with many early SF works, Asimov wrote the content of Foundation as short stories that were published in SF magazines. In 1951, those short stories were compiled and published as the first book in the series, Foundation.
First, Asimov wrote The Foundation Trilogy, and it was hugely popular. About 30 years later, Asimov’s publishers persuaded him to answer the call from fans for more Foundation content (and their own call to make them more delicious money huehuehue). Asimov got to work and produced the two Sequels and then the two Prequels.
Okay so here’s what I recommend:
🔆 Remember, these are only my opinions! Take from them only what you will, and definitely don't take them as rules for how to read the Foundation series, please! 🚀
Read The Foundation Trilogy first. DO NOT start with the Prequels.
If you want to read all seven books, I recommend you read them in the order they were published, which is the order I’ve listed above. (Foundation Trilogy, then Sequels, then Prequels.)
Treat The Foundation Trilogy, the Sequels, and the Prequels as different series.
Technically, all seven books take place in the same universe, however, Asimov wrote the Sequels and Prequels decades after he wrote The Foundation Trilogy. He did a lot of ret-conning. A lot of it was to tie the Foundation series into his Robot and Empire universes and connect them all into one.
Personally, I found a lot of that ret-conning unsatisfying in a way that detracted from the spirit of the original three books.
That being said, I did enjoy them, especially the Sequels, but as separate stories from The Foundation Trilogy.
Again, this is just my view of things, others have found the Sequels and Prequels to be great additions to the original stories. So take this advice with a grain of salt.
The Prequels are optional.
The Prequels describe Hari Seldon’s life and how he developed psychohistory and planned the two Foundations. To me, going into all that detail “ruins the magic.” I really appreciated not knowing too much about Seldon in the original trilogy.
Knowing so much about Seldon clashes with the major theme of the Foundation series: that the course of history is influenced by masses of people, not individuals. (Don't worry, this is said right at the beginning of Foundation, so no spoilers.)
Knowing less about Seldon makes his character more impressive and mysterious, and I liked it that way. (Again, it fits with the overall theme.)
Revealing so much about him was like revealing too many details about the origins of the Xenomorph in the Alien movies - when we get to know too much about the alien, she becomes less scary.
This is a continuation of my recommendation above. Again, other readers have enjoyed the Prequels and maybe you will too! My advice is merely a reflection of my own experience with the books, and it’s up to you to weigh the opinions and info to make your own decision.
Overall, the Foundation series is wonderful. If you decide to read all or part of the series, I really hope you enjoy it!!!