geek radical

Riffing on the Ryan Gosling “Hey Girl” meme as well as the excellent re-purposing of it for feminist theory, I’ve come across, thanks to my lovely lady, Feminist Cthulhu.

It’s about as awesome as political geekery gets. Though I would love to see more varied images of Cthulhu used, as the variety of Gosling photos used lend themselves to inspiration. Then again, it’s all about the text, isn’t it?

As a part of spreading word about our femnist SF anthology, I came across this project on another crowdfunding site:
We See A Different Frontier, an SF anthology about colonialism from a non-1st world perspective.

The folks putting it out, The Future Fire, look like they have great ideas and goals. Check them out.

I’d like to add profiling publishers to the mix because as I’ve worked in books my consciousness of individual publishers has opened up a new dimension to my reading. When it comes to independent publishing vs. the imprints and houses owned by the major media conglomerates, my loyalties will always be with the indies. That’s not to say that the major houses are some kind of evil empire, because they do put out some great stuff. But the consolidation of culture into the corporate structures of just a handful of companies is inherently problematic. None of this is news or remarkable, but I feel like it is part of prefacing where I want to go with this site as well as articulate some ideas that just won’t fit into any other discussion because so much has already been said. And because before I got into the industry, the distinction wasn’t immediately apparent. So I’ll presume there might still be some soul for whom independent presses are actually a new concept (or any distinction of Publisher A vs. Publisher B at all).

Major houses (i.e., Random House, HarperCollins, etc.) obviously operate on profit motive more than an intent to enrich society by bringing out good books. Particular imprints and divisions might focus on a higher level of editorial acumen and can include books with a profoundly radical outlook. But the truth is that these publishing entities, on principle, want to sell as many copies of their books and make as much profit as humanly possible for the enrichments of their executives and shareholders. Problems arise when by virtue of their scale and influence, they too often become the default outlet for books and ideas in our world. They usually pay more, have a greater reach, and offer a larger audience. For a someone who has written something that is an important contribution to our culture, it is understandable, and arguably better, that they trade their labor for the profits of a multinational corporation in order to reach that audience. The most revolutionary and inspiring writing doesn’t revolutionize or inspire anything if no one knows about it, no one reads it. Also, for someone that looks to write for a living, that larger paycheck can mean the difference between paying rent and having the time to write versus poverty and the inability to work on their writing and ideas.

This kind of compromise is a regular part of any radical’s life. We are trapped in a capitalist system and must weigh the ethics and economics in almost everything we do. Do we support independents/cooperative endeavors or do we begrudgingly contribute to the multinational corporations? It is something we each must decide based on where and who we are in life.

But to bring this back to books… Independent publishing operates outside of the large multinational publishers but in principle have the same aim: to sell as many books as possible. The motivations behind this are as varied as the individuals who runs these presses. They compete for the same shelf space in bookstores, for coverage by media outlets, for the same snatches of our attention. They may be motivated by profits, the contribution to our culture, or the desire to educate and engage people’s minds in a positive way. Or, in fact, a combination of all three (and others). An “independent” publisher could in fact be a sizable company with many titles and millions of dollars in sales. One could just as easily be someone who has put out a single title and garner modest, if any, sales.

The publishers I want to profile concern themselves with the latter two of the above goals: to contribute to our culture and to educate and inspire people towards a better society. Look forward to more about them later.

While still tooling up various things, waiting for other infrastructure to form and other excuses for not moving this forward, I’d like to provide at least something ripped off from Boingboing for the few people who may not have seen it.

For the record, Gabby Schulz is awesome. Go buy something.
In which we betray our gender

This can be assumed to be representative [in my opinion] of straight, white, male reactions in terms broader than sexism. Keep a copy printed to show friends. Print it big enough and it can be rolled up into a makeshift club with which to beat down SWM privilege. We can hope.

Settling in here on Monday to think about the weekend that just happened. Based on the conversations I had and the personal sense from the last three days, I believe we could say that the 3rd TGcon was an all ’round great time. There were bumps of course, some of which will need to be addressed, others being simple logistical oversights, but everything seemed to go smoothly and lots of connections between leftie/radical geeks were made. Engaging conversations and discussions happened, lively workshops and topics presented, and delicious food consumed (some great talks were had over snacks and meals). Camaraderie was a strong theme, looking to how we can support a better world together. Some folks learned new bits of politics, other folks acquired a list of compelling books to read.

Now it’s time for This Geek Radical to rest a bit, then begin flapping furiously to get this site/project in the air…

Adrienne Maree Brown’s guest speech followed Nora Jemisin’s and Heather Galaxy’s introduction cited a long list of Adrienne’s activist work. Adrienne then took the floor and caught us up on her more recent activities, doing food justice and other work in Detroit. As she described it, anyone interested in postapocalyptic survival themes would find much they’d envision in the year 20XY happening right now in what was once a jewel of the American Midwest. How some of the communities surviving there now are working to build structures and support systems outside of the state & municipal government.  Science fictional radicalism unfolding at our doorstep.
She also spoke of her introduction to the work of Octavia Butler and how that has informed her activism. She had a bouyant enthusiasm for further exploring other SF writers beyond Butler, China Mieville, and those whose work just scratches the surface of the stories available in speculative fiction.

In all, an exciting and vibrant wrap to the beginning of a great weekend!

To talk a bit while they’re fresh, Nora Jemisin’s speech was humble, strong, funny, and a perfect kickoff to the con. She talked about being invited and excited to come but was concerned about our label as radicals. Not in a sense of criticism but from a sense of identification. She didn’t see herself as a “radical” and wondered if she belonged here. But then she described one of her characters, who is anything but a heteronormative white male (the staple of the SF field). She talked of her upbringing and how that influenced her writing at an early age, how SF was about creating new worlds, living those worlds, and with luck learn about a possible way we could live and organize more positively. She talked about some of the fear that the term “radical” engendered, specifically in our American political context. After much reflection, she said, she realized that she was not afraid to think of herself as a radical, in effect coming out to us as such. She didn’t fear radicalism of a leftist persuasion; she did not fear herself.
All I have to say is: bravo! Welcome comrade!

Nora Jemisin and Adrienne Maree Brown just gave amazing speeches to kick off an awesome weekend of radical speculative fiction and discussion. Adrienne’s speech was filmed and I will post footage when available.

OpenWatch has some awesome apps for Android and iOS that are intended to record encounters with cops and other authoritarian figures while interacting with them. From their site: “OpenWatch is a participatory citizen media project aiming to provide documentary evidence of uses and abuses of power.”

Awesome.

However, in some states, like Illinois, recording cops can get you sent to the pokey, or at the least, get your stuff smashed by Officer Friendly. Of course, the whole point of the Openwatch apps is to record surreptitiously and upload anonymously, so you can at least let the world know when you’re being beaten senseless by an overzealous member of our “protectors”.

Originally seen on boingboing

In two weeks we will be hosting Think Galacticon, a convention devoted to a radical left examination of speculative fiction. We have some awesome guests and a bevy of great programming.
Check it out.