Human Trial

Posted By timothy on February 17, 2011

As a child I watched a lot of space and future-oriented fare, from Fireball XL-5 to Lost in Space ; 2001: A Space Odyssey to Logan’s Run . As a teen, I began to notice that there were few, if any, black faces in these interpretations of the future. I wondered if the writers saw blacks as insignificant, or if our existence was so threatening, that they consciously, or unconsciously, wished for a world devoid of people of color.

This same feeling must overwhelm black readers as they stroll through the science/speculative fiction section of their local stores in a vain search for writers of an experience not similar to their own. Moreover, finding works that include African-Americans in a futuristic or otherworldly setting is difficult. The same with books containing a catastrophic scenario, in which there is a battle of good versus evil, or a man alone theme.

Where are the black faces?

Essayist Claxton Graham, a sci-fi aficionado states point blank, “What I’d like to see is at least one brother or sister present to the world his or her vision of catastrophe, whether that is in the form of an incoming asteroid, a nuclear meltdown or a killer storm.” He further asserts, “I don’t know of any motion picture made in that genre featuring a predominately black cast and focusing on how those characters deal with matters of survival.”

Obviously, the same could be said for black literature. Boston Globe writer Vanessa E. Jones, writes “…an area of fiction that has allowed writers to tackle sensitive issues of race and culture…some in the speculative-fiction community complain that a number of their white contemporaries no longer tackle these subjects.”

My travails through such terrain are recent. I am embarrassed to admit that up until two years ago, I had never heard of Octavia Butler. Not until I ventured into the sci-fi realm (and quite serendipitously, I might add), did I even know of any black writers in that genre. Now that I do, I suppose it’s never too late to catch up, especially since I found that I enjoy writing in that genre. In 2009 my novel HUMAN TRIAL was published, It was the first book in a sci-fi trilogy that featured black characters. This was followed up by the 2010 release if HUMAN TRIAL II: ADAM’S WAR.

This surprised other writers who were familiar with my work. Sci-fi was not my main interest, but rather political satire. Furthermore, as a writer, I once held that same dream we all initially grasp for – writing the great American novel. Of course, mine entertained the thought of their being a black main character, such as in Richard Wright’s Native Son . I longed to tell of the angst and beauty of being a black person in America; the most unique and emulated being on the planet.

With HUMAN TRIAL ny goal was to write not only a classic story of Good v. Evil, but one with heroes that were people of color; when grouped with people of different backgrounds, would be forced to overcome not only their physical enemy but their fears, prejudices and other problems that surface when discussing group dynamics. In short, it represents the struggle for man to do what is for the collective good, or to place his or her individual needs ahead of everything else.

The best venue for such an undertaking was sci-fi, but I worried that such books seldom reaches beyond its core audience. Samuel R. Delany, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, said of his first cross-over success Dhalgren that readers told him, “You’re writing about people I know, and I haven’t seen written about before.” This is the major task of urban sci-fi writers, or as they are sometimes called, afrofuturists. They must write about people their readers are familiar with and blend it with a scenario that the typical reader has yet to venture into—a future world or an apocalyptic setting.

Compounding matters is that bookstores tend to lump all African American writers in the same area, or shelf, rather than place an urban sci-fi drama into the general section for sci-fi/fantasy. Also, sci-fi novels tend to be 350 pages plus, unlike a lot of African-American literature, which hover around the novella mark, 300 pages or less.

Sci-fi novels, at least the successful ones, are typically written as trilogies or longer format.  When I began HUMAN TRIAL, it was a single story of approximately 270 pages. After much revising and reconsideration, it became a trilogy, the first of which is 388 pages with the sequel coming in at 436 pages (though the font and wider margins shaved the book to 338 pages).

With 2/3 of the HT triumvirate complete, I am comfortable with the form and seek to expand the readership of that base. However, if writers of such fare continue to be pigeonholed that task can very well become a lesson in futility. Even more telling is that most publishers that focus of African-American issues won’t read sci-fi speculative manuscripts. Urban tales, in the view of many, means crime-based fiction with so-called “ghetto” characters.

The hope for getting the word out about the works of A-A sci-fi writers is through blogs such as this one and reading/writing groups like Sci-fi Noir (a Yahoo group), and the A-A crit and reading groups prolificwritersnetwork.com and realsistawriters,com.

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