Muchas cosas.

If I were to write a story where I represented race relations by creating an all black universe and had white people represented as an evil rapacious alien species that smell bad and are totally devoid of rhythm I expect you might not necessarily see that as a sign of the diversity of my thinking process.

- Kwasi, Ramblings of an African Geek

I recently started a blog posting on fantasy and science fiction on the international level, and quickly found myself in much deeper water than expected. I started out quite innocently by wanting to look at the idea of "world music" as it applies to fantasy and SF, but it's impossible to look at alternatives to North American/European/Western popular culture without looking at the reasons for the dominance of that culture - and the reactions of the rest of the world to that dominance.

However, that's just the beginning. It's not necessary to be living outside of the Western cultural matrix to feel oppressed and ignored by it, as countless black, hispanic, asian, or aboriginal inhabitants of North America are fully and bitterly aware. Nor is it necessary to be racially distinct - it may only be necessary to be a woman.

As a Caucasian male, it's difficult to avoid feeling either defensive or apologetic when talking about issues of prejudice, sexism, and culture, and I suspect I'm well out of my depth trying to examine these various issues.* However, I'll take my best shot at it in a series of posts and see where I end up.

I think that approaching this as a topic revolving around fantasy and science fiction is very appropriate, though. After all, logic would suggest that if any genres of literature should be beyond discrimination based on racial, geographic or sexual issues, it should be fantasy and science fiction. Shouldn't it?

- Sid

* Not to mention that I can feel Ursula K. LeGuin hovering down in Oregon south of the border, like a guilty conscience. Ursula K. LeGuin frightens me - I think of her as one of the great minds of our time, and I'm pretty sure that she's literally given this area more thought than I can imagine. The only good news is that she's unlikely to notice this if we can all agree to keep quiet...