Report from Planet Midnight

PM's Outspoken Authors #9

by Nalo Hopkinson

Infused with feminist, Afro-Caribbean views of the science fiction and fantasy genres, this collection of offbeat and highly original works takes aim at race and racism in literature. In “Report from Planet Midnight,” at the International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts, an alien addresses the crowd, evaluating Earth's "strange" customs, including the marginalization of works by nonwhite and female writers. “Message in a Bottle” shows Greg, an American Indian artist, befriending a strange four-year-old who seems wise beyond her years. While preparing an exhibition, he discovers that the young girl is a traveler from the future sent to recover art from the distant past—which apparently includes his own work. Concluding the book with series editor Terry Bisson’s Outspoken Interview, Nalo Hopkinson shares laughs, loves, and top-secret Caribbean spells.

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Essays, Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 17, 2012

About the author

Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican-born writer and editor who lives in Canada. Her science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of two short stories, an essay/speech, and an interview with the author. I would recommend this if you're already familiar with Hopkinson and want some "extras"... if you are new to her work, I would highly recommend starting with her excellent (and World Fantasy Award-winning) short story collection Skin Folk.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve meant to read something by Hopkinson for a while — in fact, at one point I was a chunk of the way through Midnight Robber. I’m not sure what happened then; had to give it back to the library, maybe? But I’ve been meaning to have another crack at it sometime soon, and this is definitely encouraging. The two short stories are well-crafted, and I especially love the voices she gives to Ariel and Caliban and Sycorax. I didn’t read it as the ‘house nigger’ and the ‘field nigger’, as some of the notes on it mention; afterwards, I immediately felt it was obvious.

The non-fiction commentary is great, too. I felt like despite this being the ‘Outspoken Authors’ series, Hopkinson still felt the need to hold back on/qualify her opinions and feelings a bit; there’s a diffidence, almost defensiveness, that upset me a little. Like, do we really need to make a world where an author of colour feels she has to repeatedly state that books by white men are fine and she reads them and she just wants more diversity? I did the same in my post about my Female Authors Only Month project, it’s true, but… it annoys me. Let’s quit acting like wanting more stories from some people means we want to silence other people, okay?

Still, Hopkinson said a lot of incisive and true things about fandom, race, literature, people. And I’m sure there are white folks reading it who feel like she’s making a stab at them (at a guess, if Vox Day or the Sad and Rabid Puppies read this, they might have apoplexy). And I love that she isn’t a bit ashamed about having fibromyalgia and the effects it has on her: so many people are dismissive about it, and given that Nalo Hopkinson is a woman of colour, I bet there’s plenty of people adding that to their list of reasons why they don’t have to listen to her. Which is rubbish, but definitely what I’ve observed.

Originally posted here.

[Lata · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book contains two of Nalo Hopkinson’s older short stories, the text of a speech she delivered about racism in genre fiction and an interview, both from years ago (2011-ish), the stories were good and Nalo Hopkinson’s points were well articulated. Her voice, frustration and humour come through well, and while her points were raised years ago, there hasn’t been huge progress since 2011 in genre publishing. While it’s easier to find works with a PoC PoV, and there are initiatives to bring out diverse voices, lots more work still needs to be done.

[Rachel (Kalanadi) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This rating is for Report from Planet Midnight, which for some reason seems to be linked to completely different book by Hopkinson here on Goodreads. I enjoyed this collection a lot. The two short stories were rereads, and I remember them being some of the few I really enjoyed at the time I read her collection Falling in Love with Hominids a few years ago. The star of this is probably her ICFA keynote speech - the title piece - which she gives some great context for, as it came about shortly after "RaceFail '09", which I'd heard of but didn't quite understand til now. Quite good!

[Pikobooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pitié, traduisez plus de Nalo Hopkinson, c'était si puissant !

[Scott Neigh]

I've read a few pieces of Hopkinson's work but not nearly enough, and this great little book has whetted my appetite for more. It contains two short-stories, both very good; the text of an important address on science fiction/fantasy and racism she gave to a convention during the fateful days of Racefail '09; and an enjoyable and thoughtful interview of her done by series editor Terry Bisson. Lots of good writing and important ideas in a very digestable package.

[Fulya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jamaikalı yazar Nalo Hopkinson ile ilk buluşmam. Türkçeye de zannediyorum bir tek bu kitabı çevrilmiş. Ama kendisinden çok hırçın bir Ursula Le Guin enerjisi aldım. Gece Yarısı Gezegeninden Raporlar iki öykü, bir konuşma ve bir ropörtajdan oluşan kısa bir derleme. İlk öykü "Şişedeki Mesaj" beni çok şaşırttı. Günümüzde geçen öykünün yarısına kadar bunun nesi bilim kurgu diye dşünürken; yarısından itibaren çok zekice kurgulanmış bir gelecek öyküsü çıktı. Tüm kitap içindeki en beğendiğim eser de bu oldu. İkinci öykü "Değişim", Shakespeare'in "Fırtına" oyununun bir yeniden yazımı. Öyküden resmen Karayip Adaları kokusu geliyor buram buram. Ariel, Kaliban ve Sykorax'e tekrardan bakıyoruz. Kitaba adını veren "Gece Yarısından Raporlar" ise Hopkinson'un 2009 yılında yaptığı bir konuşma. Ama bu konuşmanın çevirisi o kadar kötü ki, kadının ne dediğini anlamak neredeyse imkansız. Bu fecaat çeviri sebebiyle kitaptan uzaklaştım bir süreliğine. Son olarak "Dengeleri Ayarlamak" adlı ropörtajda Hopkinson'ın genel olarak bilimkurgu ve edebiyata bakış açısını okumak zihin açıcı oldu diyebilirim. Karayip ruhunu, siyahi olmayı, ötekileştirilen olmayı, kadın olmayı bilinçli bir şekilde anlatmayı seçiyor yazar. Daha çok okunmalı.

[Shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was fascinating. It really was an odd combination of things--two short stories, a speech, and an interview--but it served as a great introduction to Hopkinson's work.

I didn't much enjoy the fantasy story. It's not my thing as a genre, and it's based on The Tempest, a play I kind of hated. But I liked the sci-fi story, which had an interesting premise and a creepy child.

I most enjoyed her speech and her interview, which addressed racism in the sci-fi/fantasy community and in literature as a whole. It made me think about the kinds of books I choose to read, and how I don't really pay attention to the identities of the authors I read--which means the authors I'm reading are predominantly white and male because that's what the field is like. It makes me realize that if I want a more varied bookshelf, I need to seek out books from authors of different races and cultures, because they're not going to come to me. (This book aside, which did come to me because David plopped it in my lap. Thanks for lending it to me, David!).

[Rivqa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent taster of Hopkinson's short fiction and non-fiction.

[Gülçin Akın · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ayrıntı Yayınları Bilim Kurgu dizisinin 2. kitabı olan bu kitapta 2 öykü, 1 konferans konuşması metni ve yazarla yapılmış bir röportaj var. Öyküler keyifliydi. Konferans metni ve röportaj da kötü değildi ancak hanımefendi döndüre döndüre aynı şeyleri söylüyor gibi hissettim kitabın sonunda. Nalo Hopkinson siyahi bir yazar ve konuşmak istediği tek konu da bu gibi. Söylediklerine hak vermiyor değilim. Siyahiyseniz ve bir de üstüne kadınsanız birçok saçmalığın üstesinden gelmeniz gerekiyordur eminim ve onlarca kitabı olan bir yazarı 100 sayfalık bir kitapla değerlendirerek haksızlık ediyorum muhtemelen. Umarım başka eserleriyle de değerlendirme şansım olur ileride. Bu kitabı çok sevemedim.

[Alex Sarll]

Having enjoyed a couple of the Outspoken Authors books, slim miscellanies taking in a writer each, I picked up a job lot in a cheap bundle, and for the first morsel from that feast I thought I'd go for the Nalo Hopkinson one, because I've only read one book by her before, and that was extremely good. As such, it could be considered unfortunate that the first piece here, Message In A Bottle, was one I'd already read in that other collection. Not so; I'm not a great rereader, as a rule, but I was fairly drunk when I first read this story, so it was really no hardship getting another, clearer encounter with prose as poised as "She frowns up at me with that enfranchised hauteur that is the province of kings and four-year-olds". The premise, too, is if anything even more compelling second time around, still recalling Olaf Stapledon if he hadn't been so fixated on the unworthy topic of the human race.

Next up, the title piece – a speech on race and fandom given at a con back when SFF's last decade of culture wars was just getting underway. I suspect it worked even better as performed, though as compensation we do get the stage directions here, not to mention footnotes, introduction and afterword. I love the balance Hopkinson strikes between not rushing to assume malign intent when thoughtlessness, ignorance and defensiveness are more likely – yet also refusing to be apologetic if she gets angry, because the whole business is so completely infuriating. All of it delivered with a compelling blend of wit and rage.

And then Shift, a post-colonial Tempest riff. Not something I'd felt I needed another of, but then I'd thought the same about Bluebeard riffs before I read her Blushing, and she even went as far as getting Derek Walcott's blessing.

Finally (well, before the bibliography), the series' usual interview. Which covers the expected topics, but also everything from cricket to fabric design to ageing. I was genuinely shocked to learn that Hopkinson was 51 at the time - and thus, as I understand the system, older still now. The punk energy in so much of her writing had me assuming she must be younger than me, maybe thirties at a push.

[Megan]

Two short stories, a speech, and an interview.

I think I most enjoyed "Message in a Bottle," a science-fiction story about art and a creepy child. It's a time travel story, and the time-travel method was interesting and innovative, and the time-travelers were art curators! I hadn't seen that before. It's about culture and legacy and change in general, though, and also this line was great: "Art helps us know how to do change. That's made it very valuable to us." The Tempest-inspired "Shift" was also compelling and engaging, and a whirlwind of reinterpretation and worldbuilding. Loved that, too.

The speech, "Report from Planet Midnight," was a Guest of Honor speech Hopkinson delivered at the 2009 International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts, which that year had the theme of "Race in the Literature of the Fantastic." It's a great speech to read, taking a starting position from RaceFail '09 (which Hopkinson reports displeased some academics in the audience, who couldn't care less about what was going on in fandom) and moving toward the deep principles of what anti-racism in fandom, in creative culture, is. In particular, I thought the "translations" were wildly hilarious (in a laugh-or-you'll-cry sort of way). The interview, with series editor Terry Bisson, was engaging and invigorating, too: Hopkinson has a great appreciation for the genre and for the work it does, and both her stories and her reflections demonstrate that. (Also, she has an excellent sense of humor.)

[David H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This special collection from the Outspoken Authors series has two short stories, an essay (adapted from a speech), and an interview with the author.

I haven't really read Hopkinson before, but with her speech "Report from Planet Midnight" and the interview with Terry Bisson, I'm basically in love with her as a person. She just seems very cool and on top of things.

Her two stories were quite interesting (one science fiction, the other a fun fantasy take on The Tempest), and I'm hoping to read more (I've got Skin Folk: Stories on my pile of books, and her novel Midnight Robber sounds fantastic).

[Tuğçe · Rating 4 out of 5]

📚
Şişedeki mesaj öyküsü gerçekten çok başarılıydı… Sonu belirsiz ve bu benim için en mükemmel bitiş..
Gece yarısı gezegeninden raporlar kısmında kendi konuşmasını bizlere aktarıyor ve içerisinden alıntı yapılacak kısımlar mevcut. Konusu; ırkçılık! Kimse yok dese bile halen süre gelen geri kalmışlığın kendisi…
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‘Bir dâhinin söylediği gibi, ırkçılık diye bir şey yoktur, ama yine de sizi öldürür.’ Ayrıca çok güzel bir konuya daha değinmiş Hopkinson. ‘…Her zaman ağır işleri yapacak insanların olmasını garanti altına almak için kullanılan yöntemlerden biri de toplumun bazı kesimlerinin haklarından mahrum bırakılması ve böylece ağır işler dışında pek bir tercih şanslarının kalmaması.’!!!
Kesimden çıkıp tüm halka yayılması durumu mevcut günümüzde! Sessizce ve sinsice..
Son olarak ; ‘…İnsanlar hata yapar. İnsanlar düşünmeden konuşur. İnsanlar daha sonra pişman olacakları şeyler yapar. İnsanlar başka insanları incitir. İnsanlar sistematik eşitsizlikleri yapmaya devam eder çünkü sistemin nasıl işlediğini anlamaz ya da önemsemez. Bütün bunları ben de yapıyorum, bunun farkındayım. Ve esas önemli olanın bir hata yaptıktan sonra ne yapacağınız olduğunu da öğreniyorum. Cesaretle özür dileyenler, muhtemelen bunun kendilerini öldürmediğini de keşfetmişlerdir. Hatta belki de daha önce hiç olmadıkları kadar iyi hissettirdiğini.’ ✨
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(Gerçekten Nightcrawler,Mysique,Beast,Kali,Krişna,Dr.Manhattan,Şirin Baba,Şirine,Kurabiye canavarı,avatar neden mavi?:) Mavi derili ırk yok mu edildi?)🙈
İyi okumalar!

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This small book contains two short stories, a copy of very interesting speech and an interview. A lot to think about regarding the representation of POC in sci-fi. Definitely made me want to read some of Hopkinson's fiction.

[Lisa Kekaula · Rating 5 out of 5]

Report From Planet Midnight by Nalo Hopkinson
This book of stories and interviews kind rocked my world. This has been on my “to read” list for years. WTF?!? I am so glad I finally read this book especially where I get to hear stories and then the authors voice explaining not what she has written but truly where she is coming from. I will be reading more books of hers very soon.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

multiple weird excellent short stories & an instant classic of a script for a speech the author gave on white supremacy in SFF world 😍

[Anna Hepworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection consists of two short fiction pieces, a transcript of a speech with added commentary, and an interview. I read 3 of the 4 pieces in a single night several months ago; in order to write this up I read it all in a single night. I didn't reread the first story in its entirety, because it frustrated me too much; the other two were as absorbing on the second read as the first.

The first fiction piece really doesn't work for me. I initially blamed this on the viewpoint character being unlikeable, but I've revised this some. It isn't that the character as a whole is unlikeable. It is that they are a person who doesn't like children, and the story revolves around a child. And so there was a constant cognitive disconnect between the viewpoint and the story. This story is the reason that the collection is not five stars.

The second fiction piece is a fabulous transformative work of a Shakespeare play. If, like me, you are not familiar with the play in question, or didn't pick it up, it is still an incisive commentary on how black men are perceived in particular majority white communities.

The speech was giving during, or near after, the Racefail event of 2009. The commentary gives enough of the history that I think that people who weren't aware of it at the time will have sufficient context. This is not the first time I've read bits of the speech; every time I find something else to take away and work on.

As with all of the books in the Outspoken Authors series, it is rounded off with an interview. Well worth reading. Lots of interesting details of Hopkinson's writing process, plenty of pointed social commentary, and a very engaging conversational style. Like the speech, lots of things to take away and think about.

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short taster is a fine introduction to Nalo Hopkinson’s work – two short stories, a speech and an interview but all buzzing and bustling with smart, cheeky and provocative ideas that do the things good science fiction should do – entertain and suggest new ways of looking and seeing. ‘Message in a Bottle’, the first of the stories, disrupts our taken for granted ideas of childhood as a time of naïve gazing at the world weaving in an apocalyptic vision and the disruptive marvel that is time travel, while ‘Shift’ rewrites a little bit of Shakespeare to see sibling rivalry and raced bodies in ways Will almost certainly could not have suspected.

For me, thought, it is the speech delivered to the 2009 conference fabulously named International Association of the Fantastic in the Arts – a blending of fans, geeks and academics – that shows Hopkinson’s work at its best. In it she explores a 2009 fan debate about the presence (or rather absence) of people of colour in science fiction/fantasy in a brilliantly performative way – on-line here to unravel the politics of the language of inclusion and exclusion. It is funny, sharp and full of insight, as is the interview where she reflects on some of the same kinds of issues, being a black woman in the field, the impact of her Caribbean upbringing and says that “Cricket to me is golf as a team sport, with better outfits” which pretty much sums it all up, even if it is a bit harsh.

This is a fine sampler pack.

[John Defrog: global citizen, local gadfly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another selection from the PM Press Outspoken Authors series that also serves as my introduction to Nalo Hopkinson, whom I’d never head of before. That fact alone may lend credence to her criticism that the SF/F industry is dominated by straight white guys and thus is in need of a lot more diversity than it currently demonstrates. The title comes from a 2010 presentation at International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in which she tackles issues of race, racism and sexism in SF/F (and deploys some performance art to make her point) at least partly in reaction to RaceFail’09. That and the interview in which she expands on those issues – and discusses the role of Caribbean folklore in her work – are worth the price of admission. Hopkinson makes some really strong points on the nature of systemic racism in SF/F and elsewhere, why and how it needs to change, and why it’s not as scary or inconvenient as some fans and editors (i.e. mostly white guys) seem to think. Also included are two short stories – one is an updated Caribbean twist on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and the other is an interesting take on the time-travel trope. This volume also hipped me to her bibliography up to 2013 – you can bet I’ll be keeping an eye out for her books.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories were great, and I'll definitely be checking out more of her fiction. I thought the interview and the talk on race in SF were worth reading too, though they aren't the kind of thing I usually read. An author's interpretation of the future/alternate worlds is (obviously) hugely influenced by their present...I think it's so important to have (and read) SFF authors from a variety of backgrounds. I miss Octavia Butler.

[Ersin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Diğer insanların umrunda bile olmayan şeyler hakkında çok fazla şey bilen insanlar (!)

[Sinem Akyıldız · Rating 3 out of 5]

İki öykü,konferans konuşma özeti ve bir ropörtajdan oluşuyor. Öykü anlamında beni tatmin etmedi beklentim daha yüksekti:) daha çok ırkçılığın vurgulandığı bir kitap olmuş.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is sort of an odd mix of things: two short stories, a transcript of a speech (with an introduction and after comments), and an interview. My thoughts in order:

"Message in a Bottle" (short story): I don't think it lives up to the hype of the one sentence teaser on the back of the book, but it is an interesting sort of variant on a time travel story. Part of what makes it work well is that it isn't obviously a story about time travel. Also, having a first person narrator who is skeptical about the idea deflects the usual concerns about how time travel is inherently self-defeating. The objective of the time traveler reminds me very much of a story by Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Author of the Acacia Seeds"; since Hopkinson praises Le Guin in the interview later in the book, I'd be surprised if this wasn't part of the inspiration for this story.

"Report from Planet Midnight" (speech transcript): I was completely unaware of the "RaceFail '09" thing Hopkinson was reacting to here, but it seems a bit similar to the more recent "Sick Puppies" fiasco, or maybe a bit like "Gamer Gate", so I kind of get what it is about. I do wonder how the speech played with the audience at large, beyond the negative reactions she talks about receiving in her intro; to me the sort of performance art aspect of it seems a bit strange and uncomfortable, even as someone who agrees with her arguments, but then I'm not the sort of person who would be interested in attending a conference on Fantasy writing or listening to people give speeches on it.

"Shift" (short story): a good story with an interesting and distinctive style. It feels a bit odd that the primary characters in both stories in this volume are male, though that is balanced in this story by having women play pivotal roles. I am a bit annoyed by Ariel being female, since in my understanding the character in The Tempest is male (though apparently Ariel is referred to with masculine pronouns twice in the script, so it is less certain than it could be).

"Correcting the Balance" (interview): this covers a lot of ground and is fairly interesting. I especially like her take on magical realism as literature where "the supernatural elements are conceits that don't have to be followed through as rigorously as we demand from fantasy"; that seems an accurate assessment to me.

Part of why I picked up this book is because I had previously read another volume in this Outspoken Author's series, The Lucky Strike by Kim Stanley Robinson. Another part is that I sort of recognized the name, Nalo Hopkinson, and because I do try to read books that aren't just by straight white men. After reviewing the inverted timeline bibliography at the back of the book, I realized that I had previously read two of her stories, "Greedy Choke Puppy" and "The Smile on the Face" in two different volumes of Year's Best Fantasy. Beyond that, I think I have seen here name frequently in the context of anthologies, editing, and critical commentary.

[öğürsüz. · Rating 4 out of 5]

bu yıl daha çok kadınlar tarafından yazılmış kitapları okumak istediğimi söylerken ve bunun için bir liste oluştururken aklımda bilim-kurgu ve fantezi türleri yoktu. gece yarısı gezegeninden raporlar'a başlamasaydım bu türlere uzaklığım ve hatta önyargım sürüp gidecekti. iyi ki hediye edilmiş. nalo hopkinson'la tanışmak için yazılmış bir kitap olduğunu söyleyebilirim. iki öykü, bir konuşma ve bir röportajdan oluşuyor. hopkinson öfkeli, dişli, becerikli ve elbette haklı biri. öteki olmanın tüm biçimlerini dert ediyor. siyahi, kadın, hayvan, işçi. hak ettiği yeri almanın kolay olmayacağının, bunun da uslu ve nazik biri olmakla mümkün kılınamayacağının farkında.

ilk öykünün, şişedeki mesaj'ın yarısına gelene dek bunun bir bilim-kurgu eseri olduğunu anlamadım. her şey bütün olağanlığıyla akıp gidiyorken birden başka bir uzama geçtim. ve bu geçişi öykünün bir kahramanıyla birlikte yaşadım. o, geleceğin ne kadar yakında olduğunu görünce nasıl afallamışsa ben de öyle afalladım.

ikinci öykü, değişim bir yeniden yazım. yeniden yazımların çoğunda ilk hikâyeyi durmadan hatırlıyor insan (yani en azından bende öyle oluyor) ve yüzünü hep ona dönmek istiyor. ama bu defa öyle olmadı. çünkü değişim fırtına'dan daha gerçek. "beyaz insanların sihri" diyor hopkinson. değişim'i okumak o sihri ortadan kaldırıyor. gerçeği, daha karanlık, yaralayıcı ve asap bozucu olanı gösteriyor.

röportaj yalnızca yazar hakkında değil de bilim-kurgu, kurgu yazımı, yazma biçimleri, edebiyat dünyasındaki ötekileştir/il/meler ve beyaz-erkek-yazar olmak hakkında da sorular sorduruyor.

çevirinin kötü olduğu söylendiğinde gece yarısı gezegeninden raporlar bölümünden söz edildiğini düşünmüştüm. çünkü yazar o konuşmasının performansa dayalı bir gösteri olacağından söz ediyor en başında. böyle bir konuşmayı aktarmak (konuşma sırasında aksamaların, durmaların, kopmaların yaşanmış olacağını düşünerek) güç olabilir diye düşünmüştüm. ancak sondaki röportajda da cümleler aksayıp durdu, hatta bazı yerlerde yalnızca peş peşe dizilmiş kelimeler olarak oradaydılar, birleştirmek bana kaldı.

hopkinson okumaya devam etmek isterdim ama türkçeye çevrilmiş başka bir eseri yok. umarım yakın zamanda olur.

[Hilâl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uzun zamandan sonra ilk kez kitapçıdan bir kitap aldım, o da bu. Bayağıdır kitapçıya gitmediğimden elim boş çıkmak istemedim ama kitaplar pahalılaşınca ufak tefek bir şey olsun dedim. Aslında Ursula kitabı alacaktım bunun yanında duruyordu ama çok yıpranmıştı, görevliyle uğraşmamak için bunu seçtim. Evde biraz bakınca Ayrıntı Yayınları’nın da bilimkurgu klasiklerine başladığını öğrendim. Bu dizinin 2. kitabı.

Esasen kitap olsun diye zorlanmış bir derleme. 2 öykü (Şişedeki Mesaj, Değişim) bir konferans konuşması ve röportaj derlenmiş. Tamamını öykü olarak beklemeyin yani, gerçi arka kapakta yazıyor. İlk öykü Şişedeki Mesaj fena değildi, okutuyor kendini. Konferans konuşmasına gelince tek kelimeyle kitap tıkandı. Dinlerken eminim bunu oldukça güzel dinlerdim ama konferans yazısı okumak bana sıkıcı geldi. 2. öykü Değişim ise benim için fiyasko. Ne yazmış bu kadın hiç takip edemedim. Röportajda yazarın da dikkat eksikliğinden muzdarip olduğu geçiyordu, ben bu sıkıntımla takip edemedim, sen nasıl yazdın, dedirtti bana. Cidden, hem sıkıcı, hem dağınık, hem de bir yere gitmiyor. Kitabın son kısmında ise röportaj yer alıyor. Açıkçası yazarı ilk kez okuyorum, başka kitabını bulamadım çevrilmiş ama eskiden kalan baskılar varsa beni düzeltin, kendisiyle alakalı röportaj okuyacağıma tanımak adına bir öykü daha tercih ederdim.

Yazarı bu derleme ile tanımasaydım belki ardından bu kitabı daha severek okuyabilirdim diye düşünüyorum. Çünkü yazarı yazar kimliği ile tanıtmaktan uzaktı bana göre. Umarım başka eserleri de (öykü yerine roman mümkünse) yayımlanır Türkçede de okuruz.

Çeviri fena değil ama Türkçeleştirmesi yer yer hiç yeterli olmamış. Ayrıca şeyi de fark ettim. Değişim adlı hikâye röportajda Dönüşüm ismiyle çevrilmişti. Kafka’nın Dönüşüm’ü de dilimize yıllarca Değişim olarak çevrilmiş, sonradan aralarındaki farklara istinaden Dönüşüm’e geçildiğini hatırladım. Sanırım okuduğum baskıda böyle bir not vardı, o aklıma geldi. Son okuyucularına selam olsun.

[Corvus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a transcript of a speech by Hopkinson (about racism and representation in scifi and fantasy,) an interview with Hopkinson, and two short stories. I had already read both short stories fairly recently in her anthology "Falling in Love with Hominids." "Message in a bottle" was my favorite story in that anthology so I happily read it for the second time.

The speech and interview are must-reads for all scifi/fantasy fans. They gave me an even greater appreciation for Hopkinson. She is very radical and unapologetic while also being caring about her audience. She presents her ideas in accessible and inclusive ways. She makes arguments that are undeniable about the need for Black and other POC representation in science fiction and fantasy in both the authors' demographics and the books' contents. It is a very short book at just over 100 pages and a fast read. Definitely recommended as required reading for all the nerds out there.

[Fatih Çetin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ayrıntı Yayınları bilimkurgu dizisinde okuduğum 3. kitap oldu. Diğer 2 kitapta olduğu gibi yine değişik kafalarda yazılmış hikayeler var. Kitapta Şişedeki Mesaj ve Değişim öyküleri, yazarın Fantastik Edebiyat’ta Irk konulu konferanstaki konuşmaları ve seriyi ortaya çıkaran Terry Bisson ile yaklaşık 30 sayfa söyleşi kısmı bulunuyor.

Şişedeki Mesaj adlı öykü; sanatçı olan Greg’in arkadaşının kızı Kamla ile olan ilginç arkadaşlığından oluşuyor. Kamla büyüme eksikliği olan bir çocuktur. Yavaş büyümesine rağmen ilginç konulara merak salıyor. Evlilik ve çocuk yapma telaşı, türcülük ve gen aktarımı gibi konulara değiniyor. Sonlara doğru kafam biraz çorba oldu ama beğendim öyküyü.

Değişim adlı öykü ise çok değişik bir öykü olmuş. Ne anladın desen cevap veremem. Abi kardeş var, abinin sevgilileri var. Anne çok değişik bir varlık galiba. Neyse işte pek beğenmediğim (anlayamadığım için) bir öykü oldu.

[G · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve only read the speech and context to the speech part but it’s is a masterpiece. She did an amazing job hitting the nail on the head with her approach to talking to a predominately white audience about race (especially considering all the commotion that was going on at the time). It is extremely easy to follow along- very accessible and breaks ideas down so the average joe could follow. The speech is dividend into 2 sections: alien and human. The way sections work together to address the frustration within the community is beyond amazing. The people that were in that room probably didn’t acknowledge how amazing of a speech it was but you have the chance to witness a segment of you read the speech.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slim volume includes two short stories, a transcript of a speech Hopkinson delivered to the ICFA (The international Association for the Fantastic in the Arts) and an interview with the author. The short stories were very thought-provoking. I love a well-crafted short story. Hopkinson's speech addressed the bias and racism in the world of science fiction and fantasy writing. I found it moving, well reasoned and very original. If you are a fan of Sci Fi and/or Fantasy writing, I strongly recommend that you pick up Hopkinson's book, MIDNIGHT ROBBER, and then, check out this little book.