“Kindred” (1979), a book by Octavia Butler, is a time travel story. Dana Franklin, a Black American woman from 1976, suddenly finds herself back in slave times, in Maryland in the early 1800s. She finds out that her very existence depends on saving Rufus Weylin, a White slave master, so that he can rape Alice Greenwood, his slave and her great-great-great grandmother!
Kevin, Dana’s husband, at one point goes back in time with her and says:
This could be a great time to live in. I keep thinking what an experience it would be to stay in it – go West and watch the building of the country, see how much of the Old West mythology is true.
Yeah, he’s White. Most of science fiction is written from a White gaze like that. But since this is a Black time travel story (both Butler and Dana are Black), going back in time is not so cool and amazing.
My sister loved this book. So do several commenters here. I liked it, but I did not love it.
It was a slave narrative cast as a time travel story. As such I would much rather read true accounts, like Solomon Northup’s “12 Years a Slave” (1853), than read made-up, watered-down ones like “Kindred”.
Unlike slave narratives, Butler can compare past and present as well as show things from the slave master’s point of view. But even here it was not a win for me:
- Her comparison of past and present did not seem particularly profound: the 1800s were the Bad Old Days and its people were a product of their times. Better would be to show how the present grew out of the past, how the Bad Old Days still hang over America. Instead we get no-mess Teflon History.
- Slave masters: It was good that Butler fleshed out Rufus Weylin, gave him an inner life and moral complexity instead of making him a cartoon racist, but I still had little sympathy for him.
Rufus as a slave master “meant well”, most of the time. He was enlightened for his time and place (with Dana’s help). But because he lacked empathy and had little check on his power, he caused great human suffering – and did not care. Worse than whippings or rapes was selling off relatives. Butler was good at making you feel that. Rufus fell in love with a slave woman, but his power over her made him a rapist, not a lover. He became a lonely man. His power as slave master damaged him and everyone it touched.
As a time travel story it seemed realistic:
- Dana goes through culture shock;
- Her education and knowledge of the future are not as much of an advantage as you would think;
- She seems strange to both Blacks and Whites: she wears blue jeans, speaks an educated English with a strange, White-sounding accent, her knowledge of germ theory and sudden appearances (aka time travel) make her seem kind of like a witch, etc.
See also:
She wrote Parable of the Sower which was pretty good if you like Sci fi.
More black people should write science fiction.
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So how did she depict the present times (or at least that of the late 1970s).
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“More black people should write science fiction.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
http://blacksciencefictionsociety.com/
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Yes! I too would love to see or read more Black or African orientated science fiction. Unfortunately most (not all) seem to be unashamedly, unconsciously or otherwise, profoundly Eurocentric. Or basically substituting Black/African characters for white characters in the same Westernised dominated, robotic, technological landscape setting…How culturally different is this?
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Glad you did a post on this. Every time it is mentioned I forget the name of the book and what post it was mentioned on. This goes perfectly in line with the types of things I enjoy reading.
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Kwamla: I have a few rec’s for you if you’re interested:
And:http://www.amazon.com/AfroSF-Science-Fiction-African-Writers-ebook/dp/B00AEUH112/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1X6XBAFXWTCDABEMM3Q7
These two titles should help link you to more – just follow some of the uthors and editors websites.There’s a lot more SFF out there by Black writers, including my personal favorite Nnedi Okorafor who is featured in the anthology “Long Hidden”.
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Absurd. Are we now going so far into the culture of Europeans that we are willing to make entertainment out of the tragedy of our ancestors plight? Its like the movie Django where the word, “Nigger” was used hundreds of times. Or better yet Russell Simmons absurd and disgusting movie, “The Harriett Tubman Sextapes”. Let me remind you that European literature ends in tragedy and is mainly concerned with human tragedy. But the African literature is about spiritual and moral lessons and happy times. Stop this perversion and return to your ancestors culture.
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The move ‘Kindred’ reminds me of ‘Sankofa’ (a 1993 independent film). Sankofa is an enlightened movie about a modern-day, narrow-minded black female model who travels back into slavery. In slavery, she gets a rude awakening. But I love the ending.
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“The Harriett Tubman Sextapes”
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really?
Somebody made a movie with that title?
Well, you gotta give them credit for marketing game; it got my attention like I suspect it got a lot of peoples attention.
BTW, white people invented “the N word” so they could say “ni66er” when ever they wanted, including right in front of your face.
Think about it, you hear “the N word” FAR more than you ever heard the word “ni66er”.
As usual the joke is on us.
(((SMMFH)))
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Thank you for the link JM. Both science fiction/fantasy and cartoons are excellent tools for black people to practice thinking out side the confines of our white supremacy programing.
Writing about the ancient past is another way to do it. Has anyone seen the movie Quest For Fire?
They had a good concept but ruined it by trying to make it popular (acceptable to white people).
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Some of you are very late to the party there is a plethora of black sci-fi authors even W.E.B. Dubois tried his hand at sci-fi in1920 Jesus Christ In Texas you can find it in the anthology of short stories by Octavia Butler and others in the books Dark Matter and the second book Dark Matter A Reading of The Bones. There is also Nalo Hopkins “Brown Girl In The Ring, Yes there are black sci-fi authors. I have had these books on my book shelves for years. I am surprised that some of you have not heard of them.
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There is an interesting essay in the Dark Matter anthology by Samuel R. Delaney titled Racism and Science Fiction. For those who are interested. These are great reads.
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Russell Simmons did that wack video that he thought was comedy about the Harriett Tubman sextape. I was shaking my head about that foolishness.
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May I recommend 47 by Walter Mosley. He did a magical/sci-fi rendition of slavery times with a bit of a twist. I still have mixed feelings about that book, kind of like Django.
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@Lifelearner: Walter Mosley also has a short story Whispers In The Dark and he has an essay in the book as well. “Black To The Future.”
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Butler’s books had nothing to do with science since she never tried to give natural explanations for the supernatural powers of her characters.
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@ Abagond
Great review! But I disagree with you in that I did love, rather than just like it.
I actually thought that Butler meant us to see Kevin’s sister as a precursor for Rufus’s mother. Kevin’s sister is supposed to have opposed the marriage under the influence of her husband. At least, that’s the excuse Kevin gives for her. But I thought it was more than implied that Dana is sceptical of this.
Then Rufus’s mother, whose racism might be less overtly violent, is just as horrible and in many ways more so than her husband. Some of this can be traced back to jealousy but she seems to take delight in emotionally abusing and humiliating all the women in the household.
This was one of the broader themes in the book. White women shouldn’t get a free pass from racism, and their (our) emotional abuse/humiliation can be just as destructive as violent racism.
Anyway, it hit home for me because that’s a narrative that seems to be missing from the other novels & non fiction I’ve read about slavery. It really made me think more about racism directed by white women against women of colour, rather than racism from the archetypal white male etc.
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@ gro jo
Have you read the ‘Lilith’s Brood’ books? They’re lot science fiction-y than Kindred.
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This actually sounds interesting (I like time travel stories, if they are done well). The plot sounds like an opportunity to compare then and now, white and black experiences, etc. Not sure if the author managed to accomplish that, but there’s sure an opportunity.
When it comes to, well, not really time travel and SF, but definitely an interesting story, I recommend The Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman. The story is not perfect, it’s kind of “tell, don’t show” in certain places, but it’s definitely a powerful read. (Though, disclaimer: I am white; black readers might disagree.) What I liked about that book the most is that, on the surface, it’s a reversal of the historical situation (Crosses (blacks) are the ruling race and the oppressors of the noughts (whites)), but it’s just on the surface, imo. Because it’s not really a story about a reversal of the roles; this IS our world. (And it’s pretty interesting that so many people call the book a work of dystopian fiction – just because blacks are positioned as the group with power, you call it dystopia?) In any case, it’s not a perfect book but a very interesting read. Also written by a black woman, btw.
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gro jo
Butler’s books had nothing to do with science since she never tried to give natural explanations for the supernatural powers of her characters.
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OK, well give her a break anyway and call it “science fantasy”. White people make up all kinds of ridiculous unscientific scenarios and nobody has a problem with it; wizards, witches, vampires…
For me the Harriet Tubman Sex Tape was only offensive because it was not funny; it could have been but it wasn’t because they refused to do the work necessary to make it hilarious, which it could have been without any of the “slapstick” sex scenes if they were willing to put in the work.
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lifelearner
May I recommend 47 by Walter Mosley. He did a magical/sci-fi rendition of slavery times with a bit of a twist.
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May I recommend the Cosmic Slop trilogy? Its not really science fiction; I would describe it as “science supernatural” with the fable/lesson type quality that attempts to impart wisdom to the viewer. To that end it is both entertaining and educational.
The goal of the white supremacists is to cut you off from the transcendent and shackle you to the materialist, determinalist, mechanical world view they have created in their own image.
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Cosmic Slop is a movie composed of three 30 minute “shorts”. The 1st one “Space Traders” is on youtube
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6-n9axdiOs)
the other two are “The First Commandment” and “Tang.”
The way it was explained to me; HBO hired the Hudlin Bros to do a black science fiction movie but didn’t give them enough money to do a good one; so their work around was to do 3 shorter movies.
For a low budget movie, they did an outstanding job getting the most out of the production qualities and talent they could afford. If anyone knows of other movies like this, please let me know.
Thanks.
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I did a post on “Space Traders”:
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Read this in college. I like wild seed better.
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Don’t you think African diaspora has suffered enough tragedy? We don’t need to add European death literature to our computer processors. Besides Science Fiction is European super ego according to Phil Valentine and I wholeheartedly agree with him. Our ancient Ancestors aka Egun were no fantasists they achieved the impossible because they worked at it, they made sacrifice. Ebo aka sacrifice is the key to balancing the benevolent and malevolent forces of nature, from which all principle forces that govern the cosmos have their root, IFA is the science of ancient Kemet passed down to the Yoruba via Ile Ife. IFA deals with the primary forces and sub forces called Orishas, the Odu or scared chapters open up the way to understanding all possibilities of human experience.
We need not concern ourselves with future time if we have not mastered the present conditions that are guiding our fates. I will end here I don’t want to be perceived as if I know it all but IFA does.
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Sanguine,
“Our ancient Ancestors aka Egun were no fantasists they achieved the impossible because they worked at it, they made sacrifice.”
You have to imagine the impossible before you can achieve it. Creativity and work go hand in hand. Many of today’s innovations started off as ideas in science fiction stories.
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I grew up as a huge fan of science fiction with authors like Isaac Asimov and many others. I retired from reading the works of fiction for real stories like the autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley. Real stories about real people, social studies is also a science, so is Humanitarianism. Like how do we develop Africa? We need books about how do we develop the African world to be written and widely read by Africans worldwide. Time travel and electornic gadgets only benefit Europeans for Africans are too under developed to even take advantage of such technological sciences. The tablet was already an African invention, school kids in Benin Republic carry around erasable tablets for reading and writing, this is an old thing. Besides computers are the benefit of lazy brains, Babalawos and Iyas are charged with memorizing the entire book of IFA via reciting from memory. Our sciences have always been ahead of Europeans, Arabs and Asians, thus the whole purpose of White Supremacy and Racism is to thwart our development in order for them to claim they are superior falsely.
We need to take serious the war we are involved in and get away from escapism. We are in a war against poverty, hardship, disease, ignorance and death. We need to develop sciences that deal with those issues and I can tell you no gadget will do it, no time travel will change or alter the causes that put us into these conditions. We need to reclaim the traditions of our ancestors. We need to revive our civilization worldwide. We need to insist on our right to develop the African world by the world human rights standards, which is social, economic and political development independent of others, thus the right to determine our own fate. I don’t mean to be so mean and hard but my loving side is just as deep as my condemnation for time wasting distractions from our huge task at hand, which is raise the African world.
Also I am aware of the technological inventions of African people and how creativity plays a big part into that. I do want to increase and spread technological advancement and research amongst our youth but first we need to stop them from dying. For it makes no since that we give the world the benefit of African genius for them to take away from us and then ultimately use it against us. A brother at Stanford University invented the silicon chip that makes powerful byte carrying microcomputers we see in everything like laptops, desktops, tablets and phones possible. I would love to see a technological institute erected upon the continent of Africa where our youth can show off their mental prowess and develop cures to our many ailments.
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Great article, Abagond! I have enjoyed reading Ms. Bulter’s books.
Here is a link to one of many great Black futuristic artists:
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oops….thought it was just going to be a link to artist James Eugene’s page.
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I don’t like time traveling books,either. This sound like a soft version of Sanfoka. I’ll give this book a try. Take a look of this-blackgirlnerds.com/cosplaying-black-homicide-darrien-hunt/
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thwack
“OK, well give her a break anyway and call it “science fantasy”. White people make up all kinds of ridiculous unscientific scenarios and nobody has a problem with it; wizards, witches, vampires…” I’m not giving her or any of the writers of fictions about wizards, etc a break. They should call their stuff supernatural fantasy. Jules Verne wrote “science fantasy”. Why hasn’t one of our black science fantasy writers ever used the rich history of Ethiopia, Ancient Mali,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali_Empire, Kilwa, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilwa_Sultanate ,etc. to write science based fiction? Why not write a novel around the claim that the king of Mali sent a fleet to the Americas, how about a novel about Malik Ambar’s construction of Aurangabad,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurangabad,_Maharashtra or the construction of the rock churches of Lalibela http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalibela in Ethiopia? I suspect the writers are too lazy to learn real history that would read as fiction given the racist lies told about blacks for the last three centuries.
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The Delany article mentioned by Mary Burrell can be found here: http://www.nyrsf.com/racism-and-science-fiction-.html
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sangurine, you might enjoy reading some of the stories on these websites: http://www.kumatoo.com/
http://timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com/
The stories of Bertin Nahum, Sandile Ngcobo, Kunle Olukotun, Solomon Assefa, are about technologists working at the cutting edge of their fields
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Damn, the link for the Space Traders story isn’t working. Will check on Amazon to see if there’s a hard copy version for sale.
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Sword and Socery genre based in Africa.
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Writer Tananarive Due in My Soul To Take in her immortals series uses Africa mainly Ethiopia for her characters. Check them out.
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wordynerdygirl
Damn, the link for the Space Traders story isn’t working. Will check on Amazon to see if there’s a hard copy version for sale.
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my link or abagond’s?
Mine works for me.
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Not really science fiction, but many people consider the old testament to be myth or fantasy.
I liked this version set in Mali starring Salif Keita because the actors are from a culture that is much closer to biblical culture. I gotta suspect some elements of it present in their acting.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkGJJR__RcE)
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Steve Barnes has written an alternate history series (starting with Lion’s Blood) in which Black people are the dominant group on the planet. African, specifically West African, philosophies, religions and martial arts play important roles in the stories.
http://www.theurbanpolitico.com/2011/09/book-reviews-mob-killer-store-devil-you.html
Much of Charles Saunders’ work is set in fictional versions of Africa.
There are numerous other Black man and women writers who are writing fantastical stories that draw on African myths, religions, histories and settings. You have to look for them as they don’t often get “mainstream” attention but they are definitely out there.
http://chroniclesofharriet.com/
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Steve Barnes and Tananarive Due are husband and wife team. I am a huge fan of Tananarive Due’s books, My Soul To Keep, and The Living Blood. I love that they have black people from Africa as the protagonist for their stories. I am a huge fan of these two.
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Is the movie “Blade” considered science fiction? Its the first black science fiction super hero movie I know of with a decent plot, big budget, good marketing…
Was there one before this?
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Abagond, what do you think of this article:
http://www.unz.com/isteve/nothing-makes-a-black-women-angry-like-a-reference-to-an-angry-black-woman/ ?
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science fiction, fantasy and racism
I recently compiled a list of two anthologies of science fiction that I grew up reading.
I am still an avid fan of science fiction and fantasy ,two literary genre that are not always completely separate as many
sifi stories have completely non scientific imaginary components and many fantasy stories have elements of fact and technology.
The two anthologies are
Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories a series of short story collections, edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg, which
attempts to list the great science fiction stories from the Golden Age of Science Fiction. They date the Golden Age as beginning in 1939 and lasting until 1963.
And
Del Rey / Ballantine Books Classic Science Fiction Best Of Series consisting of the short story works of approx 21 authors in this field.
Several issues must be address regarding these examples.
When I was I child when I begin reading sifi fantasy was something I liked very much.
however I was completely unaware as are most children of the larger social issues that effect every aspect of our lives whether we are aware of them or not.
I was completely unaware of the phenomena of racism sexism and classism.My knowledge of history was also lacking.
In regards to the two anthologies I described ,I can now see that virtually all the writers where white and 98% male as well as coming from
socioeconomic backgrounds in which they and their families had the social and economic resources to spend time reading and writing,where allowed by the larger society to express themselves and express themselves unconventionally etc.
In reading the comments on this post we have mentioned the terms black science fiction as well as a few commentators being unaware of not just some of the black authors but even (my self included) the entire field of “black” science fiction.
But when we look at this from a larger frame of reference is it really a surprise that in a society – america – founded on oppression and enslavement of the native population and imported africans, a society that up until this very day still actively discriminates against any and all groups who are not white european ,we have a genre of entertainment in which white europeans are represented almost exclusively to the point the some nonwhites might not even know that members of their group’s participation in this field even exists?
The term or expression black science fiction and or fantasy is a symptom of racism ,just as most would it odd and racist if my list was described like this
Isaac Asimov Presents The “white” Great SF Stories a series of short story collections, edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg
“two white jews”, which attempts to list the “white” great science fiction stories from the Golden Age of Science Fiction. They date the
Golden Age as beginning in 1939 and lasting until 1963.
(bet you will not find a mention in any of these stories of racism ,sexism,classism,homophbia etc just mostly even by the few white female authors ,white male characters having adventures in space and other unusual environments and
circumstances)
And
Del Rey / Ballantine Books Classic “white” Science Fiction Best Of Series consisting of the short story works of approx 21 “white” authors in this field.
So the problem then becomes how do you as a nonwhite person consume and or contribute to a genre dominated by a group of your
species that has been as still is racist.
never mind that racism is based on a false concept of the divisions of our species, this group – white europeans have been and continue to
make this ideology valid in the world and impose it upon all others of ours species.
if you accept their erroneous definitions you perpetuate their ideology
if you don’t ,how can you define and express yourself without inevitably coming to conflict and confrontation.
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Its difficult to demonstrate racism in the form of white supremacy in future based science fiction because it so often includes alien beings, monsters, fictional creatures…
A black man just doesn’t stand out when you got monsters with fangs and 3 heads. Some white people were angry a black man was chosen to play Hiemdahl in the movie THOR.
Not only is the entire story fiction, but he is one of the least bizarre of all.
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Do “Wild Seed” next.
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A heads up on HP Lovecraft.
not one my fav’s but still I just found out and it figgers.
It’s OK to admit that H.P. Lovecraft was racist – Salon.com
http://everything2.com/node/1915228
And I didn’t read kindred but I did read wildssed which I liked and I liked that it was by a african american author.
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@Mbeti what you advocate is that ultimately Africans in diaspora will have to abandon everything that is European? If not then I say so. Our science of Ifa and it’s stemming traditions is deeper and more vast than Western Science which derived from Greece, thus derived from students of Greece studying in Ancient Kemet. We know that West Africans departed Ancient Kemet for West Africa, a return to their origins after what they perceived was the pre-fall of Kemet by mixing and having social intercourse with barbarians, who are the ancestors of Europeans. Why do we dig so deep in hopes to find out we’re somebody were not?
We are from West Africa? Our ancestors came from West Africa and some from other parts nearby. West Africa is our ancestral land and its traditions are our inheritance. To go off into European fantasy, bore your mind with their superficial science fiction, is to be stuck attracted to their civilization ultimately.
European destiny is oblivion. They are dying out. Their birthrate is near their death rate. Their lust for death through constant wars of injustice, which means they murder people, and show no respect for the preciousness of life, thus in the spiritual repercussions their ancestors are not being re-born. European commit suicide more than any race on earth and it’s not for honor. They kill more and murder more and it’s not for justice. They have broken cosmic laws and now the cosmic forces are against them. This could be what is coming out in their psyche when they imagine Aliens from other worlds more advanced than them coming to destroy their civilization. They are afraid of the cosmic forces and cosmic justice for the many taboos they have broken.
I tell you most of you fear men the way you should fear God. This is why the Black house is so full of sorrow and pain. We can’t escape our reality. We must change our reality.
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Google has a Doodle up in honor of Octavia Butler’s birthday.
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@ Solitaire
Thanks. I use Brazilian Google, which is obsessed with the World Cup.
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