io9 
Enter your username and password.
-
posts about #bernardineevaristo more → 
In the Alternate History of "Blonde Roots," Africans Enslave Europeans
San Francisco, 5:58 AM
Mon Nov 9
12 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors: tips@io9.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Annalee Newitz | Email
News Editor:
Charlie Jane Anders | Email
Associate Editor:
Meredith Woerner | Email
Assistant Editor:
Lauren Davis | Email
Weekend Editor:
Graeme McMillan | Email
Contributors:
Joshua Glenn
Stephen Goldmeier | Email
Ed Grabianowski | Email
Austin Grossman
Paul Hogan | Email
Lauren Davis | Email
Chris Hsiang | Email
Lynn Peril | Email
Ann VanderMeer
Alasdair Wilkins | Email
Graphic Designer:
Stephanie Fox | Email
Interns:
Tim Barribeau | Email
Julia Carusillo | Email
Alex Eichler | Email
Cyriaque Lamar | Email
Caitlin Petrakovitz | Email
Mary Ratliff | Email
Josh Snyder | Email
| posts about #bernardineevaristo more → |
In the Alternate History of "Blonde Roots," Africans Enslave Europeans |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
01/06/09
White Man's Burden (1995) More at IMDbPro ยป
The story takes place in alternative America where the blacks are members of social elite, and whites are inhabitants of inner city ghettos. Louis Pinnock is a white worker in a chocolate factory, loving husband and father of two children. While delivering a package for black CEO Thaddeus Thomas, he is mistaken for a voyeur and, as a result, loses his job, gets beaten by black cops and his family gets evicted from their home. Desperate Pinnock takes a gun and kidnaps Thomas, demanding justice. Written by Dragan Antulov {dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr}
01/06/09
I was thinking about that when I read this post, heard about that film but have never seen it, ANYWHERE. I was starting to think it was a hallucination of mine. Is it really crappy or just to controversial? Maybe SeaOrg blocked it's release?
01/06/09
It came out and got shitty reviews or being heavy handed.
It was and Travolta sucks as an actor.
01/06/09
01/06/09
That said, the man has gotten more obscure as time passes; I'm still trying to parse some of the stories in _Going Home Again_, I admit, but anybody who can write "Save A Place In The Lifeboat For Me" deserves a few headscratchers, too.
01/06/09
01/06/09
None of them are 100% winners; all have stories that are. If you're gonna hunt one of his collections down, make sure to find the edition of _Night of the Cooters_ *with* "A Dozen Tough Jobs." It's ... slight ... I suppose, in some respects, but in others, it's an amazing story, and one that I would cheerfully kill to film. (It's a story about this guy, see, who killed his family, and had to do a Dozen Tough Jobs to make up for it. You might think that sounds familiar, but *this* one is set in a Waldropian 1920's Mississippian valley. A hoot, and a comfort story that I return to again and again - it's kind of like _Bridge of Birds_ in that respect.)
I have to say, as long as I'm recommending his work; _Them Bones_ ain't worth it. Be warned. Just got it, kind of regretting it.
01/06/09
01/06/09
The synopsis of this novel seems intriguing but I must agree with Annalee that without even a cursory explanation of how Africans could have gotten the upper hand this all dissolves into farce.
I would urge interested readers to hunt down Robert Silverberg's beautifully written short story "Lion Time in Timbuctoo". It has a 20th Century CE dominated by Muslim Turks, Africans, Incas, Aztecs, and various Asian powers due to the Black Plague killing three-quarters of the European population rather than the 1/4 or 1/3 that died in reality.
Greater Timbuktoo during the 14th and 16th Centuries CE was an very sophisticated culture with some kickass metallurgy that attracted trade and savants from all over the nascent Islamic world while Europe was stuck in a plague-ridden feudal Hell. I mean c'mon, during the Dark Ages the best they came up with was the windmill and a really cool new horse collar. Okay, there was Francis Bacon, John Jay and a coupla other sharp cats. The Renaissance could have gone a completely different way by a few missed shipments or different whispers in various courtly ears.
Anyone interested in Silverberg's "Lion Time in Timbuctoo" can find it and other wonderful Alternative History stories in Martin Greenburg's The Way It Wasn't: Great Science Fiction Stories of Alternative History 1996, Citadel Twilight (screw Amazon, go to abebooks.com). Out of print I'm sure, but really worth worth hunting down. It has several wonderful stories from such greats as Howard Waldrop's "Ike at the Mike", Fritz Leiber, Gregor Benford, Pamela Sargent, and Barry M. Malzberg. Also included is "The Winterberry" by Nicholas A. Dichardo about a reality where JFK survived that horrible day in Dallas. If you can read that without shedding a tear check yourself into the nearest mausoleum; 'cuz sibling, you have no soul. Just lay down and stop breathing.
By the bye, that Silverberg story is also available in Tor Books Beyond the Gates of the Worlds 1991.
01/06/09
Amazon owns AbeBooks.
01/06/09
01/06/09
01/06/09
01/06/09
That's why I thought Guns, Germs and Steel was so interesting and useful. It's one of the first books I've read that laid out exhaustively what those disadvantages and advantages are and why they matter. I think GGS should be required reading for any alternate history author that wants to go in the direct you state.
01/07/09
01/07/09
01/07/09
01/07/09
I will not congratulate you till you've read "Guns, Germs, and Steel". Bad boy, no glowy rock.
01/07/09
Anyhoo, Speaking of Allohistory novels, any of you folks read by S.M. Stirling? It has a bit too much Military SF Gung-Ho White Man's Burden than I'm usually comfortable with but I still quite enjoyed it. Ripping good yarn.
01/08/09
I'm actually trying my hand at process right now, and, being a anal obsessive, I'm earlobe deep in research and so on, things like renaming 'diesel' and 'volts' because, while such items exist, there are invented or discovered by other individuals.
It is both crazy making and great fun.
01/09/09
Good call on renaming stuff but look out, you could end up needing a huge glossary for all the "new" term. All so you'll kick yourself when you left in a word like "hooker".
01/06/09
01/06/09
01/06/09
I love the details that she didn't see coming around the bend in the real future that would have changed the story completely if she'd known (the prevalence and ease of cellphones, the ubiquity of the internet).
01/06/09
I'd argue that plague in the Middle Ages are insufficient to change the course of history that powerfully. Let's not forget how bad these epidemics were. They killed over a third of Europe's population and still this wasn't enough to stem the tide.
I think to have an African dominated global civilization we'd have to change history much earlier and then reverse events several times again later on. I think the inflection point would actually be the defeat of Twenty-Fifth Egyptian Dynasty at the Battle of Sile by the Assyrians.
This is a period I've done a little research on and I think it's an interesting starting point for an allohistory that avoids the usual cliches.
01/06/09
01/06/09
Anyone?
01/06/09
Because of this, there are several major hurdles ambitious African civilizations have to overcome before cranking out guns and ocean going sailing vessels.
1) In the moist, insect rich tropical middle of the continent it's hard to maintain paper documents and wooden housing without constant effort or modern technology.
2) A huge portion of West Africa lacks decent stone for monument building. This is one of the reasons why the Great Mosque at Djenne, Mali is composed of adobe and has to be extensively repaired every year.
3) The Tse-tse fly prevents the spread of calvary composed of either camels or horses from north Africa to central or south Africa. This puts a real crimp in using animal labor for farming as well.
4) Iron age technology spread remarkably quickly through all of Africa after 500 BCE. This revolutionized warfare, farming and tool use but, despite this, the great heat of central Africa forbade the use any type of heavy body armor.
5) Despite being a biological treasure house, only a small number of Africa's plants and animals are suitable for domestication.
I could go on but this was mostly covered in Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel.
Despite all this, I think it might be remotely possible for us to engage in allohistorical daydreaming and imagine a world in which Africa nations to global dominance before Eurasian ones but we have to think of plausible ways to get around all these hurdles before writing a decent story about it.
01/06/09
What? It's still io9.
01/07/09
01/06/09
Its also pretty much saying if Africans took over Europe they'd bring slavery into modern society. (slaves+starbucks) Kinda racist.
Other wise Doris' adventures sound entertaining.
01/06/09
That being said, I heard a review of this on NPR last night and thought the premise of the book interesting in its own way, but not enough to really warrant picking up.
I suppose I'm really not a big "alternate history" kind of guy, I usually find the "alternates" that attract many of these novelists tend to the sensational and irritatingly short-sighted, imho.
01/06/09
"I suppose I'm really not a big "alternate history" kind of guy, I usually find the "alternates" that attract many of these novelists tend to the sensational and irritatingly short-sighted, imho."
Agreed. My first thoughts on this was "sounds like a novel that's just itching to be controversial."
Coming from a black person, the whole white people trying to be black thing sounds cartoon-y (or satirical) at best. Like the author is trying to make a really deep point through really obvious means. "In this world white people WANT nappy hair!" SHOCKING!
01/06/09
01/06/09
01/06/09
01/06/09
01/06/09
I've read it and very much enjoyed it to boot! It's interesting because as I read the review of "Blonde Roots", Lion's Blood immediately came to mind.
I'm somewhat curious to see where Evaristo takes this, but for my money few have done a better job of re-telling this particular segment of history than Stephen Barnes.
Glad to see at least a few people on this site are aware of his work.
If you haven't checked out "Lion's Blood", I highly recommend it!
01/06/09
Me too, just from the above-the-fold description.
01/06/09
This sounds hacky and tasteless, whereas Barnes' work is graceful and lovely.