Black Literature not rooted in black tropes (such as.. Slavery, Jim Crow, Modern Day Microagressions)

[Asicz]

The Comet (1920), by WEB Dubois, is an example of early African American Science Fiction sometimes referred to as black speculative fiction. The short story appears as the final entry in a collection of works entitled Dark Water: Voices from Within the Veil.Aug 11, 2016
Medium – Where good ideas find you. › the-comet-a-...

The Comet: A Brief Introduction to Black Speculative Fiction​

 

[Asicz]

how to use google search effectively - Google Search

 

[earthwalka]

Seems demeaning and dismissive to hand wave off black experiences as "black tropes" in literature while simultaneously asking where is the black version of white works that largely deal with similar themes, outside of the race aspect. The violence and inner turmoil in Cormac McCarthy's works could be compared to the violence and inner turmoil in James Baldwin's (fiction) works.

That wasn’t my intention brotha I’m just tryna find black authors that are similar to the other authors I love

 

[5thbornpowerseed]

How are actual things that happened to black people "tropes"?


My brother you are a by product of the self hate machine that America has put its black citizens through

Hes tired of hearing about facts...

 

[WIA20XX]

S.A. Cosby - Blacktop Wasteland - It's a Crime/Noir novel set in Rural VA.

• Main character - black man, has a wife and 2 boys.
• Mechanic
• Has a fast car
• Great Driver.

And there's a heist. Quick read.

It's not a "struggling against racism" type book, but there's casual racism in it. It reads like it's going to be made into a movie.

On the speculative fiction tip

1. Evan Winters - Rage of Dragons and the 2nd book - South African writer, nods to Xhosa, and there are dragons. Spoiler Alert - some of the side characters are not from Harlem. Book 1 - 5 out of 5. Book 2 - 3 out of 5.
2. Black Leopard, Red Wolf - Marlon Booker - Nobody is from Harlem in this book, and Marlon gets graphic. They was tryna sell this as African Game of Thrones - Hell naw. - 2 out of 5.
3. Imaro - Charles Saunders - What if Conan was African? - old school sword and sorcery. 4 out of 5. Written in a different era.

On a side note - A lot of the hype stuff in the Fantasy/Science fiction wave

1. Strong Females (and male villains, and weak male side kicks)
2. Thinly disguised racial suffering/female oppression,
3. LGBT characters as mains or major side characters.

These authors - NK Jemisin, Octavia Butler, and a lot of others want to "speak their truth". On the cool, I find a lot of female authors and readers want to be emotionally drained. So stuff like Precious and Coldest Winter Ever - really speaks to them. If I want to revisit the 1850s, I can read the Slave Narratives...

Meanwhile GRRM, Joe Abercrombie, and plenty of others focus on writing a good story, and maybe a nod to this and that.

 

[Piff Perkins]

That wasn’t my intention brotha I’m just tryna find black authors that are similar to the other authors I love

I read further and am glad that wasn't your intention. I just get kinda antsy about that because I've heard it so many times from non-white people.

I'd suggest Octavia Butler, one of the great science fiction writers of all time and a black woman.

 

[Asicz]

Yeah nah OP should change the title from "tropes" to 'subject matter'

Thread title connotation is wild disrespectful to be honest.

 

[Asicz]

If only books from Black authors had marketing and promotion like mixtapes and albums

 

[Majestyx]

If only books from Black authors had marketing and promotion like mixtapes and albums

 

[WTFisWallace?]

I actually watched his tv adaptation of his book The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey. Def will check his stuff out

Did not realize this was a Walter Mosley adaption. Instant blassic. One of Samuel L Jackson’s best roles.

Just recently copped Trouble Is What I Do, but haven’t started it yet.

 

[gtj1982]

Noticing a severe lack of varied writings from black authors. There is a lack of black male authors as well. You look at some of the top books by black authors, it's mostly female writers and the ones who are male are often times writing queer stories as well. So who do we have from past to present writing fiction (or nonfiction) that isn't strictly rooted in the typical tropes we see. Most of the books I've seen written today and even in the past have to do with "the Black Experience" but are there any black authors just writing about the human experience? This is not to say that we don't have great books being written today by black authors but I just think we've been pigeon held into telling only certain types of stories.

Where are our black postmodernists?

Where are our Haurki Murakami's, our Fyodor Dostoevsky's, Thomas Pynchon's, Don DeLillo's, David Foster Wallace, Cormac McCarthy, Gaddis, etc

Latin American writers have a rich history of post modernism. Roberto Bolaño, Jose Saramago, Julio Cortazar. shyt Miguel Cervantes, the founder

Japanese writers like Sayaka Murata, Natsuo Kirino and Ryu Murakami

Such varied literature that has its roots in their prospective cultures but is solely unique in its story telling, backdrops, and messaging.

Octavia Butler is one of our great writers. Her books are incredible. I've also heard great things about NK Jemisin and Marlon James. but who else do we have? Who else am I missing? Are there black authors not just telling black stories? put me on.

We have some postmodern filmmakers working today at least. Donald Glover with Atlanta, Terrence Nance, Boots Riley with Sorry To Bother You (truly one of our great modern works that doesn't just capture the black experience in relation to capitalism, but America in general.)

How you list a couple for each group even black Americans but then claim we have none. And why you know all those others but running to this board looking for black writers. Low key seems like another blacks have no culture like “insert other group” thread.

 

[Amo Husserl]

That wasn’t my intention brotha I’m just tryna find black authors that are similar to the other authors I love

What do you mean, 'similar'?
Quality of writing?
Depth within the expansion of the theme?
You are not articulating well.
You think black writers are not exploring their theme better?
Problem with technique?

 

[WTFisWallace?]

I get OP’s point. There is a sea of great non fiction content by black authors as well as fiction that heavily focus on the angles OP’s talking about. You can probably recommend 70 different authors/books of those types to introduce to & entice a new reader.

But when it comes to the other stuff, it’s not necessarily a sea of it that you just so happen to stumble upon. You gotta put some research into it to find em. Even in this thread, a lot of the people who are actually listing recommendations…are saying similar works. Obviously someone like Octavia Butler is one of the GOATs so of course she’s gonna get mentioned multiple times.



As far as recommendations:

as others have said, definitely Octavia Butler’s work. Especially Parable of the Sower (the Talent as well). There should be a TV or film adaption of that pretty soon.

A Brief History of Seven Killings is really good, makes use of patois which is interesting. At first it’s kinda difficult to read but then you catch up to style of writing / patois. A lot of unHarlem parts to the book tho

Spook Who Sat By The Door… kinda fits both what OP is looking for and what your issue is. Regardless, classic book & concept.


I have Rage of Dragons, Walter Mosley, Whitehead, but haven’t gotten around to them yet.




As an aside, was looking for a book for my niece. Came across Children of Blood and Bone….thought let me read it for myself before getting it for her. Man not only is that shyt ass (not fleshed out enough), shyt lowkey seemed to have some c00n elements to it. Had to remind myself that it’s target was teens and shyt which I guess explain the lack of depth to the lore and what not….but the subtle c00nery?

 

[Cadillac]

How you lost a couple for each group even black Americans but then claim we have none. And why you know all those others but running to this board looking for black writers. Low key seems like another blacks have no culture like “insert other group” thread.

yep which is why i said this

this thread reads no different than a "Black americans have no culture" topic

black american lit is very diverse some of yall just have laziness to research or just dont like the concepts at hand of slavery, jim crow, etc

nikkas been doing that shyt of turning slavery on its head, blacks fighting back

one of the stories i mentioned Standing By The Scratch Line by Guy Johnson features a Black man going across America and in Europe kicking Racist CAC ass.

Colson whitehead has a John Henry novel


some of you just want black american writers to be on some escapist african mythology fantasy/sci fi shyt.

Lets just get to the meat of yalls issue thats what yall want. its not about how black americans twist and turn slavery, jim crow, etc





which is why this topic reads no diff than a "black americans have no culture" because this comes down to black americans needing africaness to solidify themselves in yall eyes.
In this case its black literature

if OP can know all those authors some of them not even being popular, but doesnt even know authors like Colson, Wideman, Tracy K smith, Yosef Komunyaka, etc

then that is telling


threads like this is of nikkas who dont really want us to be writing about our culture.
They want us to write about other cultures(African culture) to legitimize our literary scene in their view

 

[gtj1982]

I get OP’s point. There is a sea of great non fiction content by black authors as well as fiction that heavily focus on the angles OP’s talking about. You can probably recommend 70 different authors/books of those types to introduce to & entice a new reader.

But when it comes to the other stuff, it’s not necessarily a sea of it that you just so happen to stumble upon. You gotta put some research into it to find em. Even in this thread, a lot of the people who are actually listing recommendations…are saying similar works. Obviously someone like Octavia Butler is one of the GOATs so of course she’s gonna get mentioned multiple times.



As far as recommendations:

as others have said, definitely Octavia Butler’s work. Especially Parable of the Sower (the Talent as well). There should be a TV or film adaption of that pretty soon.

A Brief History of Seven Killings is really good, makes use of patois which is interesting. At first it’s kinda difficult to read but then you catch up to style of writing / patois. A lot of unHarlem parts to the book tho

Spook Who Sat By The Door… kinda fits both what OP is looking for and what your issue is. Regardless, classic book & concept.


I have Rage of Dragons, Walter Mosley, Whitehead, but haven’t gotten around to them yet.




As an aside, was looking for a book for my niece. Came across Children of Blood and Bone….thought let me read it for myself before getting it for her. Man not only is that shyt ass (not fleshed out enough), shyt lowkey seemed to have some c00n elements to it. Had to remind myself that it’s target was teens and shyt which I guess explain the lack of depth to the lore and what not….but the subtle c00nery?

I read blood and bone. Power system was convoluted and the plot armor was a little off putting but I enjoyed it. Like you said you can tell it’s YA book but what was the part you felt had c00n elements.

@earthwalka I recommend The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull. I really enjoyed it. About aliens landing in the Virgin Islands. It does have the back drop of colonialism though don’t know if you would consider that a trope?