Reviews for A Key To Uncle Tom's Cabin

The average rating for A Key To Uncle Tom's Cabin based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-05-18 00:00:00 Rodney Burch An odd hodgepodge of a book that is perhaps more successful as a manifesto or call to arms than an academic collection. There are some important contributions here, but it seems like the book can never decide if it's: 1. a study of science fiction by African-American women who are commonly understood to be writers of such (Butler, Hopkinson, Shawl, etc) 2. a call for the inclusion of fiction by African-American women written outside of the realist mode (so the above plus Morrison, Bambara, etc) in some sort of larger inclusive genre project 3. a study of Afro-futurism in general (ie including art outside of the realm of literature) 4. a collection commemorating Octavia Butler 5. a work regarding the overall relationship between race and science fiction Now, any and all of these would be worthwhile projects, but I think some focus would have helped a lot here. The introduction by Marleen Barr would lead you to believe that #2 is the primary goal of this work, and a few of the essays follow that lead. Barr's own major contribution, though ("On the Other Side of the Glass": The Television Roots of Black Science Fiction) falls more into #5 (and #3?), examining the role of TV characters in normalizing images of black Americans. I am honestly kind of mystified as to why the interviews with two men were included, especially given that the Samuel Delany interview is (I think) the single longest piece in the book. Similarly Steven Barnes's piece on black male sexuality in the movies, which was interesting (if rather essentialist), but had pretty much nothing to do with literature written by black women (or Afro-futurism). The collection also includes a few short stories by African-American women: Octavia Butler - The Book of Martha: in which God enlists the help of a Seattle-based female African-American science fiction author named Octavia Butler Martha to reform humanity. A fun insight into escapism. Andrea Hairston - Double Consciousness: An excellent example of the ability of SF to literalize important concepts, in this case Du Bois's idea of double consciousness as the African American individual's experience of both self-consciousness/American identity and constant critical scrutiny from white society. In this, a scientist and a... mystic? end up imprisoned in the same body together after falling in love when one invades the other's world (or nation?). I wasn't really clear on what was going on in this story, but a little bit of research has led me to believe that it is a side- or back-story to Hairston's Mindscape, which I now plan on reading sooner or later. Nisi Shawl - Dynamo Hum: Again, science-fictional literalization, this time of the reclamation of sexual agency by an African American woman. Sheree R. Thomas - The Ferryman: this one had kind of a Beloved-ish feel to it, given its horror-tinged gothic atmosphere and story revolving around slavery and the family, and while I can't claim to have followed much of it at all, I will be rereading it. Nalo Hopkinson - Herbal: This is a story about the elephant in the room. All of these were above-average stories that exemplify the use of the novum-as-literalization that is probably the most important social use of this genre, and I think that might actually be the biggest contribution of this volume to the literature.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-11-16 00:00:00 Nick Mckenzie I read this book to supplement a paper I did on Octavia E. Butler's Wild Seed, mostly because of the essay "Becoming Animal in Black Women's Science Fiction" by Madhu Dubey. This book is a great source for academics but it's all just an interesting collection of criticism, essays, and short stories about black women in science-fiction, speculative fiction, and fantasy. I came away with a lot of to-read books (short stories, authors, graphic novels, anything you could want). I recommend this both as an aid and an enjoyable read!