I feel like a certain poster here is conveniently and transparently overlooking the word “DEVELOPING” in the title.
I notice the wikipedia article is still un-edited, too. Put your money where your mouth is if you’re so confident.
So looking up the Blake story it’s not really sci-fi at all?
At best it’s maybe alt-history, except if I wrote a story about the next few months that doesn’t mean I’m telling an alternative history.
Edit: Lola Leroy is set during American civil war, so I guess it’s historical when looking back a few decades?
And Imperum in Imperio is set in the period it’s written.
Feels like calling any of those titles Science Fiction is a lot of a stretch. Might as well say the DaVinci Code is SciFi at that point.
So looking up the Blake story it’s not really sci-fi at all?
You should edit the wikipedia entry then, because it disagrees with you.
"Samuel R. Delany described it as "about as close to an SF-style alternate history novel as you can get.
Further, while it incorporates elements of the fugitive slave narrative, Blake’s narrator is also a scientist, whose focus on data collection and research stand in repudiation of the racial science of the day.[10] In fact, this reflects one of Delany’s major themes: that Africa and its contributions to science and math were foundational to the Western world.[12]"
Considering we’re talking about the era of the belief in Drapetomania, I’d say a slave revolt followed by an attempt by black people to take over Cuba would be considered sci-fi by a lot of readers.
Edit: Also, sci-fi wasn’t really a thing in 1862.
No sci-fi wasn’t an official thing, yet the title of this is ‘were developing the Afro-Futurism/Black Sci-Fi genre…’
I’d say a fictional story about slaves successfully rebelling and taking over a country, narrated by a scientist, who does science things.
It is ridiculous how much hair-splitting is done when it’s Black culture, and I’m quite embarrassed by the attempt to claim entire wikipedia sections are ‘wrong’ like this.
(Not saying you’re saying that, I understand we’re on the same page.)
Because one author says so does not make it so.
You might be right about these not being sci-fi, but sci-fi can take place in the period in which it was written. Alternative history plus sci-fi can definitely be a thing. Or writing sci-fi that’s supposed to take place in just a few years.
And I addressed that. I wouldn’t even feel comfortable calling said title alt-history.
Do you think a title like the DaVinci Code is sci-fi because it altered history?
These sound like fictional drama/thriller books in a period piece setting to me.
Wow, I didn’t expect such a rude response.
You find a question, rude?
In this case, yes. It’s not a serious question. It’s poking at me. Of course I don’t find the DaVinci Code to be sci-fi. The question makes no sense and comes across as aggressive.
The question is because the DaVinci code fits that authors reasoning for why Blake should be Sci-Fi, in that it explores an alternative history.
It’s a rhetorical question, but that does not belie the seriousness of it.
Speculative fiction is generally a better term to avoid quibbling over details. The speculative step is the important defining thing in any case.
