🤦🏿‍♂️Actually, nevermind.

[mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io]

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/116290338892571761

‍️Actually, nevermind.

Why is everything like this?

The author supposedly went on an anti-woke, right-wing podcast to promote the movie while trashing other books and movies that do have a "woke" message or that have inclusive representation? But... why?

Why was that necessary?

[kristinhenry@vis.social]

@mekkaokereke really? Sad.

why do they do this? So sad.

It is so easy to go out and say "I'm super excited that this work of mine is out there, please watch it."

There is no need to punch down on others. It just makes the puncher look bad. Especially in sci-fi.

[mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io]

I'm not saying don't watch the movie or read the book. Do whatever makes you happy.

I'm also not interested in debating how much inclusion is in his stories, whether he realizes it or not.

And I'm not interested in comparing even bigger, "super woke" sci-fi franchises like Star Trek or Star Wars.

I'm just saying that I personally watched the last one (The Martian), and I watched this one (Project Hail Mary), but you can guess if I'm watching the next one.

So many choices in entertainment.

The actions that attract the MAGA customer base will probably alienate me, and vice versa. That's OK!

[noodlejetski@masto.ai]

@mekkaokereke ah yes, a story about contacting and understanding a completely different culture, learning and respecting their habits, and cooperating and exchanging knowledge in order to fight a common threat is definitely not a woke message. totally.

[mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io]

Whether or not I watch his next movie doesn't really matter that much to him. He's not going to go broke and that's okay. Good actually!

But it's so hard to be an author, let alone a woman author, in sci-fi, who tells stories with good representation? Those authors don't need to be punched down on.

[mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io]

Now I need to buy two IMAX tickets worth of sci-fi books written by authors that aren't anti-woke, just to put my part of the universe back in balance.

Actually to properly balance things out, I have to keep reading new sci-fi books until I find one that I can recommend to thousands of people.

[s_wilson@mastodon.uno]

@mekkaokereke must they be new?

[emma@orbital.horse]

@mekkaokereke I recently finished Claire North's _Slow Gods_ which is really good and definitely takes a stand about people over wealth, along with some good old cosmic horror.

[jwildeboer@social.wildeboer.net]

@mekkaokereke I have quite some afrofuturism books in my collection and enjoy them tremendously. Definitely a collection of worlds worth exploring. Looking very much forward to your experience!

[zdl@mstdn.social]

@mekkaokereke Money.

[mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io]

@ZDL

But it will cost him money?

[delawen@floss.social]

@mekkaokereke Damn it! This was an author I enjoyed. I was going to watch the movie.

I will keep then reading only women that are explicitly trans-inclusive feminist with characters that are not only white.

Explicitly anti racist is harder to find, for some reason... No one asks that question explicitly on interviews.

[billiglarper@rollenspiel.social]

@mekkaokereke

Thanks for the heads up.

I really really like the #ProjectHailMary book. I like how it creates suspense without resorting to conflict. How it keeps pulling the rug from under you. The message.

I've been on the fence to watch the movie due to the spoilery trailer.

And now this.

Finding out the creators of your favourite things to be jerks sucks.

[psychuan@plush.city]

@mekkaokereke iirc Iain M. Banks specifically wrote the Culture series of books because he hated how fashy 70's sci-fi was. not exactly new or even a deep cut, but worth a look if you've not picked them up yet?

[rycaut@mastodon.social]

@mekkaokereke looking forward to your list/discussion suggesting some.

A few that come to mind:

Matt Ruff (“Lovecraft Country” and sequel)

Octavia Butler - I’m particularly fond of the recent graphic novel versions of Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. Hard to improve on or even just adapt a masterpiece but Damian Duffy and John Jennings did so

I haven’t yet finished it but Namwali Serpell’s The Old Drift is wildly ambitious and tackles racism directly

[curlyparakeet@mastodon.online]

@PsyChuan @mekkaokereke

+1 for the Culture series.

[runoutgroover@cloudisland.nz]

@mekkaokereke Oh bollocks! I was looking forward to this one and now I am not gonna bother. What a wanker.

[kristinhenry@vis.social]

@mekkaokereke For more recent SciFi, have you read mary robinette kowal?

I love Julie Cznerneda's Species Imperative trilogy, mainly because a scientist is taken seriously, and then she goes on to save all life in the universe by being a scientist who thinks through things. And yeah, there is a sexy-to-her intergalactic secret agent academic who shows up now and then. What can I say, I love a male character who believes and supports a female character.

[ditsch42@troet.cafe]

@mekkaokereke Do you know the Binti series by @nnedi ? Big recommendation!

And so sad to read about this. I watched the Hail Mary movie without knowing anything about the book and author. I mostly liked it, except for the whole "this one average guy is the only one who can save the world" part ^^"

[zdl@mstdn.social]

@mekkaokereke He's hoping the anti-woke crowd brings him more money than the woke crowd will lose him. He's reading the zeitgeist and cynically taking a knee to the fascists and racists (but I repeat myself). He may also be banking on the fact that most of his woke crowd won't hear about this, so losing even less from that camp.

I didn't say he was right. I'm just highlighting his motivation.