Book Review: The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms Edited by Taryne Jade Taylor, Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Grace L. Dillon, and Isiah Lavender III

 
 

The Routledge Handbook of CoFuturisms Edited by Taryne Jade Taylor, Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Grace L. Dillon , and Isiah Lavender III 

 686 pages, Hardcover
Published October, 2023 by Routledge

Routlage is one of the most respected academic publishers in the world, or so my father told me when he sold his last book to them before he died. With a 55-year career in political science, he was pretty happy about unlocking this achievement just before we lost him. So I am told this is a big deal. I have to thank Taryne Jade Taylor, who asked if I wanted a review copy and I am glad I said hell yeah because this is a fine piece of work.

Someone at Routlage knows what they are doing because I am very familiar with all the work of these editors. Taylor and Isiah Lavender III have been more on my radar, and I can’t say that I knew many of the names in the by-lines but that doesn’t matter because the intense knowledge I gained is almost priceless.

Including indexes, this book is a stunning 677 pages of hardcore Speculative fiction academics focused on expanding the readers knowledge of global science fiction. One of the best strengths of modern science fiction is the global reach. Outside of Stanislaw Lem and a few anthologies most of 20th century science fiction is American and Canadian. I know Judith Merril for example published Soviet SF anthologies but the need for a book like this is way overdue.

I must have added 80 books to my GoodReads “Want to Read” list and already read one book I learned about in these pages. I learned about international science fictional movements and you can’t really put a price on that understanding. Let's talk about the title. What does CoFuturisms mean?

Co-editor Taryne Jade Taylor says in her introduction “CoFuturism is a movement that is found both within science fiction and fantasy and also reaches past the boundaries of speculative fiction. The concept of CoFuturisms knits together work being done on the various forms of futurism by people of color and Global South futurism such as Afrofuturism, Indigenous futurism, Latinx futurism, Asian futurisms, and Gulf/ Middle Eastern futurisms. Each represents a clearly identifiable movement, mode, aesthetic, and subgenre.”

With my highlighter in hand, I read most of 600 plus pages of articles. Found something interesting enough to highlight in each of them. I already had a pretty decent understanding of Chinese SF, and have read several afrofuturists and most of the articles about that movement. I still learned a lot. I was very fascinated by the Gulf/ Middle Eastern content, but again I knew some of it before. I knew very little about Global South fiction. Honestly, I learned a lot from each article.

Some of my favorite articles include:

“Wayfinding Pacifikafuturism an Indigenous Science Fiction Vision of the Ocean in space by Gina Cole
Anthologizing the Indigenous environmental imagery moon shot volume 3 and ecocritical naturism by Conrad Scott

(Re)writing and (re) repeating understanding Indigenous women's roles in the creation of Indigenous futurism by Emily C Van Last

Utopic Rage: Transforming the future through narratives of black feminine monstrosity and rage by Cassandra Scherr

Afrofuturism, Amazofuturism, Indigenous futurism, and Sertaopunk punk in Brazilian science fiction an overview by Victor Castelos Gama with Alan de Sa’ and GG Diniz

Toward a Mexican American Futurism by David Bowles

Let A Hundread Sinofuturisms Bloom by Virginia L Cohen and Gabriele de Seta

A Daoist reading of Hao Jingfong's Vagabonds by Regina Kanyu Wang

Speculative Hong Kong; Silky Potentials of Living Science Fiction by Euan Auld and Casper Brunn Jensen

Transformative cyborgs: Unsettling humanity in Nnedi Okorofor’s Binti, the Book of Phoenix, and Lagoon by Alyssa D Collins

The African roots of Nnedi Okorofor’s Aliens and cyborgs by Dustin Crowley.

African futurism as decolonial dreamwork and developmental rebellion by Jenna N Hanchey

I am hoping to get the team of editors on the podcast. This is an expensive book, but one you should request at your library. I think it will become an invaluable resource in my library for years to come.