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phi ([personal profile] phi) wrote in [community profile] dark_agenda2012-05-01 02:43 pm
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Wiscon panel suggestions

There's this panel at Wiscon about the Arab/Muslim "east" in sff (full description below). I confess to having a rather US-centric view on SFF and representations of Arabs and Muslims therein, so I'm looking for suggestions, thoughts, opinions on the subject. For example, most of the examples I can think of are from media by white westerners (Sayyid in Lost, Sleeper Cell, a US tv show, the easterners/southron in Tolkien and Lewis's works, Ian McDonald's work, Faiza from the comic Captain Britain and the MI-13, The Prince of Persia (don't even get me started), Palomides in various Arthurian retellings) and even most of the works I can think of by PoC are by hyphenates or Americans (ie, Saladin Ahmed's Throne, Nnedi Okorafor's Shadow Speaker, Tananarive Due's African Immortals series, whose protag comes from an Arab and Islam-influenced culture, the wonderful short stories and poetry by Amal el-Mohtar).

Other works that come to mind for me are The Case of the Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif and The Satanic Verses by Rushdie, but I wouldn't consider either of those to be sff, really. Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Rushdie is definitely a fantasy work, as is Padisha Begum's Reflections by Shweta Narayan, but that's all I could come up for works by sourcelanders.

So suggestions for a reading list for me? Pretty please?

Here's the full panel description:
Let's look at depictions of the Arab/Muslim "East" in SF. We'll review the recent literature (for example Ian McDonald, Howard Jones, Kameron Hurley, Saladin Ahmed), discussing the good, the bad and the ugly. But it shouldn't stop there: Let's also look at how SF readers and writers can engage fruitfully across cultures. We don't just want to write about English fairies, but how do we write about djinn? Does it matter that tons of people believe in them and have ideas about them based on the Qur'an? What do we need to think about? And where can we find helpful information?
beccastareyes: Image of Sam from LotR. Text: loyal (Default)

[personal profile] beccastareyes 2012-05-01 07:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I recall seeing some press a couple of years ago about a Muslim comic creator who was writing a superhero comic with powers based around the names of God. The interview I recall talked a lot about choosing to use this symbolism and the use of a very Western concept (the caped super) with a Muslim identity. (And also about wanting diversity in his cast of characters, even writing from an Islamocentric POV -- it was important to him that the characters be from all over the world and have many different relationships with religion.)

(Wikipedia helped me locate it)
troisroyaumes: Painting of a duck, with the hanzi for "summer" in the top left (Default)

[personal profile] troisroyaumes 2012-05-01 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Neither of these are recent, but:

A while back, Words Without Borders had a SF issue where they included excerpts from this work in Urdu, which they describe as "the world's first magical fantasy epic": Tilism-e-Hoshruba.

I'm also reminded of "The Sultana's Dream" by Roquia Sakhawat Hussain (nominated for last year's Kaleidoscope!), who was a Bengali Muslim writer.
lilacsigil: 12 Apostles rocks, text "Rock On" (12 Apostles)

[personal profile] lilacsigil 2012-05-02 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
Do you count superhero comics?

Josiah X is a Marvel superhero created by an African-American writer, Christopher Priest. Josiah X is an African-American convert to Islam and has quite a SF backstory with embryo creation and being the genetic son of Isaiah (the original, black Captain America) and Faith Bradley of "The Truth: Red, White and Black". He appeared in "The Crew" (which was cancelled after about 10 issues I think?), in War Machine and has been mentioned in Young Avengers (his nephew, Elijah Bradley, is a major character there).

[personal profile] ex_lionpyh573 2012-05-02 07:14 am (UTC)(link)
Drive-by link. I should note that by no means all of these are sourcelanders, though all are Muslim - just be aware that some are converts who live in the global North (or I guess the 'West') and are white.
nemonclature: Daria looking unamused (Default)

[personal profile] nemonclature 2012-05-03 10:21 am (UTC)(link)
There's this Islamic Steampunk, but IDK how far the writer got with it or if he updates his blog, I think there's a facebook page somewhere maybe. The World SF website itself may be useful however.

(Anonymous) 2012-05-21 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Well there is Islam and Science Fiction which is a pretty comprehensive place on this subject.

http://www.islamscifi.com