The World As It Could Be
When a work of fiction makes me think, I wouldn’t make this choice in this situation, but I understand why this character does, I always feel like I’ve experienced magic.
That’s why I was so excited when I learned that Nnedi Okorafor would be speaking in Oakland for Chapter 510, an organization that runs writing workshops and publishes books for Black, brown, and queer youth. While I’ve read and enjoyed quite a few of Okorafor’s works, her most recent book, Death of the Author, is something special. The braided narrative shifts between a sci-fi future where Nigerian robots fight amongst themselves, and the fictional author of that sci-fi book who navigates the fallout from the book’s publication and massive success. Thematically, the book explores the link between the artist and the art, and Okorafor paints a deft portrait of intersectionality with her main character, the disabled daughter of Nigerian immigrants.
When asked what she wants readers to take away from her work, Okorafor’s answer centered around wanting readers to take away a sense of hope. If you write only about the bad outcomes when looking ahead, that future becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s important to imagine the better futures, too.
Death of the Author contains several plot points that I considered naively tech-optimistic on first read. I’m so ready for technology to have unintended consequences that I feel disappointed when I don’t get that payoff. Hearing Okorafor speak about the intentionality with which she writes this helped me understand those choices better. While utopias are boring, so are pure dystopias. The interesting stuff happens in the space between, where we are all muddling through, and there are both benefits and problems introduced by every decision.
Another highlight of the event was the wide-ranging discussion about storytelling. Okorafor stressed that story is a way to transmit facts in a way that people can more easily grasp, that don’t feel like facts. This can be used for both good and evil, she said, and it made me feel like a bit of a badass. Like writers are soldiers fighting for their truth, and every story and connection matters. It’s a romantic idea I want to hold onto for motivation on darker days.
Two days after the Chapter 510 event was May Day, and I was excited to attend a downtown rally in the evening. I’d mentioned the events to several folks in my social circles, and was disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm. I felt discouraged, like, I could go out myself, but without collective action, what is the point?
I forced myself to walk out the front door all the same. When I walked up to the crowd I felt buoyed by the energy of those around me. Then a little kid right in front of me turned around and waved. It was a boy from my daughter’s third grade class. “It was his idea to come down here,” his mom told me. Since he was considerably shorter than the adults around him, he wanted a closer view of the speakers, so I crawled through the bushes with him to find a better view. We met up with a friend of his who’d created a digital sign on his school laptop which he held high overhead. Joan Baez led a singalong of “Imagine.” The combination of music and child activism made me much more hopeful and connected than I had been when I first left the house.
One of the speakers talked about “upstanders vs. bystanders,” congratulating all of us for showing up instead of standing by and letting injustice happen. It was tempting to let the wave of self-congratulatory pride wash over me, but viewing myself as superior didn’t feel right. Many of the people I told about the rally were interested, but didn’t have the energy to make it out after a long work day. For every one of us that was there, there are probably ten others who’d like to join but don’t have the ability to make it out. We all have days when we don’t have the energy to stand up, but that doesn’t mean we will always merely stand by. Those that had the energy to come out that day lifted my spirits, and gave me more hope about the possibility of a better world. Hopefully my presence does the same for another who needs it.