In recent months, the New Normal has grown from pandemic lockdown catchphrase to a DysUtopian* ideal, embodying restless anxiety and quiet reflection, the ideals of international cooperation and the nadir of nationalistic isolation, and both a future of terrifying uncertainty and an opportunity for change, as we try to conceive of life alongside this disease.
Many times in recent months, as I’ve exchanged cards and small gifts with struggling friends, or cleared my cupboards for charity donations, I’ve been put in mind of Professor Brian Attebery‘s 2019 lecture at University of Glasgow on the future of YA and Adult Utopian fiction, part of a series sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust. Leading off from the works of Ursula K. Le Guin, Professor Attebery spoke of how the most convincing utopias in fiction may not be the ones at the level of full societal change, but those at smaller scales – even those found embodied in the brief moments of kindness shared between two individuals.
So, this strikes me as an opportune moment to draw your attention to my review of Becky Chambers’ Record Of A Spaceborn Few (Hodder & Stoughton, 2018) in the latest issue of Fantastika journal, After Fantastika.
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Regular readers of this blog will know how much I’ve enjoyed following the Wayfarers series over the last few years, and I was delighted to have the opportunity to explore this novel in particular in more depth. While Record Of A Spaceborn Few offers longtime fans of the series the chance to visit Chambers’ future age of intergalactic cooperation, it’s also a very timely novel in some ways. In covering an isolationist society reaching out into the wider intergalactic community, Chambers does not shy away from how such drastic changes impact ordinary people in society, and how prejudice can result in tragedy, even on the most indirect level. How this may be overcome with acceptance, kindness, and an acknowledgement of the connectedness of people is a core element of this wonderfully affecting novel.
As this review was for an academic journal, there’s also some discussion of where Chambers’ work fits alongside other Science Fiction dys/utopias, including a reference to the ideas discussed both by Le Guin and Attebery.
The latest issue of Fantastika is also an opportunity to own a copy of Sinjin Li‘s wonderful cover artwork, as well as the rest of the issue, which follows on from the journal’s 2018 Fantastika conference. Click here for more details of the journal’s recent issues.
On a final note, if you’d like to find out more about the Leverhulme lectures I reference in this new review, the University of Glasgow’s Fantasy Hub has recently uploaded full recordings of Professor Attebery’s Leverhulme lectures at the University of Glasgow. Click here to check them out.
*To borrow a phrase from The Creative Martyrs.