Hi, I'm new to the list. My name is Kym Ragusa and I'm an independent
film/video maker. I got into SF as a kid, watching Star Trek on tv (I'm
still obsessed!). I also loved all the Saturday afternoon monster movies,
like Godzilla, The Blob, Creature From the Black Lagoon, and especially
Werewolf movies. My favorite SF films are Stalker and Solaris
(Tarkovsky), Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden), Fresh Kill (Shu Lea Cheang),
and La Jetee (Chris Marker). I also came to SF through music, particularly
Bowie's Space Oddity and X Ray Spex' Germfree Adolescents. For me, the
early punk era was living SF - urban and apocalyptic.
It is only recently that I have begun to read SF - I've read Butler's Wild
Seed, Kindred, and Parable of the Sower, and Delaney's Babel-17. I want to
read everything by these two writers - they're amazing. I also just picked
up Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott, which I heard is very good.
As a feminist, SF has allowed me to think about power in new ways - I'm not
really interested in utopian matriarhies, but rather in strong women who
fight for their lives and the lives of others in insane times. I don't mean
power & strength necessarily in physical terms, although I'm truly
inspired by Xena, Tank Girl (the comic), and Ripley in the "Alien" series.
I'm also an interracial woman of color, and I'm interested in SF that
breaks down rigid notions of identity (race, gender, sexuality, nation,
etc). I have a real soft spot for shapeshifter characters in particular!
Can anyone recommend other books by SF writers of color?
Right now, I'm working on a web project about one of my ancestors, a woman
who escaped slavery. Ultimately, I would like to make an SF feature film.
Kym Ragusa
> I am beginning to wonder what type of people sign up for this
>list...Do we have a lot of professors? College students? Random people?
>Writers? Computer geeks? Et cetera?
>
> I guess I'll start, since I'm silly enough to ask. I'm Kate
>Bolin. I'm going into my third year at Tulane University, as a
>Anthropology/Religious Traditions of the West major. I work at the
>Newcomb College Center for Research on Women as their main techie. I
>update the webpage, and I'll run the computer cluster (once it really gets
>in).
> I've been raised on science fiction, and have always been looking
>for strong female/feminist characters in science fiction. I think that's
>part of the reason I'm such a huge Babylon 5 addict.
>
>kate
>who hopes this might spark some conversation....
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> "The computer is not a penis. Don't let men treat it like one."
> Kate Bolin http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~kbolin
> Founder of Delenn Deserves Better!!
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:21 PDT