Spec Fic Crossing the Gulf

Wrinkle in Time Discussion, Book and Movie

When a dearly loved but challenging book becomes a movie, where do you set your expectations? Karen and Karen discuss the alchemy of transmuting text to screen and the choices that must be made if the story is to not merely translate, but flourish. We also talk about how much the book meant to us growing up, and our belief that Ava DuVernay has given us a film that will be just as meaningful for a future generation of young geeks.

1.1, "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang

We’ll be discussing contemporary hard sf and Caribbean speculative fiction over the course of our new, twice-monthly podcast. We spend most of this first episode discussing “Exhalation” and the collection Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang.

Black Panther Discussion

A Marvel movie, an afrofuturistic dream, a box office phenomenon… and more? We take a side step from page to screen to comment on the many ways that Black Panther works, and works well. 

A few things are mentioned during the podcast that you may want to read about in greater detail:

Ytasha Womack’s Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture:
https://www.amazon.com/Afrofuturism-World-Sci-Fi-Fantasy-Culture/dp/1613747969

Afrofuturism in the costume design of Black Panther:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/movies/black-panther-afrofuturism-costumes-ruth-carter.html

Hero lighting for dark-skinned characters, as discussed by Ava DuVernay:
http://www.vulture.com/2016/09/ava-duvernay-directing-queen-sugar.html

The Black Panther as written by Ta-Nehisi Coates:
http://ta-nehisicoates.com/graphic-novels/
http://marvel.com/comics/creators/12803/ta-nehisi_coates

The Black Panther and the Dora Milaje as written by Nnedi Okorafor:
http://nnedi.com/books/black-panther-long-live-the-king.htmlhttps://news.marvel.com/comics/86337/fighting-wakanda-forever/
https://www.vogue.com/article/black-panther-dora-milaje-comic-series-preview