Deplorable Conditions at Local High School Prompt Community Response

by Finn Smith-Ruttan

    It is Friday afternoon in Eagle Eye Book Shop. The busiest part of the day has passed and employees are starting on their inevitable back-list of tasks when around 4 o’clock, students from Druid Hills High School begin to trickle in. Chatting and browsing in groups, excitedly examining the new stock of manga, or relaxing in our reading room after a week of hard work, the students always bring a much appreciated energy to the store. That being said, recent controversy surrounding Druid Hills High has made it even easier to understand why some students might seek somewhere to go after classes have ended, even just to wait for their parents to pick them up.

    For those unaware, the DeKalb Board of Education recently removed Druid Hills High School from its list of proposed modernization at its February meeting. This dismissal led students to make a truly shocking video demonstrating the disgusting and dangerous state of parts of the school buildings (video below). Highlights included water bubbling up from the weight room floor and exposed electrical wiring in a computer lab. A later interview even described a sewage and human waste spill disrupting fourth period, forcing class to be held in the cafeteria for multiple days. This video gained tremendous traction online, and as a result, the Board met again on April 18th to reconsider the situation. As the meeting was taking place, I had the opportunity to interview a Druid Hills High student, Darion Frazier, about the events surrounding their school and what decisions he hoped the Board would now make. “The outside is beautiful, but the inside is deteriorating,” he tells me. “It is not okay.”

    One thing that became very clear, both from my own interview and others I had read online, was the affection the students have for their school. The older students working to improve the school’s conditions will likely graduate before seeing the full results of any repair or renovation effort, and yet they push for it nonetheless. When asked, Darion stated that he and the other students had felt very supported in their efforts by both the administration and the teachers. He made sure to emphasize the importance of the teachers feeling comfortable as well, noting the importance of a teacher in determining the atmosphere of a learning environment. If the poor working conditions drove away teachers as well, the issues facing Druid Hills High School would only compound themselves.

    Darion told me he hoped that the “Board’s mistake will be corrected” and that Druid Hills High will receive “the funding it deserves.” However, after the results of the meeting were released, I am left to wonder whether the students and others pushing for school improvement will be satisfied. While the Board convened in order to approve a resolution to modernize Druid Hills High, they eventually decided on a broader resolution to make critical repairs to schools throughout the district, spreading out funds that had been “earmarked for Druid Hills High.” While this is certainly a step above the prior removal of Druid Hills from the plan entirely, it seems to only be a Band-Aid over Druid Hills’ true problems. Board member Marshall Orson contended that some of the safety concerns facing the school could not be fixed with simple repairs and would require redesign instead, citing how the school’s terracotta sewage pipes, originally intended for one building, are now supporting six. However, the Board ultimately decided to proceed only with the repairs they deem critical for district schools, leaving modernization for a later date.

    While Druid Hills High still faces issues moving forward after this new resolution, the efforts of students and others do demonstrate the ability of even relatively small groups to effect change in their community. The Board of Education reconsidering their initial decision could not have happened without the intervention of concerned community members, and any future change will not happen without more of the same. We at Eagle Eye Book Shop support the needs of the teachers, students and parents to attend a safe school environment.  We hope this information reaches those of you who want to help support the students at Druid Hills High, as well as get involved in the community as a whole. And students, we thank you for your continued patronage and support and hope the situation at school continues to improve. 

Must Read Romances by Amazing Black Authors

It's Black History Month and the month of love! I am so excited to share some of my favorite Black authors- some you may know about and some you may not, as well as some of their current releases and books I'm looking forward to as well! This is a very small sampling, so forgive me for anyone I didn't include. 

Black Speculative Fiction: A Brief History

 by Finn Ruttan-Smith

 

 

Speculative fiction is an increasingly popular term used to describe a cross-section of fiction writing including science-fiction, fantasy and horror. Originally coined by Robert Heinlein in 1947, the name began as a term for a subset of science-fiction stories, narratives less concerned with science or technology themselves but rather the human reaction to these elements. As time has progressed, speculative fiction has led various authors or organizations to attempt to narrow or alter this definition. However, the central tenet of Heinlein’s definition seems to have stuck in the popular imagining of the genre, that being its very literary concern with the human element of storytelling. Even if a piece of speculative fiction has no “human” characters, it uses its story elements to speculate about our world and the people in it. 

It is exactly this seed of the real within the unreal that has made speculative fiction by BIPOC authors so powerful and original in a field historically dominated by white men. Speculative fiction offers the opportunity to peer into a different world and see our own reflected back. It allows aspects of our real lives to be highlighted against a background of the unfamiliar and otherworldly. Issues that can get swept under the carpet in reality can be brought into stark focus when placed in a new setting. However, those reflections are only as powerful as the author can make them, and the dominance of writers of a certain demographic inevitably distorts the picture. The relatively recent boom in BIPOC speculative fiction writers is a step towards correcting this distortion, and allowing the contemporary spec-fic canon to be a more accurate representation of the struggles the world is facing in our time. 

It is important to recognize that the current popularity of black speculative fiction writing did not emerge from a vacuum; examples of black writers creating stories that we would now call speculative fiction can be seen over the last century and beyond. The text commonly cited as the first African-American piece of published speculative fiction is Martin Delaney’s Blake; or the Huts of America, published serially beginning in 1859. It is a story of slavery and revolt involving a secret society known as the Oppressed Men and Women of Cuba and a desperate flight to Canada, spreading revolutionary idealism along the way. While it may not contain the level of speculation we often see today, later black speculative fiction writer Samuel R. Delany (no relation) calls Blake “proto-science fiction...about as close to an sf-style alternate history novel as you can get.” It is remarkable to see such an early use of the alternate-history trope, something that continues to see use today.

Prominent intellectual W. E. B. Du Bois, although best known for his contributions to sociology, also wrote a speculative fiction story called “The Comet” in 1920. It revolves around the relationship between a black man and a white woman after a comet hits New York, releasing a toxic gas which kills everyone but the two. Even a hundred years ago, speculative fiction was being used by remarkable people like Du Bois to analyze race and gender relations in a divided country. Later on in the 20th century, Samuel R. Delany used speculative fiction to explore linguistics and sexuality in his book Babel-17, a story about the weaponization of language and the power of words to alter the perception of certain groups. Delany’s book also won Best Novel in the second ever Nebula Awards in 1966, marking a significant landmark for the mainstream recognition of black speculative work. 

In 1976, Octavia Butler reveals herself to the world. Through her portrayals of circumstances both alien and familiar, Butler cemented herself as one of the pillars of speculative fiction as a whole. Her work contains all the themes of gender, sexuality, race and perceptions of an Other that makes speculative fiction so effective at delivering cutting edge social commentary, and frequently pushes the boundaries of what feels safe or comfortable in relationships between very different peoples. Her short story “Bloodchild,” readable in her short story collection of the same name, explores the idea of male pregnancy through terrifying centipede-like aliens, and her more recent novel Fledgling uses vampires to address devotion, free will, and socially unacceptable love. Butler’s pathbreaking and prolific career certainly sets the stage for speculative fiction writers of the new millennium. 

Today, the field of speculative fiction is more diverse than ever, and there are too many prominent and talented writers to be able to even scratch the surface here. Nnendi Okorafor stuns readers with her Binti series of novellas, stories of cross-cultural transmission in an intergalactic society. Nisi Shawl continues in the alternate-history tradition with her novel Everfair, set in the Belgian Congo, in which the native African peoples adopt steam technology as their own. N. K. Jemisin makes history with her triple award winning Broken Earth trilogy, skillfully incorporating narratives of oppression and power in with fascinating magic and ancient civilizations. With talent like these three and so many others working today, the future of speculative fiction looks bright indeed. 

All this talk of social commentary is not at all to say that black writers, or any writers, cannot or do not write speculative fiction simply for the joy of creating new worlds and populating them with interesting characters. Octavia Butler herself once stated that her inspiration to start writing science fiction came from watching a B-movie, Devil Girl from Mars, and thinking “Geez, I can write a better story than that.”I only mean to highlight the important contributions black writers and other writers of color have made to the genre through variety of lived experience. Just as speculative fiction as a term has expanded to take on new dimensions and followers, black speculative fiction has developed in the same way. It is more exciting than ever to see where it will go next.

 

Who Will Win the 2021 Hugo Award?

 

 

As the year comes to a close, awards for all manner of entertainment are being bestowed upon this year’s batch of skilled and fortunate creators. Among the many prominent awards within the literary world, the Hugo is easily one of the most prestigious when it comes to science-fiction and fantasy titles, and will be awarded to one of six brilliant novels on December 18th. Let’s take this opportunity to review this year’s candidates, and appreciate each for its merits before a final winner is announced!

Candidate 1: Black Sun, by Rebecca Roanhorse.

    Black Sun marks the first entry in the Between Earth and Sky series, an epic fantasy taking place in a world inspired by pre-Columbian indigenous American cultures. The novel takes you into a milieu of celestial prophecy, clashing factions and ancient magic, adopting the most compelling aspects of high fantasy and yet distinguishing itself quite clearly from the crowd. It collected high acclaim for its entrancing world which breaks free from the constraints of eurocentric fantasy, as well as its compelling and, yes, tormented, cast of characters. 

    Rebecca Roanhorse was nominated for the Hugo award for both of her previous novels in her ongoing urban fantasy series The Sixth World. She also took home a Hugo for Best Short Story in 2018 for "Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™." As she continues to expand her literary portfolio, perhaps this will be her year to win Best Novel for the first time!

Candidate 2: The City We Became, by N. K. Jemisin.

 

    Jemisin’s latest novel combines urban fantasy with cosmic horror, beginning a new series which spins out of her prior short story “The City Born Great.” The story embodies New York City through its complex and diverse cast, setting up a coming-of-age story for the city just as much as for its characters. Jemisin’s distinctive style brings these seemingly disparate genres and elements together into a wonderfully realized whole.

    N. K. Jemisin needs no introduction when it comes to the world of speculative fiction. She holds the laurels for being the first author to ever win the Hugo award for Best Novel in three consecutive years, for each book in her Broken Earth trilogy. With such an impressive record, she surely sits as a strong early contender to win this year as well. Time will tell if her successes can continue!

Candidate 3: Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir.

 

    Harrow is the second book of the Locked Tomb series, a sci-fi and fantasy mashup which follows a culture of spacefaring necromancers in the distant future. This second installment follows the titular Harrow, offering much greater insight into her motivations and personal journey than was available in the first entry in the series. Harrow takes the mystery and action central to the series to the next level, unveiling more of the mind-bending puzzle at the center of the series’ narrative, and keeping me up late into the night reading!

    The first book in the Locked Tomb series, Gideon the Ninth, was Muir’s first novel, and was also nominated for a Hugo award in 2019. While her career is still young, her work clearly impresses with its inventive genre blend and strong narrative voice. Winning a Hugo this year would set the bar even higher for the final two books in her current series, and all her work in the future. 

Candidate 4: Network Effect, by Martha Wells.

 

    The fifth entry in the award-winning Murderbot series, Network Effect is the longest book the series has yet produced. As a full-length novel rather than a novella, Network Effect is able to dive into Murderbot’s own character growth in much greater detail as it becomes embroiled in an attempt to rescue the humans it has come to care for from a desperate situation. While Network Effect is a standalone story, fans of the series are sure to get the most out of it as the book expands upon the relationships the robotic protagonist has accrued over the prior four books.

    Martha Wells has previously won two Hugo awards for Best Novella thanks to her earlier work in the Murderbot series, All Systems Red and Artificial Condition. However, the longer page count of her latest venture makes it eligible for the Best Novel category, new territory for the series. It remains to be seen whether Wells’s success in shorter-form storytelling will correlate to success against the other fantastically talented novelists competing for the award this year. 

Candidate 5: Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke.

 

    Of all the candidates this year, Piranesi is my personal favorite. Taking place in a mysterious statue-filled labyrinth, the story follows a man without memories, living simply until his blissful ignorance is shattered by forces beyond his comprehension. The novel is literary and smart, with a protagonist full of heart and a beautiful, wonderfully realized world. It also uses a somewhat experimental form, comprised of the journal entries of the protagonist in all their eccentric glory. The book is short, but revels in the time it is given. 

            The author, Susanna Clarke, is most well known for her previous novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which won the Hugo award in 2005. She has already proven her ability to write a masterpiece, and Piranesi only adds to her impressive reputation. She is well-positioned to win the award for a second time, despite the sixteen-year gap between her two novels.

Candidate 6: The Relentless Moon, by Mary Robinette Kowal.

 

    The Relentless Moon adds an element of the ‘whodunnit’ mystery to Kowal’s stellar Lady Astronaut series. As the Earth draws closer to disaster, the novel revisits the events of its predecessor, The Fated Sky, from a new perspective. Characters who took a backseat in the second book are explored fully in this third entry, and the sociopolitical unrest on Earth reaches new heights as the space program faces increasing amounts of controversy. With this novel, the Lady Astronaut series cements itself even further as some of the best of contemporary hard sci-fi. 

    Mary Robinette Kowal has already won a Hugo award for The Calculating Stars, the first book in the series, as well as for the novelette on which the series came to be based. While The Fated Sky was passed over for the award in 2018, The Relentless Moon could easily be another winner. However, regardless of whether it wins in the end, the popularity of the series is enough to demonstrate that Lady Astronaut is well worth following. 

There we have it! Whichever novel ends up taking the Hugo award for Best Novel in the end, all six should be appreciated for their unique and wonderful contributions to the contemporary sci-fi and fantasy firmament. Show your support for your favorite of the candidates by gifting a copy to your friends and family this holiday season, and look out for the announcement of the winner on December 18th!

Romances for the Spooky Season (And Any Season Really)!

 

Halloween is this week and there is no better time than now to read something scary, eerie, or completely out of this world! Here are some of my best recommendations for spooky stories with happy ever afters or happy for nows. I had to shorten my list, but feel free to put any recommendations you might have in the comments!

Nightbitch - Book Corner, October 2021

 

 For the month of October, and for our first ever Eagle Eye Book Corner, booksellers Rachel and Finn bring you their thoughts on a tale of motherhood and monsters fit for Halloween season!