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May 2002

Nalo Hopkinson

Gregory E. Rutledge University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected]

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Rutledge, Gregory E., "Nalo Hopkinson" (2002). Faculty Publications -- Department of English. 25. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishfacpubs/25

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“Precious,” Silver Birch, Blood Moon, edited by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (New York: Avon Books, 1999). “Slow Cold Chick,” Northern Frights 5, edited by Don Hutchi son Nalo Hopkinson (Oakville, ON and Niagara Falls, NY: Mosaic, 1999). (20 December 1960 – ) “Greedy Choke Puppy” and “Ganger: Ball Lightning,” Dark Mat- ter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Dias pora, ed- ited by Sheree Thomas (New York: Warner, 2000); “Greedy Gregory E. Rutledge* Choke Puppy” reprinted in Years Best Fantasy and Horror, ed- University of Nebraska-Lincoln ited by Datlow and Windling (New York: St. Mar tin’s Press, 2001); and in Year’s Best Fantasy, edited by Hart well (New York: Harper Collins, 2001). Whispers from the Cott on Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction, se- books: lected, with an introductory essay, by Hopkinson (Montpe lier, Brown Girl in the Ring (New York: Warner-Aspect, 1998) Vermont: Invisible Cities Press, 2000). Midnight Robber (New York: Warner-Aspect, 2000) “The Glass Bott le Trick,” Whispers from the Cott on Tree Root: Ca- Skin Folk (New York: Warner-Aspect, 2001) ribbean Fabulist Fiction, edited by Hopkinson (Montpelier, Ver- mont: Invisible Cities Press, 2000). other: selected periodical publications — uncollected “Money Tree,” Tesseracts 6: The Annual Anthology of New Canadian Speculative Fiction, edited by Robert J. Sawyer and Carolyn Fiction: Clink (Edmonton: Books Collective-Tesseract Books, 1997). “Midnight Robber,” Exile, 18.4 (1995): 36–44. “Riding the Red,” Black Swan, White Raven, edited by Ellen Dat- “Griff one,” excerpt, Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora low & Terri Windling (New York: Avon-Nova, 1997). 2, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2000–2001). “A Habit of Waste,” Northern Suns: The New Anthology of Cana dian Science Fiction, edited by David G. Hartwell and Glenn Grant Drama: (New York: Tor, 1999); reprinted in Women of Other Worlds: “Red Rider,” Tellin’ It Like It Is: A Compendium of African Canadian Excursions through Science Fiction and Feminisms, edited by Monologues for Actors, edited by Djanet Sears (Toronto: PUC Helen Merrick and Tess Williams (Perth, Australia: Univer- Play Service, 2000): 11–14. sity of Western Australia Press, 1999); reprinted in Fireweed, 53 (Spring 1996): 28–43. Nonfi ction: “Delany’s Mad Man: the Dark Side of Human Desire,” WORD: Toronto’s Black Culture Magazine (27 October – 9 November * While a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin—Madison, I wrote this 1994): 10. entry for the Dictionary of Literary Biography volume, edited by James Miller. Ulti- mately, this volume was shelved. I have made a few cosmetic changes to tighten “Dropping Science: Black Science Fiction in the 90’s,” Possibili ties, the grammar and standardize some of the DLB stylistics; otherwise, the original 1.4 (Summer 1995): 16–19. manuscript (completed 30 May 2002) is largely intact. Copyright © 2006 Gregory E. Rutledge 3 nalo hopkinson nalo hopkinson 4

or fans of science fi ction and fantasy who have sought and tor, and playwright whose work inspired Hopkinson’s fi rst novel, Fcraved non-White voices, characters, and perspec tives, the both themes and characters from some of his poetry appear as small number of Black writers in these literary genres have pro- epigraphs, characters, and themes in Hopkinson’s fi ction. Among vided them few options from which to choose. Though forty Slade Hopkinson’s works, “The Madwoman of Papine: Two car- years have expired since the fi rst Black science fi ction novelist toons with captions” (1976), published in a collection of the same appeared, a dearth of Black science fi ction and fantasy writers name, fi gures most signifi cantly in his daughter’s fi ction. Slade still prevails, and no hard science fi ction writers are Black. Nev- Hopkinson acted for a time in the Trinidad Theatre Workshop ertheless, recent developments have excited Black speculative fi c- founded by Derek Walcott , the Nobel Laureate. In 1969, Slade tion and fantasy enthusiasts about the prospects for the fi ction Hopkinson performed in a version of Walcott ’s play, “Ti-Jean and of the new millennium to reach into the future and, just as im- His Brothers” (1958), which CBC Radio broadcasted. Nalo Hop- portantly, grapple with issues centu ries old and older. At the cen- kinson began writing science fi ction in 1993, the year her father ter of this fervor is the Black speculative fi ction and fantasy nov- died, and takes pride in seeing his lyrics next to her own writt en elist Nalo Hopkinson, who forever changed the fi eld in the three word. Hopkinson’s only sibling is her brother Keïta, who also en- short years following the 1998 publication of her much-acclaimed riches her fi ction with his criti cal insights as a painter. novel, Brown Girl in the Ring. Following in the thematic footsteps Hopkinson’s progression from reader to creator has been long prefi gured by Octavia E. Butler, the fi rst Black female writing in the making, although the creativity of science fi ction and fan- speculative fi ction and fantasy, and yet writing in an inimitable tasy would nurture and sustain Hopkinson’s interests until it rip- style no one could have anticipated, Hopkinson makes her fi c- ened into her own published fi ction years later. From her early tion as rich as her own background. formative years until she became a writer, Hopkin son’s life fol- Noelle Nalo Hopkinson was born 20 December 1960 in Ja- lowed a rich course in which her father’s artistry, her mother’s maica and reared in Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad before she contributions, and their broad interest in the arts constantly ex- moved to Toronto, Canada, at age 16 in 1977, having stopped posed her to stories and the lushness of lan guage. As a child she briefl y in New Haven, Connecticut, where her father att ended a began reading fantasy literature such as Homer’s Iliad, Jonathan graduate theater program at Yale University. Hopkinson’s par- Swift ’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726), and Philip Sherlock’s West Indian ents were especially instrumental in shaping her interests and Folk Tales (1966) before moving to science fi ction in the form of talents. Her mother Freda (née Campbell) Hopkinson, a Jamaican Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain (1969), following the re- library technician, helped Hopkinson engage literature by lend- lease of the movie. Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965), Samuel R. Dela- ing the twelve-year-old her library card. Hop kinson soon dis- ny’s Dhalgren (1975), and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming covered science fi c tion and fantasy en route to becoming an avid Home (1985) were infl uential in shaping and solidifying Hopkin- reader, prolifi c writer, creative writing instructor, and a dynamic son’s appetite for speculative fi ction. She continued to read av- fi gure in the sci-fi fi eld years later. Many of Hopkinson’s works idly as her family migrated from the Caribbean to Canada, where foreground mother-daughter relationships and the recovery of a she att ended York University, studied Russian Language and Lit- genuine female voice free of limitations imposed by a male-ori- erature and French, and graduated with honors in 1982. ented society. Along with the feminist bent of her fi ction, Hop- The combination of the literary legacy bestowed upon her by kinson frequently draws upon a lyrical tradition represented by her parents and her own status as a westernized urbanite has in- her father, the late Slade Hopkinson. A noted Guyanese poet, ac- fl uenced the motifs of some of her earliest works of speculative 5 nalo hopkinson nalo hopkinson 6

fi ction and fantasy. This “hybridity,” recognized by reviewers makes her novels adventures in ways that enrich, extend, and such as William Doyle-Marshal, signifi cantly infl uenced Hop- challenge the normative. This very potential drew Hopkinson kinson’s national and socio-cultural background as a Black West to speculative fi ction because, as she stated in an interview pub- Indian and specifi cally enabled her to redefi ne the fi eld of spec- lished in Foundation, “I think speculative fi ction has the potential, ulative fi ction arts and lett ers. Indeed, Hopkinson’s own ideolog- oft en realised nowadays, to be perverse and subversive and op- ical orientation has motivated her to delve into the cultural in- positional and revolutionary. Which could make it a wonderful frastructure undergirding science fi ction and fantasy, from its literature for radical and marginalised communities.” Her debut epistemological and ontological premises to its rhetorical and lin- novel, Brown Girl in the Ring, initiated the widespread critical ap- guistic apparatuses. Taking the cue initiated by her predecessors preciation of Hopkinson’s fi ction and a radical new way of think- such as Butler and Samuel R. Delany, Jr., the fi rst Black science ing of language, culture, and specu lative fi ction and fantasy for fi ction and fantasy author, Hopkinson fore grounds a diasporic marginalized and non-marginal ized communities. African culture and privileges protagonists and a supporting With the 1998 publication of Brown Girl, whose story ex- cast of characters who are of African descent. Such a maneuver trapolates from Slade Hopkinson’s “The Woman of Papine” in and of itself is radical for a simple reason: Since the inception and directly draws upon Derek Walcott ’s play “Ti-Jean and His of the fi eld as a modern phenomenon in the late nineteenth cen- Brothers,” Hopkinson showed that Creole, the Afro-Caribbean tury with the literary genius and phenome nal popularity of H. vernacular common among West Indians, could be used to tell a G. Wells’ Time Machine (1895), aft er its canonization as science fi c- compelling story. Moreover, through Brown Girl, Hopkinson ar- tion in the mid-1930s with John W. Campbell’s Astounding Stories, gues that Creole eff ectively situates the stories in the Afro-Carib- and even into the new millennium, science fi ction and fantasy bean perspective, for it validates the culture, ex pands the plural- have been fi elds dominated by White men and their ideals, con- istic possibilities for all readers, and undermines the privileged cerns, and discriminations. The stereotypes, if not outright rac- position the English language enjoys. The result is revolution- ism, have informed everything from plot construction to publica- ary, going far beyond the patois Lome uses in Delany’s Babel-17 tion and marketing de cisions. Delany discovered such when one (1966), and reaching the heights achieved by Michelle Cliff in of his novels, Nova (1968), was initially rejected because it fea- Abeng (1985), a highly acclaimed novel exploring the heritage of a tured a Black protagonist. Charles Saunders, the fi rst Black nov- “White Creole” girl maturing in 1950s Jamaica. Hopkinson’s shift elist to work solely in the sword and sorcery subgenre of fantasy, of linguistic register to Creole from her “normative” British Eng- wrote his Imaro trilogy in the 1980s specifi cally to create a protag- lish created an abundance of fan tastic opportunities for a story, at onist who paralleled and responded to internationally known fan- its core, centered on tried and true plots and subplots: The tradi- tasy fi gures such as Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and Robert E. tion of near-future post-Holocaust novels set in decayed and dec- Howard’s Conan. Moreover, Stephen Barnes, an African-Ameri- adent ur ban ruins where the intense fi ght for survival preempts can speculative fi ction author, only recently began to address is- virtu ally everything else; the protagonist is an immigrant to a sues of racism in his speculative fi ction because read ers were not western metropolis who is striving to reconcile her West-Indian interested in non-White protagonists and their concerns. identity with the new American culture; and, related to this, an Hopkinson continues the struggle these and other Black spec- immigrant family, seeking a land of Canaan but fi nding the op- ulative fi ction writers have joined, but has increased the aesthetic posite, struggles to remain intact amidst the modern forces of so- ante considerably because of the West Indian literary form that cial entropy that foist chaos and pathology upon them. In fact, 7 nalo hopkinson nalo hopkinson 8

Hopkinson confi ded that one of the inspirations for Brown Girl ished her manuscript. What does make Brown Girl a sublime lyri- was an article about the high level of “schizophrenia in [male] cal moment in the Black literary continuum stems from and fl ows Caribbean populations.” Hopkinson centers these themes and through the Creole register and its West Indian foundation. plots on the brown girl Ti-Jeanne. The Creole of Brown Girl is not merely an aesthetic novelty. Ti-Jeanne, whose name means “every woman,” is a young The narrative structure, the cultural orientation, the interper- mother from Jamaica who is struggling for survival, under the sonal dynamic, the intertextuality, and the very foundational auspices of her grandmother, the healer Mami Gros-Jeanne, in structures of science and modernity generated and validated by the inner city of Toronto. This inner city and this post-Holo caust normative fi ctive discourse awaken to new possi bilities preemi- story diff er, however, from the standard post-apocalyptic visions nent critics of science fi ction rightly consider a signifi cant devel- in that the ruination is not total. Instead, the “Burn” of Brown Girl opment. Award-winning science fi ction writer and critic Charles represents the place specifi cally sustained by those in the subur- De Lint fi rst found the Creole and the West Indian cultural refer- ban areas to hold the undesirable denizens like Ti-Jeanne. Hop- ences baffl ing. But once he acclimated, proving true Hopkinson’s kinson’s retreat from a “Mad Max” version of the story allows premise that non-Caribbean readers could, De Lint “became en- her to highlight present racial and class distinctions that limit and thralled with the tidbits of Caribbean culture, the Voudoun cer- delimit the geographical and social space that aff ects her disad- emonies, the mix of old world and new world sensibilities. The vantaged characters tremendously. The psycho-social impact on plot took on an intensity that liter ally propelled me through the the residents creates an underclass that is entrenched in its pov- pages. I struggled over the fi rst fi ft y or so, but read the next two erty in direct proportion to the turpitude of the privileged class hundred in one sitt ing. When I closed the book, the patois of its in its security and comfort. Not surprisingly, Ti-Jeanne’s family voices went on speaking in my head for days.” Charles Saunders, is fragmented, as are her self-identity and affi liations: She wishes a long-time Canadian citizen following his expatriation from the to have no affi liation with the old ways of her grandmother, her United States, lauded the narrative shift to a storytelling tradi- own mother has been lost for years, and the father of her child, tion rooted in African narrative forms retained by dias poric Af- Tony, struggles with his own selfi shness, drug addiction, and ricans even centuries aft er their enslavement. In truth, far more criminal past to be a father. Just as important as the issue of race than Saunders’ eff orts in his sword and fantasy series, Hop- and ethnicity is the quest for gender liberation. Ti-Jeanne’s quest, kinson shift s the substance and the form, which involves what like those of many of Hopkinson’s female protagonists, is to fi nd scholars call a “speakerly text” because of its orality. The oral- her voice in a patriarchal society. Hence, Hopkinson unites the ity, meant as a communal form of expression, opens possi bilities cultural alienation of diasporic Africans, especially the West In- in the text and the genre that validate the novel’s many imagina- dian immigrants, to the alienation of females from selves uncon- tive moments of speculative fi ction, dark fantasy/horror, magic fi ned by the patriarchy. The highly politicized plot in which Hop- realism, social criticism, and theology. Hence, Ti-Jeanne, a new kinson confl ates issues of race, gender, class, and national ity into and reluctant mother, is visited by her West Indian personal de- the speculative fi ction aesthetic is not unique even though such a ity, or loas; she and Tony, the equally reluctant father, walk in- presentation is rare, for Octavia Butler pioneered this mode for visibly through Toronto because Mami Gros-Jean has conjured Black females. Moreover, the narrative fl ow is sometimes coarse them into the spirit realm; fi erce duppies (spirits) give chase and and incomplete, weaknesses indicative of Hopkinson’s limitations hurl fi reballs; and, her own grandfather is revealed as an obeah- as a new novelist and the time constraints under which she fi n- man, a warlock whose posse rules the Burn because he abused 9 nalo hopkinson nalo hopkinson 10 the power the gods gave him and stole duppies, including that dian culture. In short, Ti-Jeanne’s story is not only one for every of Ti-Jeanne’s mother. Hopkinson’s re-visioning of textual possi- woman, but for every one. bilities manifest itself early in the novel at the onset of Ti-Jeanne’s Hopkinson’s fusion of diasporic African and European forms visions: as speculative fi ction demonstrates the very height of hybridity many preeminent literary scholars and intellectuals consider the The back of Ti-Jeanne’s neck prickled at what she saw: foundation of much Western civilization. The hy bridity fosters A fi reball whirl in through the window glass like if the glass an interdependent cultural relationship among Blacks and, more ain’t even there. It sett le down on the fl oor and turn into a old, importantly, between Europeans, their descendants, and African old woman, body twist-up and dry like a chew-up piece of sugar descendants. Moreover, such hybridity challenges and disrupts cane. She fl esh red and wet and oozing all over, like she ain’t have infl exible and hierarchial notions of race and ethnicity, making no skin. Blue fl ames running over she body, up she arms, down possible cultural blends between traditional science fi ction plots the two cleft hooves she have for legs, but it look like she ain’t of post-apocalyptic struggles and Afro-Caribbean theology and even self feeling the fi re. She ol’-lady dugs dripping blood instead motifs. This aspect of Brown Girl, a text Hopkinson had to rush to of milk. She looking at me and laughing kya-kya like Mami does complete to meet her contest deadline, not only won it the inau- do when something sweet she, but I ain’t want to know what gural Warner-Aspect fi rst novel contest of 1998 against a fi eld of could sweet a Soucouyant so. The thing movin’ towards me now, nearly one thousand manuscripts, but also the Locus Award for klonk-klonk with it goat feet. It saying something, and I could best fi rst novel; Brown Girl also and fi gured in Hopkinson’s re- see the pointy teeth in she mouth, and the drool running down ceipt of the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer later them: in the year. It was also shortlisted for the prestigious Philip K. “Move aside, sweetheart, move aside.” She voice licking like Dick and James R. Tiptree, Jr. awards, and has been translated fl ame inside my head. “Is the baby I want. You don’t want he, into French and Polish. ain’t it? So give him to me, nuh, doux-doux? I hungry. I want to But awards alone do not pay bills, as Hopkinson discovered suck he eyeballs from he head like chennett e fruit. I want to drink like many writers be fore her, especially those writers of science the blood from out he veins, sweet like red sorrel drink. Stand fi ction and fantasy. Although Hopkinson’s income allowed her aside, Ti-Jeanne.” to discontinue her previous employment, which sometimes de- Much of the novel narrates Ti-Jeanne’s diffi culty in recon ciling manded long hours, she had to sideline her writing temporarily the advent of these insistent, ghoulish visions with reality and, to- to seek freelance work. With increased recognition, she began a ward the end of the novel, the realization that the greatest threat frenetic schedule of producing and publishing fi ction, both short to her is her grandfather’s quest for her duppy. The denouement and long, to fi nance her promotional eff orts as a new writer-art- occurs, ironically, in the confl uence of old and new worlds, when ist and, more broadly, her travels as an ambassador for specula- African gods walk Toronto’s CN Tower and Ti-Jeanne’s grandfa- tive fi ction. Beginning in 1999, Hopkinson kept a hectic pace of ther comes to a horrifi c end. Notwithstanding the disruptions in att ending a variety of science fi ction and fantasy con ferences, narrative fl ow and the need for stronger character development, where she refused to merely participate as a panelist. Instead, the reader can now appreciate the cultural consciousness under- she assumed an outspoken and active programmatic role in re- lying Hopkinson’s novel and fi nd the horror even more com- shaping the atmosphere to be friendlier to non-Whites. At the an- pelling because of the synergy between West Indian and Cana- nual WisCon conference held in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2001, 11 nalo hopkinson nalo hopkinson 12

Hopkinson asked for issues relevant to people of color to be in- Toussaint, named aft er the great Haitian liberator of the Eigh- cluded on the programming, and facili tated a focus group cul- teenth century, is a future world far from Earth where the inhab- minating in the birth of the Carl Bran don Society, whose mission itants are descendants of the exodus of Blacks and an as sortment is to advance the visibility of people of color in the fi eld. At Wis- of White and non-White individuals. The protagonist is Tan- Con 2001, this society organized the fi rst-ever Carl Brandon Soci- Tan, the daughter of one of Toussaint’s mayoral couples, Anto- ety dance to foster a more relaxed atmosphere conducive to pro- nio Habib and Ione Brasil of Cockpit County. Like Brown Girl, moting diversity. Meanwhile, Hopkinson continued to write and Midnight Robber is oriented toward those things Afro-Caribbean, publish. Her busy schedule notwithstanding, she had soon com- such as a respect for the signifi cance of the Middle Passage, en- pleted her second novel, Midnight Robber (2000). joyment of the Anansi oral storytelling tradition of West Africa, Midnight Robber engages in the same revisionist project, not and even a delight in sorrel, a West Indian fruit beverage. The unlike Saunders’ eff orts with the Imaro trilogy and Delany’s cre- Anansi, the trickster fi gure of West African origin whom Hop- ation of Gorgik, the gay version of Conan featured in Tales of kinson designates as “the cunning spider-man,” provides the in- Nèverÿona (1977) and Neveryóna (1982). The innovation here is frastructure of the novel. The story itself unfolds like a web, the not only the Creole register in which the novel is narrated and story told by Granny Nanny, the artifi cial intelligence, serving the characters’ dialogue, but the heroic tradition it joins and re- both as the frame and the threads to connect and clarify the parts writes to fi t an Afro-Caribbean folktale framework. Epic he roes of the novel as it progresses. Of equal signifi cance is the cul- of ancient and modern society, from Ulysses and Achilles to Be- tural sophistication of Toussaint, for it is not the con temporary owulf and King Arthur to Superman and Luke Skywalker, have equivalent of a Third World socioeconomic polity. Instead, the all played and continue to play vital roles in reinforcing culture rich fabric of this culture is embellished with fu turistic techno- and mores for younger generations. Hopkinson knows very well logical achievements and a near-utopian society governed by a the importance of heroic models. In Midnight Robber, she raises computer matrix, the aforementioned Granny Nanny. Thanks the ante in a high-stakes cultural game where her voice and those to technological sophistication, common labor has been elimi- like hers seek to expand the notion of the he roic and epic. nated by the pervasiveness of artifi cial intelligence (“a.i.”). If it Hopkinson uses Midnight Robber to fuse the freedom struggle seems too good to be true, Hopkinson soon turns it into a cau- and impulse still prevalent among diasporic and continental Af- tionary tale by revealing the corruption associated with any so- ricans with Western heroic paradigms to address the socio-cul- ciety, especially those members of it who are too comfortable in tural defi cits and injustices in society, both inter-racially and in- their exercise of power. Tan-Tan pays a steep price as the victim tra-racially. Undertaking the same aesthetic course established in entangled in a web of mischief in which the high-maintenance Brown Girl, Hopkinson again shift ed readers away from the par- wife cheats on her husband, the high-powered husband cheats adigms and values typical of Western society, especially that of on his wife, and the jealous husband uses deception in his com- North America, by situating them within a world where semiot- bat under the code duello against his wife’s lover. As an indi- ics, history, technology, and many aspects of culture re fl ect the rect consequence of the actions of the jealous intrigues of Tan- West Indian imprimatur. Unlike Brown Girl, which fi ts into more Tan’s parents, Ione and Antonio, and an immediate consequence or less known socio-political units, Midnight Robber reaches into of Antonio’s att empt to fi x the result of the duel, Ione’s lover is the dark matt er and infi nite complexity of space. Enter Toussaint killed accidentally. Caught in the maelstrom surrounding her and Tan-Tan. guilt-ridden and frightened father, Tan-Tan’s eff ort to help him 13 nalo hopkinson nalo hopkinson 14 avoid sentencing only results in her exile with him to another ble Book of the Year (2001) and was short-listed for the Philip K. dimension, fated never to see her native land again. Enter New Dick, James R. Triptree, Jr., Nebula, and Hugo awards. In addi- Half-Way Tree. tion, it was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award for Canadian liter- New Half-Way Tree is the rough equivalent of a Third World ature of the fantastic for the year 2000. where criminals have been forever exiled from Toussaint to sur- Although Brown Girl and Midnight Robber are the major com- vive in an environment not only lacking a.i., but also populated ponents of her magnum opus, these novels are not the only rep- with an assortment of terrifi c and deadly crea tures, such as mako resentatives of Hopkinson’s rapid rise to infl uence. She shows, jumbies, which resemble enormous os triches. Stripped of the through her short fi ction, that she belongs to the van guard of a comforts and security of a.i., Antonio soon reveals himself as ig- millennial movement among Black speculative fi c tion and fan- norant, cowardly, selfi sh, and, like many adults, quick to judge tasy writers. Here, the innovations of Creolization and re-writ- the unknown and label it as dan gerous. Chicibud, a native of ing the picaresque meet the innerspace frontier of the Internet New Half-Way Tree who is both keen and kind, quickly becomes as publication medium. Just a few years into her literary career, Tan-Tan’s closest friend de spite his unusual appearance. Not so Hopkinson had already demonstrated the journeyman fl exibil- the relationship between Chicibud and Antonio, whose hostil- ity fi rst shown by Delany, a former rock musician and now pro- ity toward and refusal to listen to Chicibud forces him to save fessor of comparative literature who still writes speculative fi c- their lives at grave risk to his own. More signifi cantly, Tan-Tan tion and erotica, and Steven Barnes, who has writt en teleplays becomes the fabled Robber Queen, a version of Robin Hood and and screenplays for programs such as “Bay watch.” Hopkinson’s Zorro not only West Indian, but also female. short career shows a similar trajectory, for she already utilizes Consequently, the heroic tradition and gender construc tions the possibilities of the Internet as a mass medium to acclimate receive considerable att ention in Midnight Robber. Tan-Tan and readers to her artistic ideology, dissemi nate her own artistic ven- her father are saved by the douen, a species of New Half-Way Tree tures into drama and radio, and foster newsgroup discussions in which the males are arguably less privileged than the birdlike about speculative fi ction and fantasy. Hence, Hopkinson has a females, whose preferred communication is song, who are larger personal website, promotes discussions of Afro-futurism, has and potentially more dangerous than the males, and who can fl y. her short stories commissioned for radio and digital broadcasts, Furthermore, the Robber Queen is not only called upon to bring and writes dramatic monologues set to music, all of which she civility to a lawless land, but also to protect the douen from the has published via the Internet. The years 1999 and 2000 were es- hostile humans whose xenophobia leads them to distrust and pecially productive for Hop kinson’s movement into Internet, despise the douen, whom they treat like children. Hence, Mid- broadcast, and other forms of publishing: A digital broadcast of night Robber redefi nes the picaresque tradition through the lens Hopkinson reading from Brown Girl appeared on the Internet of speculative fi ction. The literary sophistication evident in Mid- in 1999; in 2000, Hopkinson wrote a dramatic monologue com- night Robber shows Hopkinson’s maturation as a writer, although missioned for production and performed by an actress at the To- the brashness of and story behind Brown Girl perhaps renders ronto World Stage Festi val; and, two of her short stories, “Rid- it the more signifi cant and interesting of the two novels. Based ing the Red” and “Indi cator Species,” were broadcast as plays on the wide acclaim of Brown Girl and the continued improve- on CBC Radio. A survey of Hopkinson’s output reveals that ment that revealed Hopkinson as a major talent, literary critics though her technological ingenuity and prolifi c creativity prof- took note, for Midnight Robber became a New York Time’s Nota- ited greatly by the pervasiveness of the Internet, a steady contin- 15 nalo hopkinson nalo hopkinson 16 uum of themes (gender and race, self and selfi shness) and tech- cession of emotions ranging from pity to envy. The ensuing con- niques (narrative Creolization and Afrocentric plots) abide in fl ict between her Grecian whiteness, issues related to gen dered her short fi ction. objectifi cation, and the loss of cultural pride and affi lia tion pre- Her fi rst published fi ction, the short stories “Midnight Rob- fi gures much of the thematic intensity of Brown Girl. Hopkinson’s ber” (1995) and “A Habit of Waste” (1996), signaled the arrival of artistic voice in this piece is very similar to what Octavia Butler Hopkinson’s speculative patois. “Midnight Robber,” the re sult of achieves in Kindred (1979), a neo-slave narrative studying the re- a science fi ction course for writers planned by Judith Merril but lationship between the past and present, Blacks and Whites, and aborted in 1993, would eventually develop into a novel. It fi rst males and females using the mecha nism of time travel. Unlike appeared in Exile, a literary magazine based on Toronto, Hop- Brown Girl, which was far more ambitious and experimental, “A kinson’s adopted home. “A Habit of Waste,” Hopkinson’s sec- Habit of Waste” pre sents a calm and steady narrative lens that ond published short story, also shows the infl uence of its ped- shows Hopkinson’s ability to use speculative fi ction and fantasy igree through its staying power. First pub lished in the feminist to high light issues of gender and race. literary journal Fireweed, it has been an thologized twice since Hopkinson strongly reiterates the feminist themes of fi nding then: In Women of Other Worlds: Excursions through Science Fiction a female voice and re-connecting to subordinated sexual desire and Feminism (1999), edited by Helen Merrick and Tess Williams, in the stories “The Money Tree” (1997), “Precious” (1999), and and Northern Suns: The New Anthology of Canadian Science Fiction “Slow Cold Chick” (1999). A brother’s selfi sh greed, a princely (1999), edited by David G. Hartwell and Glenn Grant. “A Habit husband’s brutal greed, and a male neighbor’s sexual greed of Waste,” whose plot in volved themes similar to Slade Hopkin- are all occasions for the female protagonists of these stories, re- son’s “The Madwoman of Papine,” ventures into the psychologi- spectively, to fi nd and sometimes voice their subordinated desires cal depths of White ness as an objectifi ed desire, such as the Shir- to resolve a crisis or confl ict. The stories are also occasions illus- ley Tem ple blue eyes Pecola Breedlove desires in Toni Morrison’s trating the groundswell of interest in Hopkinson’s fi ction follow- The Bluest Eye (1970). Instead of blue eyes, Hopkinson uses the lib- ing her fi rst two short-story publications. Like their predecessor, eration of speculative fi ction to explore the personal and fa milial “A Habit of Waste,” these short stories have en tered the specula- impact of self-hatred taken to an extreme and to a place where tive fi ction and fantasy genres through the staying power of an- the de sire to escape from one’s non-White self can be gratifi ed, thologies. This canonization is not unex pected, for Hopkinson’s quite literally, by an out-of-body experience. short fi ction reveals an economy and lyricism of expression she The plot follows the psychological growth of a woman, Cyn- has yet to replicate in her long fi ction. Hence the series of Hop- thia, who swaps her large-hipped, close-cropped, and compact kinson’s short stories anthologized from 1997 to 1999: “Money black body for the “Diana”-model white one she purchased. Tree” appeared in Tesseracts 6: The Annual Anthology of New Ca- Hopkin son peels back the layers, revealing slowly the complica- nadian Speculative Fiction (1997), edited by Robert J. Sawyer and tions that Cynthia now faces, such as dissatisfaction with work, Carolyn Clink; “Riding the Red” (not discussed in this entry) ap- anxiety over her propensity to wrinkle and add fat, and the frac- peared in Black Swan, White Raven (1997), edited by Ellen Datlow tured rela tionship with her West Indian parents. The depth of the and Terri Windling; “Precious” graced the collection arranged by psychological study and the irony involved in its complications Datlow and Windling in Sil ver Birch, Blood Moon (1997); and, edi- start at the beginning of the story when Cynthia encounters an- tor Don Hutchison took a fancy to “Slow Cold Chick,” which he other woman “wearing” her body and she feels a quick suc- included in Northern Frights 5 (1999). 17 nalo hopkinson nalo hopkinson 18

In “The Money Tree,” Silky fi nds herself forlorn at the dis- cannot voice her desires. Blaise has bott led-up desires and needs, appearance of her brother, Morgan, whose incessant struggles such as the desire to tell off men who repeatedly make un- for income led him to seek out the fabled Golden Table their wanted advances, and a bisexual de sire for a couple of her neigh- grandfather had told them about when they were young. Mor- bors, a male and female. But then an egg mysteriously appears gan has been absent and presumed dead for months when the that hatches to reveal a cockatrice, an objective manifestation of story opens. Straddled with nightmares and sinking further into her desires that grows and grows, has a fantastic appetite, and a despair, Silky tries to commit suicide by drowning herself in her searing gaze that can disintegrate antagonists. Blaise runs away bathtub. Ironically, this act reconnects her to the maternal in the at fi rst, but is later united with the cockatrice as this huge, rapa- form of her deceased mother, a mermaid who could never ac- cious creature forces its way down her throat, leaving her with quaint her children with the love of water, and River Mumma, “new-found warmth in her voice” and the ability to feel “the the ancient water deity who identifi es Silky’s mother as a daugh- blood heat of her palms.” ter. Free of nightmares, her social life returning, and her body “Greedy Choke Puppy” (2000), the most critically acclaimed plump like her mother’s, Silky takes a swim at the YMCA. Hop- of Hopkinson’s short fi ction, tackles these same themes of un- kinson wrenches the story into the fantastic when River Mumma fulfi lled female desire. Consonant with many of the protago nists appears and the pool turns into an old Jamaican river where the in Hopkinson’s other works of fi ction, Jacky is a young woman treasure Morgan sought was supposedly located. As frightened living in Trinidad with her granny. As a Ph.D. candidate, she is swimmers rush out of the pool, Silky discovers her latent abili- an intelligent and aspiring woman in her early thir ties who is still ties as a mermaid and dives down toward her brother who is still att ractive and seems to have everything going for her: A good ed- holding on to the table. ucation, a loving grandmother, and a compelling appearance “Precious” is a revision of the “Diamonds and Toads” fai- men fi nd att ractive. Nevertheless, she also has her problems and rytale in which the “good” sister is graced both with a mouth weaknesses, which include the absence of her mother and an im- that lets fl y jewels when she speaks and marriage to the prince, patient craving to fi nd a mate and have a child. The strong, tradi- while the “bad” sister is cursed with a variety of living horrors tional granny, the att ractive and im patient daughter, and the West leaping from her mouth. In Hopkinson’s postmodern rendi- Indian culture that binds them, especially the poetic Creole, are tion, the protagonist’s speech causes precious gems to fall from signature elements of Hopkin son’s modus operandi. But show- her mouth to the delight of her greedy, abusive prince-husband ing the continuing evolution of her craft and artistic objectivity to (Jude) and stepsisters. Not until she fi nds her voice of authority delve into the interstices of her own themes, Hopkinson prepares and throws off the dictate that women must always speak nice, the reader for a surprising ending that results, in part, from the delicate things does Precious speak her mind to Jude: “I shall be double story she unfolds: Jacky’s plot is paired with a fl ashback nice if and when it pleases me, and stop calling me Precious; my in the form of a story granny told Jacky and her close friend and name is Isobel!” The intense, stuff y atmosphere of the story and confi dante when they were children. As the main plot develops, the unnerving plot provides a powerful contemporary retelling granny’s story of the parasitic soucouyant intersperses the action, of Charlott e Perkins Gilman’s 1892 feminist classic, “The Yellow and Hopkinson deft ly leads the reader to think that granny was Wall-Paper.” the soucouyant who leaves her skin at night to go suck the life- “Slow Cold Chick,” a surreal, dark fan tasy whose title is an spirit from children. However, the conclusion reveals that though erotic irony, is about a woman who is a cold chick because she Granny is a soucouyant, she has channeled her destructive de- 19 nalo hopkinson nalo hopkinson 20 sires into productive, loving ones. The culprit is revealed to be was previously in touch with fi ve of us.” Moreover, Hop kinson the protagonist-antagonist, Jacky, who, like her mother, could not has served the artistic community by participating as an arts offi - control these desires and is ultimately destroyed by her granny. cer with the Toronto Arts Council, a return of time to the artistic This and other subtle ironies, master fully revealed in the denoue- community that, through the Ontario Arts Council and the Can- ment, show a rapid maturation and complication of theme crit- ada Council, seeded her grant money that enabled her to com- ics have noted. “Greedy Choke Puppy” was shortlisted for the plete Brown Girl before the Warner-Aspect deadline. James R. Tiptree, Jr. Award and was published in two anthologies In light of the foregoing discussion, especially concern- representing the best fantasy and horror published that year. ing Hopkinson’s sincerity and ability to promote cross-cultural Although cupidity is a recurring theme throughout Hopkin- bonds, one could easily overlook an important non-literary his- son’s fi ction, her own engagement with budding writers dem- torical fact imbedded in Hopkinson’s fi ction that makes it even onstrates her desire to pass on to others some of the benefi ts more complex and subversive. Hopkinson’s importance extends that she received when she att ended the Clarion Science Fiction beyond the foregoing contact zones framed in terms of West vs. and Fantasy Writers’ Workshop in 1995. Beginning in 1996, she East, Africa vs. Europe, Black vs. White, or Male vs. Female, but has taught and continues to teach creative writing at a variety of also the hotly contested intra-racial struggle between Afro-Carib- places, from the fi ction circle workshop at the Womenfolk Festi- beans and African Americans. Hopkinson’s fi ction provides an val held in Sauble Beach, Ontario, in 1996, to the one-day “Magic historical link in the trans-Atlantic movement that brought Af- Realism, Fantasy, Horror & Surrealism” workshop at the Toronto ricans to the West while also foregrounding the signifi cance of Writing Workshop (1999), and a four-week course she taught at the West Indies as the mediation point of the movement of cul- the Toronto Women’s Bookstore called “Rocket Grrls, Chicks in ture from Africa to the Americas. Chain Mail, and Smart-Mouthed Crones: Women Writing Women Extrapolating from cur rent literary scholarship presenting in Science Fiction and Fantasy” (2000). Her ongoing quest to fund the thesis that Black literary forms may have migrated from Af- her writing and traveling underlies much of this teaching, but rica through the Caribbean and South America fi rst and then to the integrity and sincerity Hopkinson returns to the craft and be- North America, one could argue that Hopkinson’s fi ction engages stows upon her students is un deniable. When her teaching cul- in its own double meaning or counter-rhetoric. First, Hopkinson minated with her status as a writer-in-residence at Clarion West argues against the ubiquitous power of the dominant narrative in Seatt le, Washington, in 2001, Hopkinson completed the circle. structure, which she criticizes for disempowering people of Afri- Speaking of her 1995 Clarion experience in an interview she gave can descent even as her fi ction relies upon its particular rhetori- in 2000, Hopkin son said that her instructors were not only pa- cal meaning and literary tropes. Second, and perhaps no less im- tient and accessi ble, but “were the kind of people that I know that portant, Hopkinson’s fi ction challenges the diasporic privilege if I’d wanted advice I could contact them, and that was extremely enjoyed by African Americans, who have denigrated the “mon- valuable. And, they get to know you too.” Hopkinson passes this key chasers” for decades. Rudolph Fisher’s “The City of Refuge” benefi t on to her students, one of whom had this to say of Hop- (1925), Jamaica-born Claude McKay’s Home to Harlem (1928), Zora kinson’s dedication: “Nalo herself made a personal commitment Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), and Cliff ’s to having diversity be present in the student body by e-mailing Abeng all provide literary history docu menting the tensions be- everyone she could think of and encouraging them to get people tween Afro-Caribbean immigrants and African Americans. Hop- of color to apply to Clarion West. Of the six people of color, Nalo kinson’s Creolization of speculative fi ction, which she has ex- 21 nalo hopkinson nalo hopkinson 22 panded into the fabulist fi ction of Whispers from the Cott on Tree published Skin Folk (2001), her fi rst short story collection, released Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction (2000), is a harbinger of a new per- an unabridged audiocassett e recording of Brown Girl (2001), spective on science fi ction and fantasy. was honored with short stories appearing in several best fan- Whispers from the Cott on Tree Root, the fi rst such anthology of tasy, horror, and erotica anthologies for 2001, and, as if this was its kind, contains a potpourri of fabulist fi ction, including spec- not enough, is improving her craft by pursuing a M.A. in writ- ulative fi ction, fantasy, surrealism, magic realism, and horror, ing popular fi ction that she expects to receive in 2002. While Hop- or some blend thereof, writt en by people of Caribbean de scent, kinson might be writing dark matt er out of a ceiba space, she is most of them from Jamaica, Trinidad, and Guyana. In collecting clearly one of the signifi cant new writers of the new millennium. the stories, Hopkinson worked against or sought to expand the normative science and thinking behind most science fi ction and Gregory E. Rutledge fantasy. Using the leitmotif of the cott on tree, or the ceiba, “a tall 30 May 2002; 4 September 2006 tree with thick roots around which pits and caves form” and in which spirits supposedly live, Hopkinson works with an episte- Interviews: mology at odds with that underlying most science fi ction. In her Jennifer Burwell and Nancy Johnson, “A Dialogue on SF and Uto- introduction, she states her position un equivocally: pian Fiction, between Nalo Hopkinson and Élisabeth Vonar- Northern science fi ction and fantasy come out of a ratio- burg,” Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, 81 nal and skeptical approach to the world: That which cannot (Spring 2001): 40–47. be explained must be proven to exist, either through scien- Lyda Morehouse, “SFC Interview: Nalo Hopkinson,” Science Fic- tifi c method or independent corroboration. But the Carib- tion Chronicle, 205 (Feb.–March 2000): 8, 35+; bean, much like the rest of the world, tends to have a dif- “Nalo Hopkinson: Many Perspectives,” Locus, 42.1 (Jan. 1999): 8– ferent worldview: The irrational, the inexplicable, and the 9, 76-77. mysterious exist side by side each with the daily events Gregory E. Rutledge, “Speaking in Tongues: An Interview with of life. Questioning the irrational overmuch is unlikely to Science Fiction Writer Nalo Hopkinson,” African American Re- yield a rational answer, and may prove dangerous. Best in- view, 33.4 (1999): 589–601. stead to fi nd ways to incorporate both the logical and the il- logical into one’s approach to the world, because you never References: know when life will just drop you down in that hole, into a Judith Misrahi-Barak, “Beginners’ Luck Among Caribbean-Ca- ceiba space where none of the rules you know operate. nadian Writers: Nalo Hopkinson, Andre Alexis and Shani Hopkinson has indeed found her own ceiba space, a place Mootoo,” Commonwealth Essays and Studies, 22.1 (Autumn 1999): 89–96. where readers, upon entering, fi nd a new millennium and a new cosmos racing toward its fi nal frontiers. In this fecund space, Hop- Gregory E. Rutledge, “Nalo Hopkinson’s Urban Jungle and the kinson continues to recover ground lost by her relatively late crea- Cosmology of Freedom: How Capitalism Underdeveloped the Black Americas and Left a Brown Girl in the Ring,” Foun dation, tive fl owering. She is busy at work on her third novel, Griff onne,1 81 (Spring 2001): 22–39.

1 Hopkinson published this novel under the title The Salt Roads in the fall of 2005.