SF: diffracted through Donna Haraway, these initials have come to stand for a myriad of worlding practices: Speculative Fiction, Speculative Fabulation, Speculative Feminisms, String Figures – So Far… In any case, speculation, with its wonders and dangers, has been interfering with what we count as reality in multiple ways. The thought experiments set by science fiction, in particular, allow us to pose questions concerning topics such as gender, racial and interspecific relations, colonization, utopian and dystopian futures, but also metaphysical reflections on the consistency of reality and the (non-)human condition. In this sense, the reading group is dedicated to an exploration of the political and philosophical potential of SF.
So far, we have read (and watched) work by Octavia Butler, Yasutaka Tsutsui, Rebecca Roanhorse, Ursula K. Le Guin, Tove Jansson, NK Jemisin, Yoss, Samuel Delaney, Ted Chiang, Denis Villeneuve, C. J. Cherryh, Adam Garnet Jones, Karin Tidbeck, Harald Reinl, Arthur C. Clarke, Clarice Lispector, Vonda McIntyre, Hao Jingfang, Regina Kanyu Wang, Tang Fei, James Tiptree, Jr., Janelle Monae, Doris Piserchia, Frederik Pohl, Rivers Solomon, Rachel Pollack, and Sarah Pinsker, and we decide together what to read next.
The meetings take place on Mondays at 7 pm, every three weeks, at diffrakt and online. Discussions take place in English.
If you would like to join, please send an email to mail@diffrakt.space.
