Dr. Ayana Jamieson returns to the Salome Institute to lead a spring book club exploring the archetype of Change in speculative fiction.
In this there book series, Dr. Jamieson will lead a discussion on the new and emergent mythologies of change in three Black speculative fiction novels for the months of March, April, and May. Participants will gain insight into archetypes in culture, the nature of Change as an archetype, and what mythologies of change mean for the individual, the community, and in relationship to the cultures in which these archetypes exist.
Over three months, we will read one book each by Octavia E. Butler, N.K. Jemisin, and Suyi Davies Okungbowo.
March
In Wild Seed (1980), Octavia E. Butler writes characters that embody the archetype of Change. It is her only text that takes place entirely in the past. Anyanwu’s ability to shapeshift and Doro’s knack for changing bodies form the fertile ground for teasing out the archetype of Change in other speculative works. Change is not linear, one-sided, or wholly positive. It is sometimes brought about by rupture, resistance, chaos, and rebirth. This month’s gatherings will take a deep dive into a text which teeters on the precipice of radical transformation that is so needed today. The story patterns of change are not only led by a conquering individual hero but instead, are in relationship with nature and in community with others—human and non-human. This text asks, among other things: what we would do if we could heal ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities from the inside out?
April
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin is told from the perspective of three characters at once: Maiden, Mother, and Crone. The planet in the novel is on the brink of collapse and readers get to see how the irreparable damage to the ecosystem unfolds with lessons about the ways that disasters develop. As a trained counseling psychologist, the author, Jemisin, acknowledges the ways that psychodynamic theory impacts her work along with copious research on mythologies, archetypes, and cosmologies. She levels valid critiques on the biased lenses of some of the source materials that she’s consulted. Jemisin has long been interested in societies on the verge of collapse. Her award-winning works often make readers wonder how we would navigate a preventable end of the world; how we find affinity, and how we take ownership of ourselves and our gifts.
May
Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowo is an original work written from the perspectives of multiple harbingers of change, individuals on the margins who must survive rigid and oppressive conditions, false information, and the erasure of realities. Can we root out the controlling and limiting aspects of the culture we are born into or will we leave the ordinary world to find our communities, even when we don’t know what else exists within us and in the unknown?