Techno-Prosthetic Romantic Futurism

Planetary Blackness

The planet is becoming black. [1]   Hell, it already is and has been for most of its history. But you wouldn't know it by studying British Romanticism. The future of Romanticism shares this coming blackness. How then to prepare for it? First by acknowledging the contribution of black people to British cultural production--not merely at the level of letters, but wherever they worked and lived. Then by looking to black visions of our future. Octavia Butler: genetic hybridization will breed new forms of life. Samuel Delaney: cultural hybridization will too. [2]   Kool Kieth: "Rap moves on to the the Year 3000." [3]  

Notes

1. Hear Public Enemy Fear of a Black Planet (Death Row, 1998).

2. Octavia Butler, Dawn (New York: Tor, 1987), Samuel Delaney, Dahlgren (New York: Dutton, 1970).

3. Kool Kieth, Dr. Octagon (City Hall, 1996).

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