The Dark Fantastic

Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games

By: Ebony Elizabeth Thomas

Narrated by: Janina Edwards

Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Stories provide portals into other worlds, both real and imagined. The promise of escape draws people from all backgrounds to speculative fiction, but when people of color seek passageways into the fantastic, the doors are often barred. This problem lies not only with children's publishing, but also with the television and film executives tasked with adapting these stories into a visual world. When characters of color do appear, they are often marginalized or subjected to violence, reinforcing for audiences that not all lives matter.

The Dark Fantastic is an engaging and provocative exploration of race in popular youth and young adult speculative fiction. Grounded in her experiences as YA novelist, fan-fiction writer, and scholar of education, Thomas considers four black girl protagonists from some of the most popular stories of the early 21st century: Bonnie Bennett from the CW's The Vampire Diaries, Rue from Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, Gwen from the BBC's Merlin, and Angelina Johnson from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter. Analyzing their narratives and audience reactions to them reveals how these characters mirror the violence against black and brown people in our own world.

©2019 New York University (P)2019 Tantor

Adds lots to think about

I found this book especially helpful in filling voids in my own experience. Living outside of UK/USA and teaching Juv/YA fantasy literature courses, I am quite unexposed to serialized TV programs from those societies, aside from some dvd boxsets of Buffy and the like. I was hoping this book would deal with some of the thousands of printed titles I survey with my students, but am satisfied to at least expand my awareness of television, fanfic and the blogosphere.

Also, I wonder if the "dark" matter addressed by Edwards would have developed differently if instead of light/dark (=good/evil) polarity, our ancient ancestors had defined day as verdant green & night as cobalt blue. Or if they had been nocturnal for whom the bright sun was deathly and night was warm, safe and cozy. That might have flipped our good/evil paradigm resulting in an ingrained fear of the light side of the Fantastic/Force/magic/psyche/race. As it is, I am not sold on the suggestion that "dark" fantastic comes from an intentional racist construct. But I do not deny that it can be felt as a racist construct. Thomas could have discussed more the difference in culpability between the writers of books, the publishing industry, and a studio's economic-driven media adaptation.

From my perspective, the paucity of Asian leads in the fantastic would lead to the consideration of yellow fantastic. Since my experience is quite different from Edwards', when she sees dark themes and equates it with black bodies, I am inclined to wonder about yellow/brown bodies. And as things have developed, my students query about Pride bodies. The asian angle does complicate things, as we saw when Japan's Studio Ghibli lightened the characters in Le Guin's Earthsea and we are seeing now as the Little Mermaid remake is floundering in China and S. Korea.

With so many ways to insult by non-inclusion today, and with probably many more potential faux pas in the coming centuries, writing is a risky business. Ultimately, what does Thomas suggest that authors supposed to do to remedy the situation?

Ready to reimagine our world.

As an avid reader as a child I didn't question the world's I was diving into just as I didn't question the one I was living in. I am thankful to have listened to this book because now I am better equipped to see the world as it is, AND how we will rebuild it for the future.

A great personal perspective

I think this was very well written and supported essay. Lots of points were well supported and I thought were interesting to think about.