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blackisbeautifulex2020-12-27 11:34 pm
moddington) wrote in blackisbeautifulex2020-12-27 11:34 pm
Fandom Promo Post 2021
Share your faves and what you love about them! To borrow from Yuletide, a decent outline is:
<b>FANDOM NAME</b>:<b>WHAT MAKES IT GREAT</b>:
<b>WHERE CAN I FIND IT?</b>:
no subject
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Black Panther's current run is an incredibly complex, intellectually deep comic dealing with what form of government is right, and then spinning into a cosmic adventure. World of Wakanda presents the backstory of the pair of revolutionary lovers leading one of the factions in main Black Panther.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: You can buy it at Comixology, at Marvel store, or at your local comic shop.
A character I love but cannot really recommend is Princess Allura from Voltron: Legendary Defender. She is a wonderful character, a princess who lost her people yet still fights against the evil empire. She is also outstandingly beautiful! Her foil is a female scientist-turned-queen-turned-witch who is a tragic villainess whose fall was mostly outside her realm of influence, but it didn't stop her to go deeper from her own volition. However, the series ends awfully for Allura, in the last third constantly punishing her until she choses death out of deep depression.
no subject
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This takes the story of the original ballet and resets it in a free Afro-Creole community in 1840s Louisiana. The themes of love, betrayal, class difference, forgiveness, and revenge are all there, with the added layers lent by the setting and the experiences of DTH's wonderful dancers.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: It's sadly hard to find in full online, but you can get the filmed production with the marvelous Virginia Johnson as Giselle in various hardcopy formats from local libraries (see WorldCat listings). There are also several clips of individual sequences and interpretations online. (I really do recommend that interview with Johnson to get an idea of what the ballet's creation was like.)
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FANDOM NAME: Talk Sweetly to Me, by Courtney Milan
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: TSTM lives on my rarified Goodreads shelf of "historical romances with lady astronomers," and this novella so lives up to the wonder implied in that description. Rose Sweetly is a middle-class Black British computer (in the sense of "wicked good at math, so good she can find stars with math") in 1882 London, living with her very pregnant sister, calculating the distances between stars, and being courted by Notorious Rake and Secret Feminist Advice Columnist Stephen Shaughnessy. The book is sweet, full of astronomy, and super romantic, and Rose is a fantastic heroine. It's great!
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: "Wherever books are sold," as they say, and also in your local library.
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FANDOM NAME: The Effluent Engine by N.K. Jemisin.
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is a story of spycraft and scientific derring-do in an alternate steampunk New Orleans, as Jessaline, a Haitian spy, tries to make contact with a Créole chemist whose work might make keeping Haiti free in the decades after the Revolution a whole lot easier. This is honestly one of my favorite works by Jemisin -- the science! the fast-paced spy shenanigans! the femslash potential! the alternate history! It's so great.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: You can actually read this free online at Lightspeed, but if you feel like reading it collected with a bunch of Jemisin's other amazing short works, it's also in her full-length collection How Long 'Til Black Future Month, wherever books are sold/your library/etc.
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FANDOM NAME: Unfit to Print, by K.J. Charles
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: A disenchanted Black British peddler of Victorian pornography and an uptight Indian lawyer meet after years of mysterious separation and must FIGHT CRIME… and fall in love <3. This is a total delight of a book, and Gil Lawless, the erotic bookseller, is a wonderful character with depths you'll be amazed Charles could fit in a novella.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Wherever books are sold/your library!
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FANDOM NAME: Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: This is a deeply compelling book. It is dreamlike and moving and works as an allegory for a million things, including (most near and dear to my heart) mental illness and disability, and all about the importance of art and spirit in human life. It also kind of, to be honest, falls down on the job with its Ghanaian-British-Norwegian protagonist, Matthew Rose Sorensen, in that his Ghanaianness doesn't really seem to impact his character, the world, or the plot at all. To be fair, neither does his Britishness or Norwegianness, but it really rubs the wrong way especially with his Ghanaian heritage. I think this is a book that is ripe for fannish exploration and improvement, in the way that so many flawed but compelling works of art are. And I think Matthew/The Beloved Child of the House/the House itself for that matter provide excellent grounds for further explanation and enrichment.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Wherever books are sold/your library. It's quite short, actually, right on the line between novel and novella.
no subject
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Dirty Computer is queer afrofuturist hopepunk set to amazing music and compelling visuals
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdH2Sy-BlNE&t=597s
Dirty Computer is both an album and an album-length movie set to that album, about a near-future dystopia in which queerness is suppressed and driven underground, and if you get caught your memories get erased. There are some dark moments, but also some really sexy fun happy hopeful moments, and there's a happy ending. And the music is amazing.
FANDOM NAME: Hidden Figures
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Space! NASA! Smart Black women who rise up and get acknowledged for how great they are!
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Amazon Prime
It's fictionalized, but based on the true story of three pioneering Black women at NASA--a mathemetician, an engineer, and a computer programmer--who did awesome things at NASA and whose stories deserve to be remembered. The cast is top-notch, and the whole movie is really good.
FANDOM NAME: Sense8
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Queer, poly, found-family, life-affirming SF set in the current day
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Netflix
Eight people from across the world find themselves telepathically linked together, and help each other with their problems while being chased by an evil corporation that wants to experiment on them. It's so good.
FANDOM NAME: Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: snarky characters, interesting magic, deeply kind
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: Your local library or bookstore
Peter Grant is a mixed-race constable in the London police just starting his career when he interviews a ghost, gets caught up in a secret world of magic, and starts training to be a wizard (in addition to his career as a police officer). The books are deeply aware of issues of class, race, and colonialism, both historically and in the modern era, and while the author doesn't always handle them perfectly you can tell he's trying and learning as he goes. Also, the first book focuses a lot on Peter's attraction to women, but he always treats them with genuine respect.
no subject
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: In this animated series set in the not-too-distant future, a ragtag group of international mecha pilots bond in unexpected ways while fighting an authoritarian movement set on taking over the world. The show features memorable characters and relationships, engaging action scenes, and themes of strength through empathy and diversity. Also: giant robots whaling on each other. Michael B. Jordan, who voices main character Julian Chase, provides a great introduction to the show in this trailer, and you can get a sense of the animation and vibe in the opening credits.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: The first episode is available for free on the Rooster Teeth website, where the rest of the show's first season can be streamed with a subscription.
no subject
What makes it great: adorable & handsome cat dad with ridiculously needy gorgeous cat!
Where can I find it?: The original viral video; Wesley Ryan also has Twitter and Odie is also on IG:
I nominated this because it's just such a ray of sunshine -- a warm, affectionate, exasperated cat dad and his perfect son. I think they'd be up for so many genre adventures, from magical girls to IN SPAAAAAACE to noir detectives.