• CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    15 days ago

    I like LeVar Burton for Star Trek: The Next Generation, but I’ve also read (and listened to) his book, Aftermath. It’s a bit heavy on racial tones, but I think that was the point. In his dystopian future, the sun causes a lot more cases of skin cancer, but only in those fairer of skin, so Black people are hunted and skinned, with their skin being grafted onto rich white people to help keep them from getting cancer. Like a skin transplant. I guess that’s easier than figuring out how to just add melanin to the skin somehow? Like reproducing it in a lab? Sounds like something Geordi and Data would attempt. But Burton didn’t write Geordi and there’s no indication he’s an engineer IRL, he just played one on TV. What he is, is a writer. And I guess he wanted to address racism. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good book, but a bit heavy handed at times.

    The book never gets mentioned and I think it should.

    • protist@retrofed.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      15 days ago

      Give Octavia Butler’s “Xenogenesis” a read. It’s an allegory on slavery, race mixing, and the power dynamics of consent, but involving humans and aliens who are more powerful

    • Soulcreator@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      15 days ago

      This is the first I’ve heard of this book, I’m assuming it was written years ago prior to ‘Melanotan 2’ being a thing. It’s a peptide which at high enough doses it can effectively transform the fairest skinned caucasian to a skin complexion to that of someone who is from Sub-Saharan Africa. The entire premise seems a little far fetched when there is a relatively simple solution available.

      • protist@retrofed.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        15 days ago

        At high enough doses it also gives you day-long priapism. There’s a reason it’s not popular lol

        Levar Burton wrote a story to entertain and to make people think. Nothing wrong with that, even if the subject matter is aversive or you can think of a plot hole

        • Soulcreator@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          15 days ago

          Oh don’t get me wrong I LOVE Levar, and I’m interested in checking out the book. It just seems like an odd choice looking back, then again a lot of sci-fi tends to age that way.

          • CerebralHawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            14 days ago

            It was written years ago, to answer your first question. Burton actually revised it, and that’s what the audiobook transcribes — he narrates it, too, so you can have him read his book to you. I don’t recall what was changed, if he said.

            I’m not familiar with the product you mentioned, and he might not be, or he might have been but wrote his book in a world where it’s not an option. Also cruelty is a factor in the book, it’s white peoples exploiting and hurting Black people in s different context.