Scan barcode
A review by sr_toliver
The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to the Hunger Games by Ebony Elizabeth Thomas
5.0
I’m going to write a longer review for Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, but I want to put a shorter one here since I just finished it about 30 minutes ago.
As a Black girl nerd, I was beyond excited when I heard that this book was going to be a thing. I truly felt seen, like someone was going to finally present some of the conversations that me and my friends have been having in private or in closed social media groups. I want to say that I was NOT ready for this awesomeness.
First, the scholar in me had my pen out, underlining key phrases that I could use to bolster and/or ground some of my current work.
Second, as a nerd who has many conversations online, I greatly appreciated the way that Thomas infused the words of university academics and public scholars. I do this in my own work, but I don’t see many people who will quote tweets, blogs, fan fiction, etc. There are everyday people doing important analyses, and Thomas ensures that their scholarship is included alongside university professors. That is powerful. I especially loved that there weren’t distinctions throughout to separate who had “knowledge”. Like, instead of saying Dr. this and university professor that to contrast working-class student writer or business owner who reads comics, she just used their names and what they wrote. I just don’t see that too often.
Third, as someone who grew up on the stories my grandfather told me, where he weaved personal life stories to the show we watched together or the news story that we both read, Thomas weaves the personal, the creative, and the academic in a similar way. Reading the chapters felt like I was listening to my grandpa analyze tv, news, etc.
Lastly, as a Black girl, this work was validating. I, too, loved Rue and lost it when she died. I grew up reading the Harry Potter books and watching the films, but I was always too scared to dress up for fear of being ostracized. I always wondered where I could be located in fan communities that always showed Black girls on the sidelines, but never on the field. I found my space (in my twenties) in the fantastic writings of Octavia Butler, Nnedi Okorafor, Nalo Hopkinson, and numerous others - all authors that are mentioned as writers who break the cycle of The Dark Fantastic through emancipation. Basically, Thomas shows us the cycle, but she also shows us how the cycle has been and can continue to be broken.
Thomas’ work is essential reading. It shows us what happens to the endarkened in the Western, mainstream imaginative that centers whiteness. It shows us what we can do to alleviate the violence that not only happens to fictional characters, but also to real Black girls. It asks us to respond to the call and assist in breaking the cycle of The Dark Fantastic. Breaking the cycle is essential, for, as Thomas says, “resolving the crisis of race in our storied imagination has the potential to make our world anew” (p. 169).
As a Black girl nerd, I was beyond excited when I heard that this book was going to be a thing. I truly felt seen, like someone was going to finally present some of the conversations that me and my friends have been having in private or in closed social media groups. I want to say that I was NOT ready for this awesomeness.
First, the scholar in me had my pen out, underlining key phrases that I could use to bolster and/or ground some of my current work.
Second, as a nerd who has many conversations online, I greatly appreciated the way that Thomas infused the words of university academics and public scholars. I do this in my own work, but I don’t see many people who will quote tweets, blogs, fan fiction, etc. There are everyday people doing important analyses, and Thomas ensures that their scholarship is included alongside university professors. That is powerful. I especially loved that there weren’t distinctions throughout to separate who had “knowledge”. Like, instead of saying Dr. this and university professor that to contrast working-class student writer or business owner who reads comics, she just used their names and what they wrote. I just don’t see that too often.
Third, as someone who grew up on the stories my grandfather told me, where he weaved personal life stories to the show we watched together or the news story that we both read, Thomas weaves the personal, the creative, and the academic in a similar way. Reading the chapters felt like I was listening to my grandpa analyze tv, news, etc.
Lastly, as a Black girl, this work was validating. I, too, loved Rue and lost it when she died. I grew up reading the Harry Potter books and watching the films, but I was always too scared to dress up for fear of being ostracized. I always wondered where I could be located in fan communities that always showed Black girls on the sidelines, but never on the field. I found my space (in my twenties) in the fantastic writings of Octavia Butler, Nnedi Okorafor, Nalo Hopkinson, and numerous others - all authors that are mentioned as writers who break the cycle of The Dark Fantastic through emancipation. Basically, Thomas shows us the cycle, but she also shows us how the cycle has been and can continue to be broken.
Thomas’ work is essential reading. It shows us what happens to the endarkened in the Western, mainstream imaginative that centers whiteness. It shows us what we can do to alleviate the violence that not only happens to fictional characters, but also to real Black girls. It asks us to respond to the call and assist in breaking the cycle of The Dark Fantastic. Breaking the cycle is essential, for, as Thomas says, “resolving the crisis of race in our storied imagination has the potential to make our world anew” (p. 169).