A review by jmanchester0
LaGuardia by Nnedi Okorafor

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Wow. 
 
Fear is the mindkiller. 
 
Wow. 
 
I’ve loved this phrase ever since I read Dune in high school. 
 
In Dune, Paul repeats this as a mantra. A mantra I adopted to help me get through stressful times. 
 
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain. 
 
From a personal and individual standpoint, fear destroys us. It paralyzes us and keeps us from being who we can be. 
 
But Nnedi Okorafor uses it in a broader context in keeping with the way adrienne maree brown talks about emergence: 

In the framework of emergence, the whole is a mirror of the parts. Existence is fractal—the health of the cell is the health of the species of the planet.
 
So, Paul is using “fear is the mind-killer” to talk about how fear kills our mind on the individual level, but Nnedi mirrors that onto bigger systems and shows how “fear is the mindkiller” can apply to entire cultures. In this case, the pandemic of xenophobia we’re experiencing now. 

I loved this story, and the art was fantastic. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings