Placing the Space/Time Continuum: Cuban Sci Fi, Science and Socialism

• In Event: Future Visions: Unpacking the Technological Imaginaries of Science Fiction

Abstract

A growing body of science fiction written by historically under-represented voices including African American, Afro-Caribbean, Asian and Latinx authors weaves imaginative alternative worlds drawing inspiration, in part, from the author’s specific life experiences and world-views. Sci fi worlds drawn from particular places can also offer texture and insight into the specifics of place-based science practice (Haraway, 2017; Harding 2008). Drawing on in-depth interviews and textual analysis with Cuban Sci Fi writer, Yoss, this paper explores the relations between socialism, science fiction and science. Cuba’s most successful sci fi writer enjoys a career spanning over two decades producing thinly-veiled social critiques of both socialism and capitalism. This paper explores the role of sci fi from the periphery as social, political and scientific intervention. As a persistent island seat of socialism 90 miles to the south of its hegemonic neighbor, as long-standing provider of medical and technical assistance within the global south, Cuban space and place provides a rich and varied terrain for a technoscientific imaginary grounded in (a sometimes harsh) reality. Yoss’s writings, while futuristic, wild and imaginative, remain solidly rooted in many quotidian aspects of contemporary Cuban life. Through interviews and textual analysis, I explore the connections between Cuban scientific innovation and Yoss’s science fiction writings. I argue that, through humor, sexuality and technoscientific absurdity, his work does more than entertain, it exposes and pushes against a set of biases against scientific practice from the periphery.

Author

• Naomi Schoenfeld, UCSF