Journal Entry 1: Afrofuturism
Nisi Shawl’s short story Deep End depicts a time in which the minds of criminals are uploaded into a prison ship known as the Psyche Moth, a ship set on a track for a prison-colony world known as Amends. After reading this short story, it reminded me of our last in-class discussion about what we consider freedom. In Ursela Le Guin’s The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas it was clear that no one was actually free; the community’s happiness depends on the misery of one child who is enslaved to live in solitude and constant abuse. Bringing this subject of freedom back to Deep End, I began to question if any of these people were actually free once they reached Amends. The people that chose not to stay within the freespace of the Psyche Moth are unhappy and have their lives controlled by Dr. Ops. Those that chose to leave to go to Amends are forced to live within a body that is not their own. Not only do these bodies reflect that of their oppressors, but many are in damaged condition (possibly due to a “radiation-induced mutation) causing constant pain to the prisoner which inhabits that body. I wonder if any of these people are really free or if they even deserve to be in this kind of state. Shawl never says what any of the crimes of these prisoners were so I continue to wonder if it is justifiable that they be banished from Earth in such poor conditions.
The aspects of taking over someone else’s body reminded me of the movie The Source Code (2011). In this movie Jake Gyllenhaal portrays an army man named Colter Stevens that is a part of a program called the Source Code. The Source Code allows him to relive the last eight minutes of a person’s life; thereby putting them into someone else’s body. **Spoiler Alert** By the end of the movie, Colter Stevens finds a way to live forever within the Source Code and his mind is permanently within the body of this person he took over. Stevens has no acknowledgement or guilt that he has taken over this person’s body, life, and future and immediately claims it as his own. While reading “Deep End” there was one scene which stuck out to me which was when Wayna is standing in front of the mirror as she “studied her face, noting the narrow nose, the light, stubby lashes around the eyes…whose face had this been? A senator’s? A favourite secretary’s? Hers, now.” (20) I find it interesting how Wayna is immediately able to accept this new body as her own despite the fact that it is in a deteriorating condition and it is not her original. But then I began to realize the reason she might be able to accept it so easily is because of what the alternative choice would be – to stay within freespace and live a more controlled life under the rules of Dr. Ops.
In Nalo Hopkinson’s Introduction, the quote that struck me the most was “massa’s tools will not dismantle massa’s house.” (8) After reading this introduction, that was the part that stuck with me the most. I think this quote means that by taking the tools of the “masters” we are not using it as a detriment but as a strength to build new bridges. Hopkinson continues to add, “I don’t want to destroy it so muh as I want to undertake massive renovations – they build me a house of my own.” I think this can be connected back to Shawl’s Deep End because of the ways in which Wayna approaches her new life. She is stuck within a deteriorating body that could be considered that to be the “tools” of her masters. It is a tool created by that of Dr. Ops and the other white oppressors to serve as punishment for the prisoners. Rather than continue to be frustrated and stay within the compounds of the Psyche Moth, Wayna continues to renovate her outlook and use this new body as a tool to her escape. Wayna realizes that Dr. Ops and the Psyche Moth are not her only sources of life and strength; therefore she is able to use the situation to claim the body as her own because “this was her body. She’d earned it.” (17)
Discussion Question:
Who is more free? Thad and Doe left to live within the freespace of the Psych Moth? Or Wayna living in the a deteriorating clone body of her enemies? What is freedom for these characters?
