#memory librarian

Back to our regular schedule and time for a choice book and I chose The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe with contributors Yohanca Delgado, Eve L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, and Sheree Renée Thomas. This book was absolutely delicious. I'd call it candy, but it was way more substantial than that. It's a set of five Afro-Futurism stories set in the same New World Order, in this case New Dawn where "cleanliness" and order are valued above all else by the powers that be. All of the protagonists from the stories are "dirty" in some way, be it lesbian, non-binary, or just wanting to defy the New Dawn that can and does collect your memories and stores them to be reviewed.

The book feels like it has a lot of classic sci-fi sources including things like A Wrinkle in Time or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. There is the ever present white is oppressing Black element, but there isn't too much horrible violence, unless you count mind wipes, which you probably should, I guess. The world building is fun- it sort of throws you in and you (I at least) grasp around until you start to put all the pieces together and they fit beautifully.

BEST LINE: "The obelisk has fully metamorphosed into its metaphoric counterpart now, a giant golden circumcised penis spitting white-gold ejaculate into the air like a pornographic Mount Vesuvius"

SHOULD YOU READ THIS BOOK: Omigod, yes, it's fun! I don't want to oversell it, but it was my favorite of what I've read so far.

ART PROJECT:

I drew the title character, the Memory Librarian, Seshet, based on a picture of Janelle Monáe, of course. I had to imagine what her outfit with ceremonial hat and robes might look like, and this was it.