In accordance with our meta agreement to have topic challenges, seeing that the votes have stabilised, May is nearing its end, and it's time to announce the next topic challenge! Throughout June 2017, our topic challenge, proposed by BESW, will be
Topic challenge: The SEA is Ours
The SEA is Ours is a 2015 anthology of steampunk stories by and about Southeast Asians. While collected with a Western audience in mind, its goal is to challenge the assumptions of a genre with a traditionally colonial, Anglo-centric focus, and showcase how its aesthetic and themes can transcend that narrow origin.
Questions would range from cultural context research to examining how the steampunk ethos is re-imagined through cultural epistemologies outside the Euro-American experience. Critical comparisons to so-called silkpunk seem inevitable.
As with the previous announcements, I post this before the actual start of the challenge, so that everyone has time to prepare. The topic challenge will start on June 1st.
What is a topic challenge?
During a topic challenge, community members read and ask questions about a particular topic.
Participation is not obligatory in any sense, but those who participate will be forever remembered in the annals of our history.
Question on other topics are always welcome as well, but they won't count as a part of this challenge.
How does one participate?
To participate in this topic challenge, all one has to do is ask or answer a question related to The SEA is Ours during June 2017. That simple! Questions asked in the scope of this topic challenge should be tagged with short-stories and the appropriate author tag.
You can check if a local library has a copy of the book via WorldCat either here or here. (h/t Hamlet)
What else?
- Vote here for the next topic challenge, or propose your own!
