Freshwater - Reminder and Questions for Friday's Discussion

written by Clarence

A friendly reminder that the next meeting of the Otherland Mythic Fiction Book Club will occur on Friday, February 28, 7:30 p.m. at the Otherland bookshop in Kreuzberg. The novel we’ll be discussing—Freshwater, the highly acclaimed 2018 autobiographical debut by writer Akwaeke Emezi. Offering up a multi- perspective narrative, the Nigerian-born author stated in a 2019 New York Times interview that Freshwater is “based in indigenous West African ontology” and features a main character, Ada, who is “a spirit trapped in flesh.” To see a range of interviews from the author, helping to provide perspective on the text, please visit https://www.akwaeke.com/interviews
 
Here are some questions to help facilitate discussion on the story. We hope you can join us!

*What genre or genres would you place this book in? What are ways in which the book defies notions of traditional categorization?

*As a character who journeys through different cultures and locales, both literal and metaphysical, what aspects of Ada’s travels did you find the most compelling?

*What are your thoughts on the presentation of the entities held in Ada’s spirit/psyche? Whose presence felt the most compelling and why?

*How would you describe the characterization of Asughara? What were her motivations for her actions in the narrative?

*The contrast between traditional West African concepts of spirit selves are contrasted here with Western notions of mental health. What was your take on the book’s concept of multiple selves? Do you believe in the concept of multiple selves existing even in the absence of trauma?

Book Recommendations February 2020

Our event schedule is finally taking shape and there is good news for fans of chinese SF! Especially (but not only) due to the insane success of Cixin Liu’s Trisolaris-books people hereabout started asking and wondering about similar books and thus are discovering unknown gems from the East. In cooperation with the magazine “Kapsel” which publishes SF from far Asian countries, we have the pleasure to have as our guests author, translator, anthologist Ken Liu and chinese author Xia Jia! This event will for once take place on a Sunday, March 28 and starts at 6.30 pm. Admission is free as usual.
On March 5 the dice will roll again at the role playing evening. If you want to join us please drop an email to Jakob or Simon (service@otherland-berlin.de).
Other than that our book clubs are thriving inexorably! While in February we still have the Mythic Fiction session to come up on Friday the 28th (we’ll be discussing Freshwater by Emezi, please see Clarence’s review below), on March 13th we’ll be discussing Armed in Her Fashion by Kate (the Great) Heartfield, a historical fantasy novel about a Flemish widow declaring war to Hell, and two weeks later, March 27th, the Horror Special Book Club is finally meeting again after a longer break than usual. The theme of that session is “Creature Feature - animals in horror” and the book is At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson. All book club discussions start at 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookstore. You don’t need to sign up to join us, but please do read the book in advance if you want to discuss it.

Upcoming book club books and sessions are:
February 28 - Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi (MYTHIC)
March 13 - Armed in Her Fashion by Kate Heartfield
March 27 - At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson (HORROR)
April 17 - Jhereg by Steven Brust
April 24 - "Dystopias now" by Kim Stanley Robinson, together with "Why we
need utopian fiction now more than ever" by Eleanor Tremeer (SPEC THEORY)
May 8 - Little Sister Death by William Gay

Enjoy our recommendations!

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi

by Clarence A. Haynes

Hey all! I’m thrilled to announce that the next meeting of the Otherland Mythic Fiction Book Club will occur on Friday, February 28, 7:30 p.m. at the Otherland bookshop in Kreuzberg. The novel we’ll be discussing—Freshwater, the highly acclaimed 2018 debut by writer Akwaeke Emezi. Offering up a multi- perspective narrative, the Nigerian-born author stated in a 2019 New York Times interview that Freshwater is “based in indigenous West African ontology” and features a main character, Ada, who is “a spirit trapped in flesh.” Ada is the embodiment of a type of child spirit known as ogbanje who, in an unusual turn, continues to have access to both the ethereal realm and the earthly realm of humans. Ada thus eventually develops separate selves, an occurrence which further shapes who she is when she travels to the U.S. to attend college and faces great trauma.

Taking on everything from colonialism to transgender identity, Emezi talked more about the book in The Guardian. Emezi has asserted that the autobiographical Freshwater should not be categorized as a form of magical realism or speculative fiction though authors who explore the fantastic are among her favorites, including Zen Cho, N.K. Jemisin and Terry Pratchett. We’ll be sure to present discussion questions via the blog on this richly textured work a few days before meeting. We hope you can join us.

Neuromancer This Friday

Hey book clubbers,

William Gibson, courtesy of Otherlander Thosten Wullf

Our current book is William Gibson's Neuromancer and the discussion starts this Friday, February 14, at 7.30 at the Otherland Bookstore as usual. Founder of Cyberpunk, master of  polished depictions, a cultural earthquake, winner of the 1984 Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick awards OR only dated YA blubble? Let's talk about it on Friday!

The Otherland book club always takes place the second Friday of the month and starts at 7.30 pm at the Otherland Bookstore (the branching sub book clubs, Speculative Theory, Mythic Fiction and Horror, take place every three months on any given Friday - so there is some kind of book club every second week). There are snacks and drinks you don't have to pay for, we're happy for every contribution, though. You don't need to sign up to join us, but please read the book if you want to discuss it.

 Next Otherland Speculative Fiction Book Club discussions: