Sci-Fi & Scary

My first experience with Nnedi Okorafor was her novel Lagoon. To say that I wasn't impressed would be to put it mildly. That book made lots of promises and barely followed through on any of them. So, needless to say, it wasn't the best first impression that an author could make. I didn't know after reading it if I would ever be willing to give her another try. But then I saw Binti sitting on the shelf at the library. And I saw how tiny of a book it actually was (length wise and actual size as well). I figured at most I'd be wasting an hour of my time if I hated it.

I didn't hate it.

I wish Binti had been my introduction to Nnedi Okorafor's work. I really do. 

Binti hammers home what it's like to be different. To be an alien amongst your own race. To be alien even to those in your own family. I think where Binti succeeds is that Nnedi Okorafor speaks to those of us that are different in ways that don't begin with the color of our skin or our gender. She speaks to the ones whose minds shine with a rare brightness. Binti is someone that fellow outsiders can connect with. She is that fellow soul that simply can't be what her society expects her to be. Its a connection that is seamlessly made, even while her surface otherness is kept front and center as well. 

I am that white girl whose skin is so sensitive to the sun it can almost only be exposed to it through tinted glass. I wear the darkest possible sunglasses because I reject bright sunlight instinctively. I am so pale you can easily trace the blue of my veins underneath my skin. I don't know what it's like to face the racism that African Americans do on a daily basis, and I'll never claim to. Because of that Binti surprised me because of the way it made me feel. 

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I had this sudden great insight about white people being toerags or anything like that. Collectively, we are. I'm aware of that and I don't think that's what this short story was all about. No, Binti  surprised me because Nnedi Okorafor made me step into the shoes of someone other in ways I could and could not identify with, and then she took it a step further. It's hard to even put it into words, especially without spoiling anything. Let's just say that when she becomes aware of the change that has occurred, that bereftness resonated through me. I felt invaded. I wanted to scream with her because it's one thing to be different by circumstance of birth or mental makeup. With the first, you have a community to support you, that will understand. To the second, you generally have the ability to find a way to deal with it, because on at least some level you are choosing to display your uniqueness. 

But to have any choice taken away? To have part of you altered against your will? To have never even been given the opportunity to say no?

That is terrifying. That is heartbreaking.

And that is the power of Binti. 

Oh, and the ship was very neat as well. 

I wouldn't change a thing.