Woo! Here it is, the final episode in our Binit mini-series. We get to wrap it up with a book neither of us have read before, and bring it full circle talking about Afrofuturism, university, technology, and what "herratige" really means.
Links to buy the Binti novella's and support the pod are:
- Binti
- Binti: Home
- Binti: The Night Masquerade
Next week we're taking a break, but will have a short announcement of our next book! Then we'll be right back into it with the pre- and post-reads, as well as a few mini episodes, this time with guests!
As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at spectologypod@gmail.com with your thoughts about the book. In particular, check out our twitter this month, where we've been posting a lot of great Afrofuturist art, music, and other resources.
Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.
![]()
We read and discuss the second installment in the Binti trilogy. In this book, Binti: Home, Binti comes back to Earth to go on a Himba woman's pilgrimage, and has to deal with a family who doesn't understand her decisions and a homeland that is hostile to her new friend, the Meduse Okwu.
We continue our discussions of different ways to relate to the idea of technology, whether rural life is necessarily "primitive" and whether that's a useful word in any context, and how Binti's journey is relatable to both of us. We're also doing a bit of an experiment with our structure, walking through the book's entire plot. Let us know if you like it!
We also mention this review of Binti: Home at NPR by Amal El-Mohtar.
Links to buy the Binti novella's and support the pod are:
- Binti
- Binti: Home
- Binti: The Night Masquerade
We'll be back on June 26th to discuss the last Binti novella!
As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at spectologypod@gmail.com with your thoughts about the book. In particular, check out our twitter this month, where we'll be posting a lot of great Afrofuturist art, music, and other resources.
Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.
Welcome to our first post-read episode this month, for the first novella in the Binti Trilogy: "Binti".
In this episode, Adrian connects his childhood growing up in rural Alaska to Binti's background, Matt talks about why he loves the moral landscape of the novella, we discuss the essence of technology, and we both answer whether we'd rather be Meduse or a shrimp-ship.
Content warning for some discussion of the violence in the book, as well as spoilers for only the first Binti novella.
--
As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at spectologypod@gmail.com with your thoughts about the book. In particular, check out our twitter this month, where we'll be posting a lot of great Afrofuturist art, music, and other resources.
Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.
![]()
A new month, a new book! Or in this case, series of books. The Binti Trilogy is a set of short novellas by Nnedi Okorafor. Together they are about the same size as a novel (and about the cost). They tell the story of a young woman in Western Africa who gets an invitation to the best university in the galaxy, and leaves everything she knows to attend. However, these aren't your typical chosen one or fish out of water school stories, and they take a lot of unexpected twists and turns along the way.
We loved the first two novellas when we read them, and so we're excited to get to re-read and finish the whole trilogy, especially after the diappointment of our last book! In this spoiler-free episode, Adrian and Matt discuss the musical and literary roots of Afrofuturism, Adrian's experience going from a rural town to a major university, and why we love these books so much.
Instead of doing one post-read episode this month, we're going to be doing a shorter post-read episode week for a successive novella. The novellas and our schedule are:
- Binti (June 12)
- Binti: Home (June 19)
- Binti: The Night Masquerade (June 26)
And some of the other works we mention include:
- Afrofuturism by Ytasha L. Womack (highly recommended intro)
- Sun Ra & His Archestra
- A Love Supreme by John Coltrane
- Harnessed the Storm by Drexciya
- ATLiens by OutKast
- Blazing Arrow by Blackalicious
- Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe (album / movie)
- Bloodchild and Lillith's Brood by Octavia Butler
- Dhalgren and Nova by Sam Delany
- The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin
- Black Panther by Ryan Coogler (soundtrack by Kendrick Lamar)
As always, we'd love to hear from you! Tweet us at @spectologypod, submit the episode at r/printSF, or email us at spectologypod@gmail.com with your thoughts about the book. In particular, check out our twitter this month, where we'll be posting a lot of great Afrofuturist art, music, and other resources.
Many thanks to Dubby J and Noah Bradley for doing our music and art.
