Octavia’s Brood

Science Fiction Stories
from Social Justice Movements

Social justice is an apt theme for science fiction, so we’re not surprised when the apocalypse is also a social commentary on conditions that exist today. However, to ignore the particular ways in which social justice moves through these stories would be to deny that sci-fi has also participated in regimes of oppression. Star Trek certainly isn’t the only franchise to describe space as a “frontier,” a zone waiting to be “discovered” and tamed by Anglo-American men. And, as Abu-Jamal argues in his essay, “Star Wars and the American Imagination,” the success of Star Wars in 1977 can be linked to a need to deny the imperial desire behind the Vietnam War. The impetus and hope of Octavia’s Brood is to use sci-fi not merely to describe social conditions, but to instigate social change.