Binti night masquerade5/24/2023 ![]() ![]() When stressed she repeats the word “five” to calm herself. Now part Meduse, she has an affinity with and ability to use mathematics, calling up currents to “tree”. ![]() Binti has moved on from Oomza Uni, the first of her Himba people to go there, the first to leave Earth. ![]() There is still a war going on between humans called the Khoush and the alien Meduse. ![]() Her Meduse okuoko (blue tentacles on her head instead of hair) mark her out, though. Once more (see here for my previous experience of this scenario) her ever dwindling supply of the skin-covering paste called otjize is a constant source of concern for Binti, without it she feels naked and again she makes extensive use of her edan. Or is that just me being purist? Still, it makes for an interesting read. Microbes, she is told by her alien companion Okwu, “blended with your genes and repaired you,” in a breathing chamber in a young spaceship called New Fish.) I would submit that this aspect of the book (though there are others too) makes it more of a Fantasy than Science Fiction. How do you carry on? How can the story not finish then and there? Okorafor’s solution here is to switch to third person – at least till the end of the chapter, when Binti comes alive again, (with a bit of authorial hand-waving. When a first person narrator (here the titular Binti) dies halfway through the text it presents something of a problem for the author. ![]()
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