Sci-Fi Against the Charter

Regular readers will know my love for speculative fiction in its various forms … so it is with great excitement that i’m calling your attention to this initiative against the racist Charter of Quebec Values the government has proposed:

With the debate on Quebec value charter, the news fed us with incredibly insane pop-fictions. Let’s turn those stories to frighten children upside down and push them further, let’s us imagine the reel impacts of their predications and admire what that could lead to : a muslim Quebec, a nudist Quebec, a kurdish Quebec, a facist Quebec, a Klingon Quebec, an Independant Montreal, a queer Montreal, a Quebec state that thinks its civil servants should run butt naked… every utopia and distopia are possible. Ironic references to the actual situation are welcome. Drawing, coming and other images too. This material will be collect to create a zine.

This is an invitation to write in 1 week some sci-fi micro-narratives of 1 to 2 pages (500 to 1000 words) each, inspired (or not) from the bullshit we hear everyday in the medias.

Send your submission to scificontrelaxenophobie@gmail.com before Monday September 23.

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Avec le débat sur la Charte des valeurs québécoises, les journaux nous abreuvent de fictions populaires les plus improbables les unes que les autres. Retournons ces récits de peur, poussons les plus loin, imaginons les réels impacts de leurs prédictions pour admirer ce que ça pourrait donner : un Québec musulman, un Québec nudiste, un Québec kurde, un Québec fasciste, un Québec klingon, un Montréal indépendant, un Montréal queer, un Québec qui trouve libérateur que tout les employés de l’État se promènent les fesses à l’air… toutes les utopies et les distopies sont possibles. Les références décalées à la situation actuelles seront bienvenues. Dessins, bédé et autres images aussi. On en fera un zine. 

Invitation à écrire en 1 semaine des micro-récits de science-fiction d’une à deux pages (500 à 1000 mots) chacun inspirées (ou pas) des conneries qu’on nous présente dans les médias.

Envoyer vos textes à scificontrelaxenophobie@gmail.com d’ici lundi le 23 septembre

Or on facebook here.

i like writing, but have never been able to write fiction. One of those things i wish i could do, but at this point in my life i just don’t know how. But there are several ideas that come to mind:

• what if the singularity emerges (à la Skynet) and gets hold of the Charter, and tries to really get rid of people who wear or use sexist symbolism?
• alt-hist themes like QS actually acting like an anti-racist party and not like a bunch of opportunists,  the student strike having overcome all attempts at neutralization in 2012, etc. (i.e. what would have been nice, even if not realistic)
• time travel riffs on the Durham Report, the Patriotes uprisings, Duplessis putting up that cross in 1937, Marie-Joseph Angélique and the torching of Montreal, etc.
• taqwacore insurgency in Montreal, with bonehead irregular forces loyal to the government shipped in from “les régions”

Of course, the thing with SF (or any other genre) is that these stories could be really good, or really bad. Since the editors are essentially looking for flash fiction (i.e. really short), and written in just a week, the kinds of stories will be somewhat constrained. But i am really looking forward to seeing what folks come up with!