Race in Nova

When I put down Samuel Delaney’s Nova, I was struck that this novel seemed different from the other science fiction novels by African American authors. After a few minutes, I realized that it was the lack of defined “black characters.” Delaney makes it clear that race exists, the central character is Mouse, a Gypsy, and the hero is Lorq Von Ray who is a Senegalese-Norwegian mulatto. In comparison to Octavia Butler’s science fiction, which over emphasizes the importance of the “black woman” and creates a society where the white society has screwed up and African people must save the world, Delaney doesn’t focus on the black man and his struggle in a dystopian society. Instead, Delaney takes the classic space opera and adds diversity. Nova is set in a world where humans have populated many universes and intergalactic travel is possible. The conflict is between two rival families, the Reds, who run a manufacturing company on Earth and the Von Rays, who run a shipping corporation in the outer galaxies over Illyrion, a mysterious element that acts as a power generator. The conflict centers between Prince Red, with the help of his sister Ruby, and Lorq. The Red’s represent the past while Lorq is the vision of change in the outer galaxies. However, the fact that Lorq is mulatto and represents change doesn’t have anything to do with the novel.
As I stated earlier, the conflict, which happens to be Black, Lorq, versus White, the Reds, is not a racial conflict. It is more like a conflict of the fledgling trying to break away and take down the mother country. Red Shift Limited represents the “old money” and the Von Ray’s are the emerging middle class. Essentially the conflict is over the idea of progress. As Lorq tells Prince when the two meet at the climax, “If I win, a third of the galaxy moves forward and two-thirds fall behind. If you win, two-thirds of the galaxy maintains its present standards and one-third falls” (Delaney 203). Lorq realizes that he is in essence the anti-hero, the good that he is fighting for will leave a path of destruction, but he has made the realization that society needs to improve.
In Dangerous and Important Differences by Jeffrey Tucker, the idea of the world without race is proposed. Tucker says that “‘race’ [is] a category notoriously deployed as a part of oppression, exploitation, extermination, of entire communities of people” (7). While Tucker later goes on to argue that race is also integral in creating groups that protect ourselves, it is still true that it is very dangerous. Differences create individuals, while identities create groups. This shows the danger in the perception of race that Tucker describes. People tend to view a group based on basic similarities, not looking for the individual. Race is the most common way that people are grouped, however, it is not a person’s only identity. We are made up different groups and are amalgams of them all. The idea of a world devoid of a racial conflict seems like an ideal paradise. Tucker makes it clear that Delaney believes that the fact that he is a black man is enough to make his literature black.
Delaney’s literature represents Tucker’s “universalism,” because the reader identifies with the characters, not on the basis of race, but because of the struggle.
Due to this idea of race, Delaney has been seen as the “antirace race man” because he creates worlds full of race, but instead of solely empowering the black man, in Nova, he creates a world where race isn’t as integral to identity. Instead the place of your home world is more important to defining a person than the color of one’s skin. This ideal “utopia” seems to occur in Nova, however, if one reads carefully, there are very subtle hints of racial tension between Prince and Lorq, all spawning from Prince. Prince makes note of the savagery that Lorq’s father brought out in his own father, Aaron Red, when the red’s visited the Von Rays when Lorq was a child. While Lorq’s father is white, this not only plays on the white supremecist attitude that African American’s are barbaric, but it also shows a prejudice toward those living in the outer colonies. Also, there are a few blatant illusions to slavery in America. On page 206, Prince refers to someone as being “tarred and feathered.” This is an obvious illusion to the tortuous practice in antebellum south. When Mouse remembers his childhood as a gypsy on earth, he remembers that there is still racism. Earth is one of the few places where it is still relevant, as if it were inherently part of our nature.
Delaney does show that there are drastic differences between the people of the outer colonies and those who live in the Draco Federation through the language used by the commoners. Delaney has Lorq use the slang when Lorq is surrounded by the members of his ship who speak in this bizarre tongue. This dialect seems to reverse the conventions of modern grammar. Lorq says “where Prince and myself among the cards fall?” (Delaney 111). This means “where do Prince and I fall among the cards?”, but it is evident that through this dialect, Delaney creates the cultural differences between the classes. Lorq is the obvious hero, however, since he seems to bridge the gaps that divide the societies.
While the “African savior” isn’t the focus of this novel, Delaney still brings in ideas of “Afrofruturism.” According to Mark Dery in Black to the Future, African Americans have always taken to edgy technology that belongs on the streets. They use the technology, but don’t necessarily create it. Mouse seems to represent this idea since he plays the cyber syrynx, a new wave music maker that provides a full sensory perspective. Mouse says that the “three pin-lenses have hologramic grids behind them, … stings control the sound, [and a] knob controls the intensity of the scent” (Delaney 103-104). This piece of machinery seems to have no greater purpose than to be used on the streets for enjoyment. Much like the Walkman, boom box, and gameboy, the instruments sole purpose is pleasure and is thus open to the lower class. This is an instrument of the street, which mimics human senses, and Mouse’s playing represents the urban technology. However, through Mouse’s playing of the syrynx, with it’s visual, audio, sensory controls, Katin, the “voice of realism” in Nova, believes that while society, without a set race and home world, is in search of a new culture, Mouse is the perfect combination of all society. Through the use of various musical and art images, Mouse makes everything inherently his. In a sense, Mouse is the future; he is the combination of all and represents the true world culture.
Interestingly, the majority of humans have cyborg plugs in them that allow them to plug into the ship. While this serves to show the presence of technology in people’s lives, it also is what Mouse says isolated the gypsies. Mouse himself didn’t have his plug implanted until he was in his teens. This seems to show that while society has moved forward, toward a greater culture and tolerance, that we are actually dependant on technology.
While this vision of the future might seem very common, Delaney’s interesting use of race allows the reader to imagine a world where “race” has been replaced with the world of one’s birthplace, and all humans are seen as one. Delaney creates a society where the black man is the savior, but not in a white society, but in an amalgam society that needs t