Lilith, “Sister Lilith”
The collection commences with this story in which Honorée Fanonne Jeffers tosses the reader of speculative fiction far backward in time rather than forward. Updated to the modern vernacular, it is a first-person account of the ancient Hebrew legend of the first companion of Adam. Lilith, in other words, is actually the first woman, created before Eve but necessarily banished.
Unlike Eve, Lilith was created by God fully formed as an equal to Adam rather than being built from one of his spare parts. Within the construction of the patriarchal order that is a foundation of Judeo-Christianity—though hardly with exclusive rights to ownership—which ensued from the creation of the stories through the writing of the texts to the establishment of the religion, Lilith’s equality with Adam simply could not stand and thus she had to be exiled to make way for Eve as “Woman 2.0.” This banishment from her proper place in the mythic creation of humanity has not left Lilith a happy woman.
It is significant that in this reimagining of the ancient myth, Lilith is situated very much within the modern black woman. By modern vernacular is actually meant the language of Black cultural influence. Lilith unquestionably fits within the African Diaspora theme of the collection as much as the speculative fiction aspect.
Jim and Julia, “The Comet”
Though one of the most distinguished authors in African America history, W.E.B. Du Bois is not really known for his fiction. This short story is an apocalyptic tale about two survivors of a comet colliding with earth who meet as strangers and are convinced they may well be the last two humans alive on the planet. The intimation, of course, is that this will mean the job of repopulation will originate with this new version of Adam and Eve.
There is just one problem this unspoken solution to the survival of the species: Jim is a black man and Julia is a white woman. Jim works as a messenger boy in a bank who is fortuitously sent on an errand requiring him to submerge deep beneath the foundation into lower vaults. As a result, he survives the devastation of the moment when earth collides with matter from the tail of the comet.
Julia reaps the benefits of a similar sort of circumstance. At the moment of collision, she was developing photographs in her dark room. She is notably described as having the looks of a woman who before that moment would never have given a Jim a second look. She is a beautiful, blonde-haired, richly attired women of twenty-five. Together, what may be the last couple on earth could not possibly resemble each other any less.
Max Disher, “Black No More”
Max Disher finds himself standing on the precipice of history. Since first learning of it, Max has been eager to submit himself as the guinea pig who becomes the first test of a remarkable new discovery by Dr. Junius Crookman. Crookman has made claims can change a black man to white in just three days.
The process does not change the subject himself, but merely his outward appearance, thus even if successful, the white Max Disher who comes out the other side will be the same as the black Max Disher who knocked Crookman’s office door. And that Max Disher is impatient, conniving, self-centered, and obsessed with a statuesque blond in Atlanta.
Despite the doctor having a name strongly indicating quackery, Disher submits himself and comes out looking exactly like a white man. Being the same Max Disher, however, his driving ambition with newlyl white skin and straight hair is still impatiently focused on getting to Atlanta and meeting up with that statuesque blonde.
Santa Claus, “Future Christmas”
In this excerpt from Ishmael’s Reed’s novel The Terrible Twos, the speculative version of America is familiar enough to recognize, but strange enough to feel unfamiliar. In 1985, a court decision awarded exclusive rights to Santa Claus to the North Pole Development Corporation. CEO Oswald Zumwalt proceeded to hire an elderly actor named Rex Stuart to be the one and only person in the world legally allowed to appear in public wearing the familiar suit and calling himself Santa.
This turn of events enables Rex Stuart to avoid spending the last miserable chapter of his life wasting away in a nursing home. Not that his life now is all ginger cookies and milk. Indeed, it is mostly drinking bourbon alone by night and trimming of his waist-length beard by day. There is also his running feud with Jack Frost who may have been legally acquitted of killing his own grandmother, but Santa has reason to doubt.
The most annoying thing about being the only Santa Claus in the world, however, is the routine infringement upon the expected fringe benefits. Zumwalt got word of his trying to spark up a flirtatious conversation with a young woman at Macy’s and is once again threatening to replace him with another actor.
