Nisi Shawl’s short story “Deep End” is about a space ship inhabited by the minds of rebel prisoners. The prisoners are en route for a distant planet, called Amends, that they will colonize using bodies their minds are implanted in. The space ship in this story reminded me of a slave ship because of the lack of freedom the prisoners have. They are captives stripped of their very bodies with their minds forced to be uploaded onto a prison ship. Their minds are then forced to download into the bodies of the oppressors they rebelled against. Shawl makes clear that the main character, Wayna, was born black and implies that many of the ships inhabitants were as well, while the bodies they are forced to take on are white, furthering the invoked image of slave ship. The idea of inhabiting another body already shocking, Shawl makes her reader cringe at the injustice of forcing black rebels to inhabit the bodies of white oppressors. This image brings to mind historical wrongs of forced assimilation for not only black slaves and other immigrants, but Native Americans. Two of the ships prisoners, and Wayna’s friends and lovers, Doe and Thad, decide not to accept being downloaded into a body. Instead they decide to stay in “freespace” or the cyber world of the ship where their freedom is even more limited, as “freespace” is completely controlled by the ship. The prisoners only options are to stay in a controlled environment or take on a forced oppressor’s body and colonize Amends. Shawl describes the complete lack of access to any of the ships control units and sets Amends lights years away from Earth. The lack of options the prisoners face is like the situation of African slaves brought to America. Those that brought them attempt to force them to assimilate but it doesn’t matter if they do or they don’t, they are completely without freedom either way.
The lack of options for the prisoners in the story and for African slaves points to what I think Audre Lorde was speaking of when she gave her speech “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”. This phrase is obviously rooted in slavery, with the use of “Master”, and refers to the idea that one will only perpetuate the oppressor’s authority if one only uses that authority’s tools. The phrase sounds like something that might have been used during the abolitionist movement as a call to action and rallying point for slaves. As far as I know, it wasn’t, however. Lorde is credited as coining the term for her speech that is actually about interracial issues within the feminist movement. Her message is that women should unite across color lines to stand up to patriarchy. The idea is that racism, sexism, and oppression by other distinctions all come from a similar source and feminist culture and theory uphold racism and oppression while attempting to fight sexism. I think Lorde makes an excellent point.
This phrase is referenced in the Introduction to Nalo Hopkinson’s book So Long Been Dreaming. Hopkinson discusses an experience she had writing a “jazz riff on the folk tale of Little Red Riding Hood.” In a conversation about her story she is challenged with the quote by Audre Lorde and is stunned to realize that she had been attempting to do just that. The “master” being dominant Western culture and the “tool” being the western based folk tale Little Red Riding Hood. Her experience led her to allow the non-white parts of her culture influence her version of Little Red Riding Hood and she was satisfied with the results.
My discussion question for this week is; Is the ending of Shawl’s story satisfying to you? Wayna chooses to adopt her new body completely despite its difference to her own, its oppressor’s roots, and the fact that she periodically gets the awful sensation of whip lashings. Doe and Thad chose to stay in the controlled environment of “freespace” and reject bodies. Who do you think made a better decision? How do you think Lorde’s phrase can be used to analyze the two choices?
