Coffee House with Marlon James

by Patrick Coy-Bjork ’23

Professor Marlon James’ new book—Moon Witch, Spider King—has arrived! With this, he was able to stop by the Twin Cities for a coffee house with the English Department. Marlon talked about his novel and answered questions from students. Here’s a little summary of what he discussed that evening.

When Marlon was asked by a student how he got into writing fantasy, he explained that he had always been fascinated with African mythology, but there was a specific moment in particular that began his foray into exploring it in his writing. It was while telling a friend of his about how he was frustrated by the all-white cast of the Lord of the Rings films. His friend defended the casting by saying that the Lord of the Rings stories were based on British mythology. Marlon simply told his friend that he can “keep his damn hobbit,” (a paraphrased, censored version of his actual response, he noted), and set out to create his own books about African fantasy.

Some interesting aspects of the mythology that he shared was how night is seen as a more secure, safe time while daylight is when you have to be more wary. He shared that vampires in African mythos are not phased hurt by sunlight, only fire. Consequently, people have to be more cautious of vampires during the day because they can be more easily spotted.

Marlon shared his experiences in writing from long before his work in fantasy, though. When asked about fanfiction, he talked about how some of his earliest writing could be considered fanfiction. When he was young, he would rewrite the endings of episodes from the 1978 “The Incredible Hulk” TV show for his own enjoyment. He encouraged the students to continue their interests in fanfiction!

Finally he talked about race representation in the media today. He asserted that simple representation is not enough; it’s a beginning but not an end, as he puts it. He also described how many creators focus on “nuance” in their race representation, and that is insufficient. He compared how we think of the idea of “nuance” today to how we considered “tolerance” thirty years ago. The popular white media consciousness considers it to be enough for proper representation, but it needs to go further. Marlon says that not only should a work have nuance, it needs to be nuanced in a positive, productive way for the race represented.

Marlon James’ new book Moon Witch, Spider King is out now! It’s the second book in his Dark Star trilogy. Catch up on the first book in the series (Black Leopard, Red Wolf) if you haven’t already!