From the author of Hugo comes an original memoir in essay form that explores how identities are shaped and constructed in cyberspaces, and how the relationship between race and the Internet has changed over his three decades online.
When Tochi Onyebuchi realized that his distinguished literary career in science fiction and fantasy had been primarily concerned with issues of race, it prompted him to think about his responsibilities as a black writer in the age of the Internet.Through its exploration of the history of the Internet in the late 1990s and early 2000s, \\The Book of Race” explores how the writer and public intellectual Onyebuchi, as we know him today, was shaped in those difficult circumstances.Starting from the present moment in which everything, including personal identity, is contested, and tracing his online persona in reverse chronological order back to Web 1.0's promises of greater equality and a bright digital future, Onyebuchi deftly examines the evolution of Internet culture and the ways in which this culture has changed in subsequent decades.From the ever-changing nature of personal writing and freedom of expression, to video games, manga, fan culture, and virtual reality, Onyebuchi examines the Internet alongside classic and contemporary works of literature, asking whether our vision of what is possible has truly expanded. Given the inequalities that black people continue to experience, both in reality and in books, is the Internet only amplifying the limitations of our imagination?In this book, Onyebuchi offers a fresh and engaging investigation of race through the lens of the modern Internet era, a profound intellectual journey in search of online community, as he argues for the liberation of the individual behind the code, ultimately asking: "Is this a book about race or not? Is it a choice? Can it be both? Can I?"
