Science Fiction
One thing is beyond argument: science fiction stimulates much black boy joy. At least it does according to this book of stories which features a very healthy amount of science fiction, which is a good thing for those who enjoy imagery in their short fiction because SF is a genre built upon the technique:
“The woman standing in front of him—was she a woman? He couldn’t tell—held a long baton-like instrument. She was dressed in a uniform so prim and stood so straight that she could’ve been a sculpture. He wasn’t sure what to think of her face, but he knew two things: one, she was definitely an alien; and two, wherever she was from, did everyone else also look like a crocodile?”
Characterization
Imagery also comes in handy for delineating character through physical description. One of the best examples is the opening paragraph of “But Also, Jazz” which manages to mix both the literal and the figurative in its description of a character under very precise circumstances:
“After the service wraps up, my older cousin, Brandon, loosens his tie and comes over to me. Suits don’t really look right on him, even if he’s prolly done growing at seventeen. Brandon’s tall and wiry with a head full of waves, and looks way more at home in a black Champs hoodie than he ever does with a suit billowing around him. Grief don’t fit all the way right on anybody, at least not today.”
Poetry
A lot of people instantly think of poetry when they heard the word “imagery.” And it is certainly true that verse is more likely to feature imagery as an integral component of the story it is telling than prose, but that may only be due to the fact that poems tend to rely on fewer words than prose. Most of the narratives told in this collection are in prose, but “Extinct” tells its story of a visit to the Natural History Museum through a series of short poems in which imagery is definitely integral:
“T wears a lot of makeup.
She’s pretty without it,
but she says it’s like her armor.
Like a Nodosaurus
or a Stegosaurus.
Stegosaurus armor
was flame-shaped spikes
shooting out of its back.
They were to keep it safe
from other dinosaurs
that would try to eat it.”
Superhero-ines
The first self-contained story in the collection (after the first entry in a three-part tale spread over the length of the collection) is one in which students in school debate over the relative virtues and merits and superiority of superheroes. The protagonist is in a particular bind because of rules against using any of the really big-name superheroes that is provided on a list. The recommendations that are made becomes imagery underlining the fierce patriarchal nature of the superhero industry. (They’re all female.)
“**Batman (perma-banned)**
Spider-Man ⇒ Silk
Iron Man ⇒ Riri/Ironheart
The Hulk ⇒ She-Hulk
Wolverine ⇒ X-23
Black Panther ⇒ Shuri”
