Dreamer and Dream

the concept of individuals and groups as both dreamer and dream brings to mind a powerful story arc of Star Trek: DS9

The concept of an individual, or group, being both dreamer and dream brings to mind the powerful Star Trek: Deep Space Nine story arc around Benny Russell, the 1950s New York City science fiction writer. Exploring in a different Jewish studies context,** I learned that Russell is patterned to on Samuel L. Delaney, part of an important, overlooked/suppressed group of Black science fiction authors.

Dr. Stephanie Tolliver discusses Delaney as a writer in the context of the “restricted space” of science fiction in “Combatting Dreams Deferred,” and Eric Vilas-Boas (EVB) discusses Sisko and Russell in the context of fiction and its impact on individuals (Archive link, just in case).

**Here are two versions of one page on Sisko, Russell, DS9 and the importance of careful speech: formatted with Talmud-style commentary format; straight text version. And here, in case it’s useful, is the original creation developed during 2021 studies.

Leave a comment