Rev Left Radio They Called Her Rebel: Speculative Fiction, Revolutionary Art, and the Politics of Imagination
Nov 20, 2025
In this engaging discussion, Jacob Dallas-Main, an author and co-host of Workers' Lit Pod, explores the revolutionary potential of speculative fiction. He delves into his novel, featuring a world filled with debtors' camps and rebellion, revealing the intersection of magic and capitalism. The conversation highlights the importance of literacy in political struggle, critiques mainstream narratives that oversimplify revolutions, and emphasizes art's role in inspiring participation. Jacob also warns against AI's threat to creative expression and stresses the necessity of reclaiming our imaginative agency.
01:49:30
Literacy As A Political Front
- Jacob argues literacy is political: ruling classes prefer limited attention and hollowed public education.
- Reading and deep engagement resist commodified short-form culture and restore imaginative agency.
Build Daily Attention Routines
- Establish daily routines that protect attention: meditate then read to rebuild focus and imagination.
- Carve small, consistent time blocks for reading and creative work amid busy schedules.
Book Born From D&D Lockdown Sessions
- Jacob conceived the novel during COVID lockdowns while playing Dungeons & Dragons with campus comrades.
- That playful sandbox led him to craft a fantasy world to wrestle with political strategy and agency.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
Get the app 1 chevron_right 2 chevron_right 3 chevron_right 4 chevron_right 5 chevron_right 6 chevron_right 7 chevron_right 8 chevron_right 9 chevron_right 10 chevron_right 11 chevron_right 12 chevron_right 13 chevron_right 14 chevron_right 15 chevron_right 16 chevron_right 17 chevron_right 18 chevron_right 19 chevron_right 20 chevron_right 21 chevron_right
Intro
00:00 • 4min
Jacob's background and Workers Lit rebrand
03:36 • 3min
Why follow reactionary media trends
06:47 • 3min
The literacy crisis and socialist responses
09:22 • 3min
Cultivating attention: meditation and reading routines
12:02 • 2min
Professors, dignity, and the human right to read
14:23 • 6min
Introducing They Called Her Rebel
20:27 • 5min
Book synopsis: Ellaria and a debtors' world
25:12 • 3min
Embedding subjectivity in political fiction
28:16 • 2min
Capitalist abundance vs. distribution
30:35 • 6min
Imperial logic and looming war in the novel
36:44 • 6min
Defining speculative fiction's power
42:36 • 6min
Examples of politically generative spec fic
49:05 • 10min
Pop culture: Hunger Games and Star Wars limits
58:54 • 5min
Depicting mobs, revolutions, and political agency
01:03:27 • 8min
Reactionary speculative fiction and dog whistles
01:11:05 • 13min
Revolutionary art should spur participation
01:24:02 • 7min
Create for yourself: making art resists commodification
01:30:43 • 4min
AI threats and defending artistic agency
01:34:15 • 7min
Subjectivity, meditation, and revolutionary consciousness
01:41:34 • 7min
Outro
01:48:12 • 1min
#
Woods All Black
null
Lee Mandelo
#
They Called Her Rebel
null
Jacob Dallas-Main
#
Crab Cannery Ship
null
Takiji Kobayashi
'Crab Cannery Ship' depicts the brutal and dehumanizing conditions faced by workers on a Japanese crab cannery ship in the early 20th century.
Kobayashi portrays the workers as an exploited mass, stripped of their individuality and subjected to harsh treatment by the ship's overseers.
The novel exposes the social and economic inequalities of capitalist society, highlighting the struggle for survival and the potential for collective resistance.
It is a powerful example of proletarian literature, aiming to raise class consciousness and inspire social change.
Kobayashi's work serves as a critique of capitalist exploitation and a call for solidarity among the working class.
#
The Domination of Draka
null
S.M. Stirling
#423
• Mentioned in 53 episodes
The Ministry for the Future
Kim Stanley Robinson
The Ministry for the Future is a novel by Kim Stanley Robinson that delves into the urgent issue of climate change.
Set in the near future, the story follows the establishment of a UN agency, the Ministry for the Future, whose mission is to advocate for the rights of future generations.
The novel is told through multiple perspectives, including those of Mary Murphy, the head of the Ministry, and Frank May, an American aid worker who survives a devastating heat wave in India.
The book explores various innovative solutions to climate change, such as the introduction of a new currency called 'carboni' to incentivize decarbonization, and it presents a hopeful yet realistic vision of how humanity might cooperate to mitigate the effects of climate change.
The narrative includes a mix of fictional eyewitness accounts, non-fiction descriptions, and diverse writing styles, reflecting the complexity and urgency of the climate crisis.
#348
• Mentioned in 60 episodes
Infinite jest
wit and humor in Italian Renaissance art
Paul Barolsky
In this book, Paul Barolsky examines the role of wit and humor in Italian Renaissance art, providing insights into the artistic and cultural context of the period.
The work delves into how artists of the Renaissance used humor and wit in their creations, reflecting the broader cultural and social attitudes of the time.
#13767
• Mentioned in 3 episodes
If We Burn
The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution
Vincent Bevins
#2136
• Mentioned in 16 episodes
The Black Jacobins
Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
C. L. R. James
Written by C.L. R.
James in 1938, 'The Black Jacobins' is a pioneering historical work that recounts the Haitian Revolution of 1791–1804.
The book places the revolution in the context of the French Revolution and highlights the leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture, who rose from being a slave to a prominent figure espousing the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty and equality.
James's work challenges conventional historiography by emphasizing the agency of the enslaved and their role in shaping their own history.
It also explores the broader implications of the Haitian Revolution, linking it to the destruction of European feudalism and the global struggle against colonialism and slavery.
#5248
• Mentioned in 7 episodes
House of Leaves
Mark Z. Danielewski
House of Leaves is a complex, multi-layered narrative that combines elements of horror, suspense, family drama, and adventure.
The story revolves around the Navidson family, who move into a house that turns out to be larger on the inside than the outside.
The father, Will Navidson, a renowned photojournalist, documents their experiences in a film called 'The Navidson Record'.
The narrative is presented through various layers, including the blind scholar Zampanò's analysis of the film, and the footnotes of Johnny Truant, a tattoo shop apprentice who becomes obsessed with the story.
The book explores themes of trauma, obsession, and the blurring of reality and fiction, using an experimental format that includes fragmented text, footnotes, and unconventional page layouts.
#170
• Mentioned in 103 episodes
Lions and Scavengers
Ben Shapiro
#1
• Mentioned in 1,324 episodes
1984
George Orwell
Published in 1949, '1984' is a cautionary tale by George Orwell that explores the dangers of totalitarianism.
The novel is set in a dystopian future where the world is divided into three super-states, with the protagonist Winston Smith living in Oceania, ruled by the mysterious and omnipotent leader Big Brother.
Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, where he rewrites historical records to conform to the Party's ever-changing narrative.
He begins an illicit love affair with Julia and starts to rebel against the Party, but they are eventually caught and subjected to brutal torture and indoctrination.
The novel highlights themes of government surveillance, manipulation of language and history, and the suppression of individual freedom and independent thought.
#9384
• Mentioned in 4 episodes
Kafka on the Shore
Haruki Murakami
The book tells two distinct but interrelated stories.
Kafka Tamura, a 15-year-old boy, runs away from home to escape an Oedipal curse and search for his mother and sister.
He finds refuge in a private library in Takamatsu, where he interacts with Miss Saeki and Oshima.
Meanwhile, Satoru Nakata, an old disabled man, has the ability to talk to cats and is on a quest to find an entrance stone that opens up another world.
The narrative explores themes of music, metaphysics, dreams, fate, and the subconscious, with the two characters' stories intertwining in complex ways.
#2685
• Mentioned in 13 episodes
The dispossessed
Laura Longmore
Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Dispossessed" is a science fiction novel that explores themes of anarchism, utopianism, and social justice.
The story follows Shevek, a physicist who travels between two planets with contrasting social systems: Urras, a capitalist society, and Anarres, an anarchist society.
Le Guin's novel is a thought-provoking exploration of different social and political systems and their impact on individual lives.
The novel's exploration of freedom, equality, and the challenges of creating a just society continues to resonate with readers today.
It's a classic of science fiction.
In this episode, Breht speaks with Jacob Dallas-Main, co-host of Workers' Lit and author of They Called Her Rebel; a dazzling fusion of fantasy, class struggle, and storytelling set in a world of debtors' camps, collapsing empires, and revolutionary possibility.
The two discuss how speculative fiction can illuminate political struggle, not merely as metaphor but as a call to break the boundary between audience and participant. They explore what makes a work of art revolutionary rather than consumable, the dangers of reactionary storytelling in popular culture, declining literacy in the U.S., the threats posed by AI, the need for socialist transformation, and why imagination is a vital force in times of despair.
From Le Guin to Kim Stanley Robinson to Lee Mandelo, they trace a lineage of speculative art that refuses cynicism and insists on transformation -- both political and personal.
Check out our episode with Kim Stanely Robinson on his book "Ministry for the Future" HERE
Subscribe to Workers Lit podcast on youtube HERE
----------------------------------------------------
Support Rev Left and get access to bonus episodes: www.patreon.com/revleftradio
Make a one-time donation to Rev Left at BuyMeACoffee.com/revleftradio
Follow, Subscribe, & Learn more about Rev Left Radio https://revleftradio.com/