David M. Higgins' \\"Reverse Colonization\\" delves into the ways reactionary groups utilize science fiction to create narratives of victimhood. The book explores how these groups construct identities based on perceived oppression and marginalization, often employing science fiction tropes to bolster their claims. Higgins analyzes the rhetorical strategies and imaginative frameworks employed to justify their positions. The work highlights the complex relationship between science fiction, power dynamics, and the construction of identity in contemporary society. It offers a critical perspective on the appropriation of science fiction narratives for political purposes.
Norman Spinrad's \\"The Iron Dream\\" is a unique and thought-provoking novel that imagines Adolf Hitler as a science fiction writer. The book presents a fictionalized account of Hitler's literary career, exploring the themes and ideas that might have emerged from his twisted worldview. Spinrad's work serves as a satirical commentary on the dangers of fascism and the seductive nature of power. The novel's exploration of alternate history and the potential consequences of unchecked ideology makes it a compelling and disturbing read. It remains relevant today as a cautionary tale about the dangers of extremism.
Dune, written by Frank Herbert, is set in a feudal interstellar society where noble houses control planetary fiefs. The story follows Paul Atreides, whose family is tasked with ruling the inhospitable desert planet Arrakis, the sole source of melange, a substance crucial for extending life and enhancing mental abilities. The novel delves into the intricate politics, religion, ecology, and technology of this futuristic world, as various factions vie for control of Arrakis and its valuable spice. Paul, with his unique abilities and training by the Bene Gesserit, becomes a key figure in this struggle and eventually assumes the role of a messianic leader among the native Fremen people[2][5][4].
The first major neo-Nazi party in the US was led by a science fiction fan. So opens Jordan S. Carroll’s Speculative Whiteness, a book that traces ideas about white nationalism through the entangled histories of science fiction culture and white supremacist politics, showing that debates about representation in science fiction films and literature are struggles over who has the right to imagine and inhabit the future. Here, Carroll is joined in conversation with David M. Higgins.
Jordan S. Carroll is the author of Reading the Obscene: Transgressive Editors and the Class Politics of US Literature (Stanford University Press, 2021) and Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right (University of Minnesota Press, 2024). He received his PhD in English literature from the University of California, Davis. He was awarded the David G. Hartwell Emerging Scholar Award by the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, and his first book won the MLA Prize for Independent Scholars. Carroll’s writing has appeared in American Literature, Post45, Twentieth-Century Literature, the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, and The Nation. He works as a writer and educator in the Pacific Northwest.
David M. Higgins (he/they) is associate professor of English and chair of the Department of Humanities and Communication at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide, and a senior editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books. David is the author of Reverse Colonization: Science Fiction, Imperial Fantasy, and Alt-Victimhood, which won the 2022 Science Fiction Research Association Book Award. He has also published a critical monograph examining Ann Leckie’s SF masterwork Ancillary Justice (2013), and his research has been published in journals such as American Literature, Science Fiction Studies, Paradoxa, and Extrapolation. In the public sphere, David has been a featured speaker on NPR’s radio show On Point, and his literary journalism has been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books and The Guardian. David serves as the second vice president for the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA).
EPISODE REFERENCES:
James H. Madole
Richard B. Spencer
Dune (Frank Herbert)
The Iron Dream (Norman Spinrad)
Samuel Delany
Alain Badiou
Francis Parker Yockey / “destiny thinking”
“Is It Fascism? A Leading Historian Changes His Mind” by Elisabeth Zerofsky, on Robert Paxton. New York Times Magazine.
Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky)
Fredric Jameson
Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right by Jordan S. Carroll is available from University of Minnesota Press. This book is part of the Forerunners series, and an open-access edition is available to read free online at manifold.umn.edu.
“Carroll reminds us that our future is contingent. Fascists have a vision for the future that excludes most of humanity, but fascists can be defeated. The future is for everyone—if we make it that way.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books
University of Minnesota Press 
