Truth, Lies, and Speculative Fiction
Confronting Dogmatism, Demagoguery, and Disinformation
Truth, Lies, and Speculative Fiction
Confronting Dogmatism, Demagoguery, and Disinformation
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Description
An exploration of contemporary speculative fiction's power to intervene in social, political, and environmental crises, this book demonstrates how the genre provides resources against demagogic falsehoods, conspiratorial fantasies, and the denial of scientific and historical evidence.
In the face of conspiracy theories, climate change denial, and cultural warfare over gender, race, and history, speculative fiction's willing suspension of belief, as well as disbelief, enables us to sidestep the barriers to dialogue raised by dogmatism and exit the narrow confines of partisan debate. It offers imaginative possibilities that can help readers “escape” from both right-wing demagoguery and status quo complacency. While elaborating this appraisal of speculative fiction in readings of recent work by Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone, N. K. Jemisin, Minsoo Kang, Ann Leckie, Arkady Martine, China Miéville, Rivers Solomon, and Ben H. Winters, John Rieder's Truth, Lies, and Speculative Fiction urges scholars and teachers to employ speculative fiction's power in secondary and higher education.
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter One: The Function of Speculation at the Present Time
Chapter Two: Posthuman Protagonists in Recent Space Opera: Ann Leckie's Radch Trilogy and Arkady Martine's Teixcalaan Novels
Chapter Three: Blind Justice and the Eyes of the Police: Ben H. Winters's The Last Policeman and China Miéville's The City & The City
Chapter Four: From Cultural Warfare to the Politics of Love: Minsoo Kang's “The Virtue of Unfaithful Translations” and Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone's This Is How You Lose the Time War
Chapter Five: The Ground of History: N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy and Rivers Solomon's Sorrowland
Afterword
Product details
| Published | May 28 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Hardback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 192 |
| ISBN | 9781350551527 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Dimensions | 9 x 6 inches |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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