Starboard Vineyard Tours 7: Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, Rieder

This month, we read John Rieder's Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction, and talk a lot about Victorian SF and BHBMFFF (big-headed baby men from the far future). We talk through Rieder's way of reading the period's SF as inverting, rotating, and distorting the colonial perspective from within the colonial perspective, and discuss a lot of weird old SF stories that he touches on in the book. We delve the sordid, princess-ful depths of the Lost Race narrative, discuss Jack London too much, talk about those BHBMFFs, and witness Europe get blown up a few times across the various chapters. We also talk a bit about what kind of analysis we each like, and how much Rieder has it out for Suvin.Topics: colonialism, racism, Victorian literature, utopiaNext month we’re taking a New Year’s break, so the next episode will be out in February 2024, for which we will read Critical Theory and Science Fiction by Carl Freedman.