Reverse Colonization: Science Fiction, Imperial Fantasy, and Alt-victimhood

by David M. Higgins

Reverse colonization narratives are stories like H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds, in which technologically superior Martians invade and colonize England. They ask Western audiences to imagine what it’s like to be the colonized rather than the colonizers. David Higgins argues that although some reverse colonization stories are thoughtful and provocative, reverse colonization fantasy has also led to the prevalence of a very dangerous kind of science fictional thinking in our current political culture. It has become popular among groups such as anti-feminists, white supremacists, and far-right reactionaries to appropriate a sense of righteous, anti-imperial victimhood—the sense that white men, in particular, are somehow colonized victims fighting an insurgent resistance against an oppressive establishment. Nothing could be timelier, as an armed far-right mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in an effort to stop the presidential election from being “stolen from them.”

Higgins shows that this reverse colonization stance depends upon a science fictional logic that achieved dominance within imperial fantasy during the 1960s and has continued to gain momentum ever since. By identifying with fantastic forms of victimhood, subjects who already enjoy social hegemony are able to justify economic inequality, expansions of police and military power, climatological devastation, new articulations of racism, and countless other forms of violence—all purportedly in the name of security, self-defense, and self-protection.

Genres: Nonfiction, Criticism

235 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 1, 2021

About the author

David M. Higgins is a Professor of Accounting and Finance at Newcastle University Business School.

Reviews

[Justin March · Rating 5 out of 5]

Higgins's book about the effects that Science Fiction narratives have on the ongoing struggles of national identity for it's readers was good; academic, but good. The term Reverse Colonization has put into words for me a sense that I could identify, but not necessarily describe. This is a sense that someone sees themselves as the victim of forces beyond their control (as if they were in The Matrix or The Rebel Alliance), but really they have benefitted from the overarching systems of control from before the time they were born.

Beyond the exploration of Reverse Colonization themes in culture, Higgins hits on many aspects of culture war dogma that have been washing up in the news over the past few years. This is valuable context, but the real purpose of the book is to analyze the forming of Reverse Colonization themes stemming from 60s-70s print Science Fiction as that is formative for the field of SF in the United States. Specific works discussed at length include:

- Stranger in a Strange Land
- Dune
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Man in the High Castle
- The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick
- The Prisoner
- Camp Concentration
- The Drowned Giant
- The Voices Of Time
- Elric of Melniboné
- Jake in the Forest by Harvey
- The Fall of the Towers (inc. Out of the Dead City, Captives Of The Flame, The Towers of Toron, & City of a Thousand Suns)

I enjoyed Higgins's book a great deal. Others on Goodreads seem to be disappointed that Higgins didn't dive into other material such as African or Asian SF, but they do so while acknowledging that that is outside the stated scope of the book. I look forward to seeing books about those subjects site Higgins's work here in Reverse Colonization.

My favorite concept discussed in the book is the concept of "Free Exit." Free Exit is the idea that one has the freedom and agency to move on when the struggles for hegemonic control over culture are not in your favor anymore. We see this everywhere in contemporary society, but also pervasively through printed literature, Science Fiction, and otherwise. Though not discussed in Higgins's book it brought to mind this little tidbit from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash:

All these beefy Caucasians with guns. Get enough of them together, looking for the America they always believed they'd grow up in, and they glom together like overcooked rice, form integral, starchy little units. With their power tools, portable generators, weapons, four-wheel-drive vehicles, and personal computers, they are like beavers hyped up on crystal meth, manic engineers without a blueprint, chewing through the wilderness, building things and abandoning them, altering the flow of mighty rivers and then moving on because the place ain't what it used to be. The byproduct of the lifestyle is polluted rivers, greenhouse effect, spouse abuse, televangelists, and serial killers. But as long as you have that four-wheel-drive vehicle and can keep driving north, you can sustain it, keep moving just quickly enough to stay one step ahead of your own waste stream. In twenty years, ten million white people will converge on the north pole and park their bagos there. The low-grade waste heat of their thermodynamically intense lifestyle will turn the crystalline icescape pliable and treacherous. It will melt a hole through the polar icecap, and all that metal will sink to the bottom, sucking the biomass down with it.

Free exit, indeed.

[Feral Academic · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 - good good read

[Saoirse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I really did. But it simply didn't have the rigorous engagement with the literature that I wanted it to have.

The Good
Higgins makes a poignant argument about a strand in Anglophone science fiction and its social impact. His reading is sharp and his point is well made.

The Bad
Because this book is centered around a pattern in science fiction as a genre, I would expect it to demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the genre as a whole. The book is not about a specific text. And I'm truly not trying to criticize this book for not talking about texts that are out of its scope. The entire argument hinges on noting a kind of reverse colonization in post-WWII anglophone sci-fi writ large and yet, the book fails at engaging with an entire gamut of African descended futurisms and Asian descended futurisms in its analysis.

The Disappointing
Because of its ignorance of texts outside the white European centric cannon of sci-fi, it falls into the trap of the same problems its criticizing.

The Hopeful
Despite my critiques of this book, it does add important insight into the ongoing conversation regarding science fiction and imperial fantasy, I can only hope it will foster further conversations that will cover the gaps.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fine blend of research and critique.
Higgins provokes with compelling arguments on narratives like Dune, where this book exceeds and frames the plethora of thinkpieces that've come out in the buildup to and aftermath of the recent film adaptation.
A key SF scholarship contribution.

[Charul Palmer-Patel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly thought-provoking. Full review forthcoming in Fafnir Journal