My Goodreads review of ‘Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right’

[mount_oregano]

Speculative Whiteness: Science Fiction and the Alt-Right by Jordan S. Carroll

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read this short book before it became a finalist for a Hugo Award for Best Related Work, and it’s a timely choice that deserves the attention the nomination brings.

The author, Jordon S. Carroll, discusses the ways that alt-right/fascist/White nationalists have long used popular culture to promote their ideas, including science fiction, fantasy kingdoms, and superheroes. Alt-right readers, he says, are willing to convince themselves that the future in science fiction is a blueprint for their hopes. This explains their objections to Lt. Uhuru in Star Trek. Black people don’t belong in their future.

Speculative Whiteness shows how these ideas really belong to the past, and how alt-right expectations are self-contradictory in any case. The book includes copious footnotes and ends on a hopeful note: “the alt-right promises a bold new future in space but it never achieves escape velocity from white supremacy’s perpetual present.”

However, the book was published in October 2024, and a lot has happened since then. The alt-right won the US presidential election and many other political offices, and our present seems to be slouching toward a future that only the alt-right wanted.

Here are some articles that extend the focus of the book into the present:

Interview with Jordan S. Carroll - Exploration Log 7: Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations
https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

China Miéville says we shouldn’t blame science fiction for its bad readers - TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/30/aut...

We’re sorry we created the Torment Nexus - Charlie Stross’s Diary
https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog...

How Trump and Musk Are Ruining Sci-Fi - Daniel W. Drezner on Substack
https://danieldrezner.substack.com/p/...

The big idea: will sci-fi end up destroying the world? - The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/books/202...



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