Fantastic Fiction: Fascism

The text Fantastic Fiction against a retrofuturistic design of a rounded triangle shape with a gold swirl pattern.

We live in worrying times. Fascism is on the rise across Europe and America, according to the consensus of many commentators. In this post, I will highlight SF that has speculated on the rise and activities of fascism. In a later blog post, I’ll discuss science fiction that has thought about ways to resist.

Fantastic Fiction: Italian SFT: Calvino and Buzzati

The text Fantastic Fiction against a retrofuturistic design of a rounded triangle shape with a gold swirl pattern.

Four authors dominated SFT in 20th century Italy: Buzzati, Landolfi, Calvino, and Levi. The first three wrote what most would call “fantastic” literature, while Levi wrote more allegorical and historical science fiction. Referred to as fantascienza (a fusion of fantasy and science) in Italian, the speculative fiction coming out of that country following World War Two was influenced by the political and social upheavals of that war and the fascism that had dominated Italian politics.

French SFT in F&SF, 1962

The text Fantastic Fiction against a retrofuturistic design of a rounded triangle shape with a gold swirl pattern.

Three works of short science fiction/fantasy from France (in English translation) appeared in the pages of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1962: Henri Damonti’s “The Notary and the Conspiracy,” Charles and Nathalie Henneberg’s “Moon Fishers,” and Suzanne Malaval’s “The Devil’s God-Daughter.” All three were translated by Damon Knight, who was responsible for bringing several French-language speculative pieces into English during the 1960s and 70s.

Fantastic Fiction: Trans Writers in the 20th Century?

The text Fantastic Fiction against a retrofuturistic design of a rounded triangle shape with a gold swirl pattern.

Ask anyone who was the first trans person to win a Hugo Award and they will probably say “Charlie Jane Anders”, back in 2012. I think my 2009 win is probably the first by an out trans person, but I wasn’t the first trans winner, not by a long shot.