{"product_id":"truth-lies-and-speculative-fiction-john-rieder-9781350551527","title":"Truth, Lies, and Speculative Fiction: Confronting Dogmatism, Demagoguery, and Disinformation","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn exploration of contemporary speculative fiction's power to intervene in social, political, and environmental crises, this book demonstrates how the genre acts as a defense in the navigation of propagated falsehoods and the denial of firmly established scientific evidence.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSpeculative fiction thrives on the creation of counterworlds that challenge status quo assumptions about what is possible - but it calls for a willing suspension of disbelief from the first page. In the face of conspiracy theories, election fraud claims, holocaust and climate change denials and vaccine resistance running roughshod over previously established fact, reality has seen lies advanced and accepted as truth on a massive scale. Trapped as we are in this current moment, the critical potential of speculative fiction is all the more important as it enables us to sidestep the barriers to dialogue raised by dogmatism and to imagine possibilities that can help us \"escape\" from fantastic right-wing demagoguery as well as the effects of normalizing the unconscionable and the disastrous.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn this optimistic appraisal of speculative fiction, John Rieder argues that the genre cannot carry the load by itself but must be supplemented by professional criticism and pedagogy within the institutional settings of secondary and higher education. Through readings of fiction by Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone \u003ci\u003eHow to Lose the Time War\u003c\/i\u003e, N. K. Jemisin's Broken Earth Trilogy, China Miéville's\u003ci\u003e The City and the City\u003c\/i\u003e alongside works by Minsoo Kang, Ann Leckie, Arkady Martine, and Rivers Solomon, \u003ci\u003eTruth, Lies and Speculation\u003c\/i\u003eilluminates how left-leaning intellectuals throughout the world can walk the line between despair at the apparent impotence of truth and outrage at the manifest power of lies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e John Rieder\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 135055152X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781350551527\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Bloomsbury Academic\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/28\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 192\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.99lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.50d","brand":"John Rieder","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48588362514687,"sku":"9781350551527","price":115.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/truth-lies-and-speculative-fiction-john-rieder-9781350551527","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}