Fascist Elements in Science Fiction

I am curious if people have recommendations or thoughts about science fiction books (or speculative fiction as a whole, I suppose) that handle elements or themes related to fascism or neofascism in a more subtle way than how it is usually portrayed in the genre? There are a myriad of science fiction authors that have explored the topic in a fairly severe way - the governments or corporations in question are essentially Orwellian in a different setting. Has anyone come across authors that explore the theme in a more nuanced fashion?

The Hidden World by Stanton Coblentz This book was original published in 1935 under the title The Caverns Below . Two men exploring the caverns deep below the Nevada encounter two waring super civilizations. That had opposite political systems .

The book is a satire against both Fascism and Communism and consumerism , capitalism. It cover thing themes like media manipulation.


Coblentz is a largely forgotten writer.

The touchstone would probably be Heinlein's Starship Troopers which, after 55 years, still provokes debate even about whether it's fascist or not.

I'm not sure how precisely you mean "fascist" (vs. just evil oppressive Powers That Be) and how subtle you want (ambiguous, downright favorable?) or how central it needs to be to the book. But some things that occur to me are John Barnes' Orbital Resonance (father knows best), many of Stephen Baxter's Xeelee stories (where humanity sometimes becomes things many of us wouldn't like under xenocidal pressures), maybe even Budrys' Michaelmas (where it's not really the point but there's an odd way of looking at it), Jack Williamson's velvet-glove The Humanoids ("With Searching Mind"/"And Folded Hands"), and Haldeman's "peace at any cost" Forever Peace. Also Cory Doctorow's "Chicken Little" could be seen as relevant, I guess. There are a lot of "bread and circuses", "most of the herd is content" sorts of stories though individual titles aren't springing to mind. Lots of van Vogt might fit what you're talking about but maybe some more detail or restrictions would clarify. Or do you just want "not 1984 clones"?

Oh, I forgot - it's not subtle at all but an essential book on "science fiction (especially heroic fantasy, actually) and fascism" is Norman Spinrad's The Iron Dream. This pretends that Adolf Hitler left Austria after WWI and became an SF hack in America and wrote the enclosed novel, Lord of the Swastika. It touches on how much of space opera, heroic fantasy, and nursery tales and Nazism and other sorts of "great hero ruler smashes the inhuman" stories have a level of kinship. This isn't precisely related to just fascism as such, but it's definitely in there.

Though I suspect Starship Troopers isn't

J-Sun said:

I'm not sure how precisely you mean "fascist" (vs. just evil oppressive Powers That Be) and how subtle you want (ambiguous, downright favorable?) or how central it needs to be to the book.

Click to expand...

Those are the sort of questions that I am interested in, so all of the above and anything in between. Thanks for the suggestions, I will look them up. I am doing some work on the impressive and unexpected resurgence of neofascism and/or the extreme right-wing in real life, so the topic as it relates to SF popped into my head.

Not sure if this is what you're looking for, MC, but have you ever read PKD's The Man in the High Castle? I love the book, and it may have some of the themes you're looking for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_High_Castle

I tend to define "fascism" narrowly as a radical nationalist ideology that seeks to build a mechanized, militarized and corporate society. "Authoritarianism" more broadly refers to any top-down system where leaders rule through coercion/violence and don't gain legitimacy through traditional authority (as in a monarchy).

Island Aldous Huxley
Cannes, Cocaine Nights, High Rise etc. JG Ballard

Nerds_feather said:

I tend to define "fascism" narrowly as a radical nationalist ideology that seeks to build a mechanized, militarized and corporate society. "Authoritarianism" more broadly refers to any top-down system where leaders rule through coercion/violence and don't gain legitimacy through traditional authority (as in a monarchy).

Click to expand...

There is a large literature on the subject ranging from classical fascism to neofascism to radical right-wing populism and so forth.

Yes, "The Man in the High Castle" gives a good description of how North American might look in the sixties if Germany/Japan had won WWII.

"Terry Nation: The Man Who Invented the Daleks" by Alwyn W. Turner includes several suggestions of other works from the sixties comparable to the Daleks in Doctor Who and other similar themes of Terry Nation. You can Google search within the book itself online. Films such as "It Happened Here" and books such as "The Midwich Cuckoos" are mentioned.

Terry Nation seemed obsessed with the Nazis. The episodes he wrote for the ITC shows, The Avengers and The Champions being good examples. There are also themes within Survivors and within Blake's Seven.

However the Daleks, themselves, are clearly fascists. It isn't even very subtle there. When they take over the Earth in 2164 using brainwashed Robomen they use slave labour in mines while scenes of war torn desolation surround. They make fascist salutes with their plungers. The ineffective resistance is betrayed by elderly women who say that they are old and times are hard; that the only rule is to survive. Later the Daleks make arrangements for the extermination of all humans which they call the final solution.

When we see the genesis of the Daleks on Skaro you see Davros' attempts to create a pure race using genetic scientists and the Kaleds click heels wearing military uniforms that are clearly modeled on WWII German soldiers and they are building a rocket that looks like a V2.

The Iron Heel by Jack London

There's a chapter satirising fascism in T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone, set in an ant hill (a theme taken up by later scribes including, er, me). I'm sure several post-apocalyptic novels include fascist societies. The one put forward by Torrance in The Day of the Triffids feels that way, although there are probably others. It would seem like a good time to "call for order" - ie impose tyranny. I wonder if some of the Klingon-type warrior societies are fascist, perhaps in a Japanese rather than European style?

I don't think Starship Troopers is fascist either. It's extremely nostalgic about the military but not actively fascist.

1984 is about fascism as well as communism, so would count. [Climbs onto hobby horse] Contrary to the view of some (chiefly right-wing American) writers, 1984 isn't solely about communism and certainly isn't Orwell renouncing socialism or otherwise "getting better". I suspect that, to Orwell, the mentalities of both Hitler and Stalin were very similar, and to my mind, the chapters where O'Brien explains the nature of Ingsoc are a strong insight into the fascist mentality. I wonder if Putin is gradually imposing a fascist ideology on a country used to communist dictators?

Michael Colton said:

I am curious if people have recommendations or thoughts about science fiction books (or speculative fiction as a whole, I suppose) that handle elements or themes related to fascism or neofascism in a more subtle way than how it is usually portrayed in the genre? There are a myriad of science fiction authors that have explored the topic in a fairly severe way - the governments or corporations in question are essentially Orwellian in a different setting. Has anyone come across authors that explore the theme in a more nuanced fashion?

Click to expand...

Heinlein's Starship Troopers. The movie version made that fascist element a sour point. In the book, it is much, much different. A society where no-one can vote until they have served in the military. Military service is completely voluntary, but no-one is ever denied if they volunteer (there is a line saying if a man with no legs and only one arm applied, they would give him his two-years doing something like peeling potatoes). That society also makes assaulting a military person (even a simple bar-fight) a major (possibly death-sentence level) crime. And if a military person should commit a major crime and is then caught, he's taken back to his bunk-mates, who must hang him themselves. There is also a bit made about swift justice...as in a death sentence being carried out the night after the conviction. Not much chance for an appeal. =}
So fascist elements of this book are largely related to military service, crime and punishment, and politics...which I suppose covers most everything, eh? =}

I don't think those are fascist. Starship Troopers is obsessed with brutality, violence and "discipline" (it is explicitly stated that the ST society is the equivalent of rubbing a dog's face in its own sh*t, for goodness sake) but it lacks the political structure that Nerd's Feather mentions above. No glorious leader, no secret police, no racial doctrine, just a drooling love of boot camp. It's more like a book written by a sadomasochistic soldier than an actual political extremist. Orwell once wrote of a gangster novel that it was a daydream appropriate to an age of dictators. Perhaps determining what is "fascist" is rather difficult.

Starship Troopers is militarist, but not necessarily fascist. For the reasons Toby states, but also there's no social corporatism or hyper-industrialism.

I really would want to see some agreement on definition before contributing to this discussion. Distinguish please between fascism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, etc. I have seen too much use of "fascist" as a mere word of abuse to have much use for it in conversation unless there's some preliminary defining.

I agree with Extollager; fascist is often bandied about to mean any socio-political group people see as being against them. I'm not sure the society depicted in Starship Troopers is truly fascist, but merely jingoistic.

Vince W said:

I agree with Extollager; fascist is often bandied about to mean any socio-political group people see as being against them. I'm not sure the society depicted in Starship Troopers is truly fascist, but merely jingoistic.

Click to expand...

The society in Starship in some ways reminds me of Sparta or Perhaps the Roman Republic.