“Offers an original contribution to American, folklore, and fantastic studies. The selections analyzed are eclectic but the argument that surfing, pirates, John Henry, and rags-to-riches stories actually do have something in common is convincing. All are expressions of the American colonialist impulse and all involve transformative (perhaps ritualized) violence. An important, provocative study.” - Brian Attebery, author of Fantasy: How It Works “Thiess convincingly interrogates mythologized violence in speculative literatures and media and how this mythmaking relates to Christianity and capitalism while continually generating a sense of entitlement, an American exceptionalism or Christian supremacy, that allows an ongoing exploitation devoid of guilt.” - Isiah Lavender III, author of Afrofuturism Rising: The Literary Prehistory of a Movement
