Podcast Summary: New Books Network — "Decolonizing the Novum"

Host: Kim Adams (with Sarani Bhoshu)
Guest: Zach Zimmer
Date: April 13, 2026
Episode Theme: Decolonizing the Novum – Rethinking 'Newness' and Speculation in the History and Literature of the Conquest of the Americas

Episode Overview

In this episode, Kim Adams of New Books Network (co-branded with High Theory) interviews literary scholar Zach Zimmer about his recent book, First Contact: Speculative Visions of the Conquest of the Americas. The conversation explores Zimmer’s concept of "decolonizing the novum," examining how speculative fiction—especially works from Latin America and Indigenous perspectives—can challenge or rethink the notion of “newness” (the novum) as rooted in colonial encounters, particularly the European conquest of the Americas.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introducing "Decolonizing the Novum"

• Definition of Novum:

  • "The novum is just the new component of a SF narrative, most simply put." (Zach Zimmer, 02:10)
  • Zimmer references the work of theorist Darko Suvin, where "novum" is central to what defines science fiction (SF): something essentially 'new' or novel within the narrative's world.

• Zimmer's Application:

  • Zimmer examines works primarily by Latin American authors and artists that reinterpret the conquest and colonization of the Americas using speculative and science fiction modalities.
  • Example approaches include reimagining the Conquest as alien invasion or alternative histories where “the Aztecs go to Spain in the 1480s” (05:02).
  • The works ground their speculation in historical archives and seek to open up the idea of “novelty” as a decolonial project.

2. Historical Context and the Invention of the New World

• Concept as Invention:
  • The "New World" is not a natural discovery but a constructed concept; its invention is linked to Iberian colonial projects (Zach Zimmer, 05:33).
  • The Mexican philosopher Edmundo Ogorman is cited: "the New World is invented" (05:33), emphasizing its constructed, not organic, nature.

3. Decolonization, Metaphor, and Scientific Discourse

• Is Decolonization Metaphorical?

  • While Tuck and Yang assert “decolonization is not a metaphor,” Zimmer notes colonization itself is entrenched in metaphorical scientific language:
    • Example: In scientific literature, the first life to appear after a lava flow are “colonizer species” (06:51).
  • He calls for grappling with these embedded metaphors, especially when considering methodologies like “decolonizing science.”

• Temporal Framing:

  • Zimmer suggests most postcolonial theory is anchored in 19th-century (Anglo) empire and industrial capitalism, but the conquest of the Americas marks an arguably even more foundational moment (08:37).
  • He underscores the advanced technologies at play in the 16th-century Americas, such as mining in Potosí (09:11).

4. Speculative Fiction as Historiographic Critique

• Alternatives to Historical Determinism:

  • The examined novels and art "create space to think about contingency in history, to think about how other possible worlds might have come out of this moment" (10:25).
  • Contrasts with deterministic grand narratives, e.g., Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel.

• Historiographic Metafiction:

  • Related Latin American tradition of metafiction (10:55): self-conscious, postmodern novels that draw attention to narrative construction.
  • SF narratives take this further through alternative histories and "displacements to aliens or inversions" (05:35).

5. Grounding Speculation in Historical Archives

• Importance of Archives:
  • “If there is a true commitment to decolonizing this moment... the historical grounding is paramount.” (Zach Zimmer, 12:08)
  • Example: Carmen Boullosa’s time travel novel, in which Moctezuma returns to 1989 Mexico City, deeply engages the indigenous Nahuatl sources compiled in Broken Spears (13:01).

6. Opening up Possibilities and Imagining Otherwise

• Speculation as Resistance:
  • It’s not only about “thinking the world otherwise, but trying to understand both the limits and the potentials within archival sources” (12:12).
  • The act of speculative re-imagining is seen as reconnecting with “moments when the New World... was shattering open a lot of received wisdom in Europe, and also being both challenged and nurtured... by indigenous and native ontologies” (10:54).

7. How Can “Decolonizing the Novum” Save the World?

• Rupturing Determinism:

  • “Just because it happened one way doesn't mean it was always going to happen that way.” (Zach Zimmer, 15:20)
  • Engaging speculative imagination "can show us... the possibilities of the unfolding of history were wide open" (16:03).

• Cosmovision & Repeating Patterns:

  • The concept “cosmovision” (ontological worldview) allows for recognizing how Mesoamerican frameworks of space and time might have been more sophisticated than the Spanish colonial mindset (16:58).
  • Newer novels like Álvaro Enrigue's Now Dream of Empires show overlapping timelines and rupture the linearity of colonial history.

• Resisting Triumphalist Narratives:

  • By moving beyond “celebratory triumphalist, universal march of history” and reanimating other temporalities, these works “nurture resistance movements... and help create better stories, better films” (17:34).
  • Sometimes, adding “aliens or time travel... can make that point more poignantly. At least my students tell me when we read these books together.” (18:35)

8. Pedagogical Power of Speculative Fiction

• Engagement & Accessibility:

  • Kim Adams shares an anecdote: students "were like way more down when they were reading about it in SF narratives than... historical texts" (18:38).
  • Zimmer: “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” and “a light touch of the music hall allows for the telling of the darkest of tales”—the oblique, creative methods get students to deeply engage with difficult histories (19:14).

• Unlocking Present and Future Potentialities:

  • Referencing Ariella Aïsha Azoulay and Saidiya Hartman, Zimmer advocates for speculative fiction as a method of “inhabiting” alternative historical possibilities, thereby making the past “unwritten” in new, liberating ways (19:54).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "'The novum is just the new component of a SF narrative, most simply put.'"
  — Zach Zimmer (02:10)

• "The concept of novelty itself has an intimate relationship with colonization as a process."
  — Zach Zimmer (07:33)

• "Just because it happened one way doesn't mean it was always going to happen that way."
  — Zach Zimmer (15:20)

• "If there is a true commitment to decolonizing this moment and also speculative and science fiction as genre, I think the historical grounding is paramount."
  — Zach Zimmer (12:08)

• "A light touch of the music hall allows for the telling of the darkest of tales."
  — Zach Zimmer, quoting from a novel's epigraph (19:14)

• "[Speculative fiction] can actually reconnect to potential... understand that things could have been otherwise can unlock potentialities also in our present moment."
  — Zach Zimmer (20:13)

Key Timestamps

• 01:47 – Zach Zimmer’s introduction and academic background
• 02:10 – Definition of "decolonizing the novum" and the project's genesis
• 05:00 – Examples of speculative re-imaginings of the Conquest
• 06:23 – Discussion of decolonization as metaphor and scientific language of colonization
• 08:37 – Critique of postcolonial theory’s temporal framing
• 10:25 – Alternative histories and the limits of determinist narratives
• 12:08 – Importance of grounding speculative fiction in historical archives
• 13:01 – Carmen Boullosa’s novel as a case study
• 14:36 – "How will decolonizing the novum save the world?"
• 15:20 – Challenging inevitability in history
• 16:58 – Cosmovision and Álvaro Enrigue’s novel
• 18:38 – Pedagogical impact of SF for teaching colonial history
• 19:54 – Potential histories, archival violence, and present/future liberation

Tone and Style

• Engaged, Inquisitive, and Slightly Irreverent:
  • Host and guest approach deep theoretical questions with both rigor and humor ("getting weird is what might help save us" – 14:36).
• Grounded but Imaginative:
  • Zimmer insists on historical and archival grounding for speculation, yet encourages imaginative, non-linear approaches to history.

Summary

Zimmer’s work on "decolonizing the novum" merges postcolonial critique with the tools of speculative fiction—blurring genres, times, and perspectives to unsettle conventional narratives about the Conquest of the Americas. By rooting speculative imagination in archival materials and indigenous cosmovisions, he hopes both creators and readers can see history as a space of radical contingency and possibility. This, in turn, can nurture resistance, new stories, and alternative futures—creating a meaningful intersection between memory, imagination, and justice.

For further reading: Zach Zimmer’s First Contact: Speculative Visions of the Conquest of the Americas and related works by Carmen Boullosa, Álvaro Enrigue, and others detailed in the episode.