I think one important step in decolonizing fantasy is to recognize how wildly anti-environment Europeans became, and how this affects the way we look at the nonhuman world. Like, in England wolves were driven to extinction because they were perceived as threats to sheep. And white people absolutely carried this kind of mentality everywhere they colonized. We see it in people who think rattlesnakes should be killed on sight. And it comes out in fantasy when every kind of creature that's challenging to humans is degraded, unpersoned, and treated like something to kill or keep contained out in the deep wilds.
I HAVE FELT THIS FOR SO LONG!!! Like I was always like "It's kinda fucked up that monstrous creatures/people in fantasy fiction are only approached in terms of being conquered or killed, right? Or in terms of only how they serve humans and that's IT." and it's fucked!
Yep! That's literally the colonialist mentality at work. If you want to feel even more vindicated, I recommend checking out Robin Wall Kimmerer's books and/or watching her interviews and speeches on YouTube.
















