What is the difference in emphasis
between the terms science fiction and speculative fiction?
A blogger
on WritersBeat.com suggested speculative fiction is a term that is usually
attributed to Robert Heinlein, who invented the term because he didn’t like the
term science fiction. We tend to associate it with the late 1950s and into the 1960s when
“science fiction” meant ‘old guard’ and "speculative fiction" meant
all the ‘young blood’ writers who were stretching the boundaries. It appears the
main stretch wasn't technical at all but was getting science fiction story
telling away from hard science fiction and away from science fiction adventure
tales, and into a deeper examination of the human condition. Therefore perhaps
Heinlein’s term speculative fiction is able to be broader than pure science
fiction to also include other genres like Fantasy and Horror. I think more
importantly it’s for those stories and tales that are labeled simply just
‘strange’ or ‘weird’ and don’t logically belong to the other genres.
Goldschlager suggests
science fiction as a genre focuses around the advancing of technology as either
a driving force for the storyline or a major part of the setting for the drama.
Generally science fiction tends to predict or define the future. Where as, speculative
fiction applies to work that answers the question “What if…?” Sometimes applied
to fiction considered more literary in nature that includes elements of science
fiction or fantasy. Goldschlager proposes within sciences fiction, the term
speculative fiction refers to novels that focus less on advance in technology
and more on the social change, such as Georges Orwell’s “1984.”
There
are commonalities to both genres, Thomas suggest (p. 4) “science fiction and speculative fiction are genres
that move readers to imagine alternative ways of being alive.” Thomas comments
that both genre’s often build and develop entire and seemingly new worlds, sometimes
as thin disguises for our own world and often genuinely speculative or uniquely
alternative existences.
References
- · Thomas, P. (n.d.). Science fiction and speculative fiction: Challenging genres.
- · http://www.writersbeat.com/showthread.php?t=45024
- · https://www.sfsite.com/columns/amy26.htm
Very good response thanks Leon. You have accurately summarized both where the term Speculative fiction came from and the way it has changed to incorporate a more specific range of sub-genres within Science Fiction (and potentially other genres). George Orwell is a great example btw.
ReplyDeleteGood comment, Leon. I can see that you have listed some of the interesting comments about this genre. Looking at speculative fiction and science fiction, it is very interesting to see the writer Phillp K. Dick. "Dick as a mid-century precursor of cyberpunk, as if he were gentile prophet prefiguring the advent of the word-made-flesh: it means acknowledgement - so much less grudging outside his homeland, especially in Europe, than in the US- that
ReplyDeleteDick is one of America's greatest writers, period... warts and all." This quote shows how Dick has impacted on America’s literature and pop culture.
Reference
Mountfort P. (6006). Oracle-text/Cybertext in Phillip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. Conference paper, Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association annual joint conference, Atlanta, 2006.