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You are here: Home / Writing / Speculative Fiction / On Speculative Fiction: What constitutes speculative fiction?

On Speculative Fiction: What constitutes speculative fiction?

2 November 2017 By Robert Atkin Leave a Comment

This post is taken from a chapter of a short book called “On Speculative Fiction” that I am working on. If you would like to know when the book has been published and receive a free copy of the eBook, please sign up here:

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A. The nature of speculative fiction

Speculative fiction is the umbrella category which is sometimes used to describe the literary genres of science fiction, fantasy, utopian and dystopian fiction, alternative history and the supernatural.[1] There is no consensus in terminology and therefore usage varies, often with the result that the term is interchangeable with science fiction and fantasy, or sometimes just science fiction. Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) first used the term as a synonym for science fiction in an editorial for The Saturday Evening Post, a weekly American magazine, in February 1947, although he specifically excluded fantasy from his definition of speculative fiction.[2] Other authors wanted to differentiate their writing in this genre from the B. E. M. (bug-eyed monster) of pulp magazines that were popular in the 1930s–50s.[3] In 1967, Judith Merril (1923–1997) advocated the use of SF or s-f to stand for science fiction, scientific fantasy or speculative fiction in an attempt to broaden the field.[4] In a recent public discussion between the authors Margaret Atwood and Ursula K. Le Guin, the former argued that her work was speculative fiction rather than science fiction because it was more in the tradition of Jules Verne (1828–1905) than that of H. G. Wells (1866–1946).[5] Verne wrote about things that could happen but had not at the time he was writing, such as submarines and other technological advances, whereas Wells wrote about things that could not happen, such as time travel, invisibility and Martians. Conversely, Le Guin argued that things which could happen were science fiction, whereas things which could not, such as dragons and many of the storylines in Star Wars or Star Trek, were fantasy.[6] Kingsley Amis defined science fiction as ‘that class of prose narrative treating of a situation that could arise in the world we know, but which is hypothesised on the basis of some innovation in science or technology, or pseudo-science or pseudo-technology, whether human or extra-terrestrial in origin.’[7] This is similar to the premise suggested by Heinlein when he wrote, ‘In the speculative science fiction story accepted science and established facts are extrapolated to produce a new situation, a new framework for human action.’[8] It is within the space created by this new framework that it becomes possible for an author to explore the potential for humanity to deal with the worldview questions of existence. There is a high degree of crossover between these genres and sub-genres. Although the terminology of speculative fiction varies among writers and fans, many academics favour its usage as the broad term which encompasses these similar genres.

B. Literary theory of dystopian fiction

Dystopia cannot be discussed without mention of its antithesis utopia. In his book Utopia (1516), Thomas More (1478–1535) describes how Raphael Hythloday travels to a fictional island that is home to a democratic agrarian society that suffers no lack of food or fear of foreign invasion and where the people live communally, despising wealth, in peace and harmony.[9] The word utopia is from the Greek ou- (ou) meaning ‘not’ and τόπος (topos) meaning ‘place,’ so literally ‘nowhere.’ The word has come to mean an ideal or perfect community or society. Its opposite, dystopia, uses the Greek prefix δυσ- (dus) meaning ‘un-’ or ‘mis-’ to form ‘hard place’ or ‘bad place,’ literally ‘un-utopia.’ Dystopia is the utopian dream turned into a nightmare.[10] Raymond Williams defines four types of dystopia. Firstly, the hell, where life is depicted as more miserable than elsewhere.[11] Secondly, the externally altered world, in which life has become less happy due to some natural event.[12] Thirdly, the willed transformation, in which negative social transformation has resulted in a less happy life, either deliberately by a harmful agency, or inadvertently by the unanticipated consequences of an attempt to improve life.[13] Finally, the technological transformation, where life is made less happy due to changes brought about by technological development.[14] The Hunger Games is set within a world that fits the third category. The setting is post-apocalyptic North America where, following some unspecified environmental disaster and war, an authoritarian totalitarian regime has been established in a new country called Panem.[15]

Often dystopian fiction can be a critique of the real world. Aldous Huxley’s (1894–1963) Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell’s (1903–1950) Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) were both written against the backdrop of the changing socio-political realities of the twentieth century.[16] By taking real-world scenarios and placing them in exaggerated fictional settings, they become a satirical warning of the dangers to humanity posed by oppressive systems and regimes.[17] The conflict is usually between social control and individualism, with individual identity and the pursuit of individual desire heavily monitored and controlled by the regime, often with the use of advanced technology, force and punishment.[18] The genre remains popular in the early twenty-first century, particularly in young adult fiction, with recent examples in addition to The Hunger Games being the Divergent trilogy (2011–2013) by Veronica Roth and The Maze Runner series (2009–2016) by James Dashner.

Dystopian fiction is most effective as speculative fiction when it critically assesses the negative consequences of the current order, in particular the technological, social and political conditions, and provides a better viable alternative.[19] The familiarity of the real world setting, whether that is the geographic location or social setting, opens up the possibility to see what is wrong with where we are, and to imagine the potential for what could be the solution to put things right.

 

[1] ISFDB Wiki Policy, “ISFDB Wiki Policy,” The Internet Speculative Fiction Database, n.d., <http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:Policy>.

[2] Gary Westfahl, “The Popular Tradition of Science Fiction Criticism, 1926-1980,” Science Fiction Studies 26 (Jul. 1999), 197.

[3] Westfahl, “Popular Tradition,” 192.

[4] Westfahl, “Popular Tradition,” 202.

[5] Margaret Atwood, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination (London: Virago, 2011), 6.

[6] Atwood, In Other Worlds, 6.

[7] Kingsley Amis, New Maps of Hell (London: Penguin, 1960), 3.

[8] Robert A. Heinlein, “On the Writing of Speculative Fiction,” in Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy (ed. Gardner R. Dozois, Stanley Schmidt and Sheila Williams; New York, NY: Davis Publications, 1991), 9.

[9] Mark R. Hillegas, “The literary background to science fiction,” in Science Fiction: A critical guide (ed. Patrick Parrinder; London; New York, NY: Routledge, 2014), 3.

[10] M. Keith Booker and Anne-Marie Thomas, The Science Fiction Handbook (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), 65.

[11] Raymond Williams, “Utopia and science fiction,” in Science Fiction: A critical guide (ed. Patrick Parrinder; London; New York, NY: Routledge, 2014), 52-66, p. 52.

[12] Williams, “Utopia and science fiction,” 52.

[13] Williams, “Utopia and science fiction,” 52.

[14] Williams, “Utopia and science fiction,” 52.

[15] Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (London: Scholastic, 2008), 20.

[16] Booker and Thomas, Science Fiction Handbook, 66.

[17] Booker and Thomas, Science Fiction Handbook, 65.

[18] Booker and Thomas, Science Fiction Handbook, 65-66.

[19] Booker and Thomas, Science Fiction Handbook, 72.

Filed Under: Speculative Fiction, Writing Tagged With: Dystopian, Fantasy, Genre, Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, SciFi, Speculative Fiction

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