Ever since I learned the term “speculative fiction” I’ve been a big fan of it, mostly because it implies the “what if?” question that is a staple of fiction writing (especially in science fiction and fantasy). I’ve generally heard this term used to describe science fiction, though in Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, he uses it in a broader sense that I think works even better.
Card sees both science fiction and fantasy as being under the speculative fiction umbrella. Often these two genres are kept very separate, and there are differences between the two, but there can also be a lot of crossover, especially these days when the genres are so popular. That’s why having a term that encompasses both is nice. (It’s also a bit more melodic sounding than “sci-fi/fantasy.”)
Defining science fiction and fantasy can be a little tricky. In the Children’s Literature courses I’ve taught, I’ve heard a good bit of disagreement over how to distinguish the two. Often people think that anything with robots or spaceships is science fiction, while everything else falls into the category of fantasy. That’s why people frequently refer to The Hunger Games, for example, as fantasy, even though you could argue that it isn’t.
Luckily, Card has a good way of distinguishing between the two categories:
If the story is set in a universe that follows the same rules as ours, it’s science fiction. If it’s set in a universe that doesn’t follow our rules, it’s fantasy…Science fiction is about what could be but isn’t; fantasy is about what couldn’t be.
Of course there are books that don’t cleanly fit into either definition. Still, it’s nice to know what has traditionally delineated the two genres. But if you’d rather not draw the line too clearly, that’s where the term speculative fiction can be very handy. However, there are also those who say that all fiction could be called speculative (a topic discussed a while back on The Spectacle blog) and I can’t really argue with that. But I suppose the term, even though it can be applied more broadly, does seem to be more specifically grounded in science fiction and fantasy, and that’s certainly how Card sees it.
Finally, while we’re on the topic of Orson Scott Card, I heard an interesting NPR interview with him the other day in which he talked about Ender’s Game, comic books, and war. He also talked about the Ender’s Game movie, which, after many years of failed starts, seems like it might finally happen! That’s one adaptation I’d love to see.
- Categories: Books, Resources, Writing Rants
Ender’s game movie! How cool! I’ll be there to watch that. That said, I hope they stop at the first book in the series. The others I don’t think would be the best for movies.
Spec is hard to define and encompasses a ton which is one thing that makes it kind of nice!
I agree about the Ender’s Game movie. The first book would be great, but after that I don’t know how well they’d translate to film. I’ve been hearing rumors about the movie for years, so we’ll see if it actually gets made!