Speculative Fiction

Alright, I'm not even sure how this post is going to unfold, but here goes. I've been a fan of science fiction for a very long time. However, I'm a picky fan, and not all SF is good SF. I've read some stink bombs in my life, and unfortunately some of what I hate everyone else seems to like. In the past SF used to be so distinct as a separate genre that in and of itself SF was counter culture and very much the red-headed stepchild of fiction. However, like anything else that has merit, eventually it becomes mainstream and to make it acceptable to the masses, it loses much of what made it special.

Now, I think that a lot of SF today is talentless crap that the masses eat up for some reason, and that SF which happens to be good is overlooked, doomed to languish in the annals of cult classic fame. I think that probably the best example of this is the SciFi network, or as they have re-imaged themselves, SyFy. 99% of what they broadcast is crap, and that 1% of what they broadcast that isn't, you never see more than once, however the crap is rerun in perpetuity.

However, as is often the case, there is a silver lining to this gray cloud. Thus I present to you speculative fiction. To me, what was once branded science fiction can now be divided into at least four distinct separate genres: Speculative Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Science Fiction and Superhero Fiction. Granted there is a lot of overlap between these genres, but I think that just about any of this imaginative fiction can be categorized as one or more of these genres.

Fantasy Fiction is probably the easiest to classify. Tolkien definitely fits here and so does a great lot of what is classified Science Fiction. To me, SF and FF are clearly separate genres, but at the same time many authors have merged the genres very successfully. Anthony's Adept series is a good example of Science and Fantasy working together well. I think some Steampunk probably falls into this area of when SF and FF merge.

Superhero fiction is a new player in lineup. I'm a little bit inclusive when I talk about this genre. Sure Superman and Spiderman are definitely players here, but I would also include Laura Croft and Ultraviolet in this mix as well. Sure, it's not a perfect fit, but if you look at the genre as being about characters with above average abilities, you see what I'm going for.

Science Fiction is probably the least understood. I've already written about the big three of SF, but maybe what I neglected was just how much they were SF. SF was originally based on, wonder of wonder, science. It was the vision of what science and technology would lead us to. However, in my opinion, some of the best SF was just a setting for a good story to be placed in. An example of this is Asimov's Robot series. The books were detective stories set in a future where man had colonized fifty more planets. Sure, the setting altered how the plot played out, but in essence, the SF just added spice to the detective story.

Speculative fiction is something else. It is none of these other genres, but encompasses much of what they are. Speculative fiction asks only one question, what if? That is an awesome way to start a story. You make just one little change in history or you take what is possible to do today and extrapolate. There is so much fiction that falls into this category. Some of it is light in the speculation department. The Sum of All Fears is a good example of light speculation. What if there was a nuclear attack on the President of the United States? Granted, I wouldn't classify that story as completely speculative fiction, but there definitely is an element. Cyberpunk stories fit in here as well as the rest of Steampunk stories when you combine historical and speculative fiction. I think Gene Roddenbury's initial vision of Star Trek was speculative and not science fiction, though SF is where I would place it. Speculative fiction covers a ton of ground.

The main thing I like about speculative fiction is that it is like some of the old style SF in that the setting wasn't the story, it was just a setting. You speculate and then you tell the story that you wanted to tell, whether it be SF, detective, romance or whatever. Probably the best example of how this spices up a story is Watchmen. Watchmen is definitely a superhero story, but it is set in 1985 where Nixon is a fifth-term president because of an ever mounting threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, and in which superheros helped win the Vietnam War. So Watchmen is set in a world that didn't happen, but is rich in detail that adds to the story without being the story itself. That's what I really like.