Warp wrote:
>   Isn't *all* fiction speculative? 

People generally don't call historical (for example) fiction "speculative". 
E.g., the movie Titanic wouldn't be "speculative" even if it was 
fictionalized. Neither would the movie "Die Hard" or "Basterds". They're 
merely fiction.

I think the "speculative" part is "if you're in a different society 
altogether..." It's hard to quantify, of course, but I'd say speculative 
fiction says "how would people react if their environment was something we 
never considered before", rather than "show me an example of someone 
reacting to a fairly normal situation."

In speculative fiction, you get relatively normal people (normal for their 
culture, of course) reacting to unusual (unusual for us) events.  In other 
fiction, you get exceptional people (like Bruce Willis plays) reacting to 
relatively normal events. The former is about the culture and society, while 
the latter is about the individuals.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

Post a reply to this message