Comments on: Alternate History Versus Science Fiction

By: exzeteos

exzeteos — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:53:32 +0000

I’m reminded of the statement that Steve Eley (Editor of Escape Pod, a podcast novel of short form SF) has used several times: “Science fiction is what I point to when I say it”. I think our definitions are subjective, and I think that’s OK. It’s fuzzy logic (or maybe cloud logic now that it’s the 21st century). We can’t pin down a definition, but we know what it is when we see it. Robert Jordan’s Whee of Time is fantasy, even though it takes place in a future after the collapse of a highly technological civilization, and may have technological explanations for some of the super-natural elements of his story. Dick is a “Science Fiction” author (with clearly SF work like Ubik, Do Androids Dream…, Valis) so even his alternate history feels like SF. Caleb Carr’s attempt at Science Fiction (I can’t even remember the name) didn’t feel like SF to me, in part because I was familliar with his historical fiction. The arc of an author’s work sometimes colors our expectations of their work, which is why some authors use pseudonyms for different genres, or differentiate their ouvres with someother name change like Iain (M) Banks.

By: Unkie Dave

Unkie Dave — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:36:57 +0000

I think ’science fiction’ is written by people who want to win a Hugo, ’speculative fiction’ is written by those who have already won a Pulitzer, its a pecking order thing.

Chabon is a geek, ‘Kavalier and Clay’ clearly showed that, but there’s elements way back in ‘Werewolves’ and ‘Final Solution’, but he hid it from the mainstream until he had established himself enough not to scare off mainstream readers by setting stuff in an alternative Jewish Alaska. I gave my 80 something year old grandmother “Yiddish Policeman’s Union” this Christmas, she loved it – a voracious reader she would, however, never read sci-fi – though she loves a good detective novel, which at its core is what YPU is, the genre coat it wears is pretty, but its still just a coat and not the essence of the novel, and I think that’s the point of Chabon’s exercise.

Think of Ian Banks (I believe you are familiar with his work, I seem to remember something along those lines) – he clearly separates his genre and non genre work by the solicitous use of the letter “M.” – acknowledging that he has a group of fans that would not crossover and doesn’t want to upset them by exposing them to ’speculative fiction’.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:15:27 +0000

I think there is a definite trend for mainstream writers to lift troupes from the cupboard of SF/Fantasy and present them to wider audience who wouldn’t normally read anything sf/fantasy.
This seems to me to be a ( possibly cynical ) attempt to mark their work out from more run of the mill mainstream/literary fiction. The work appear more innovative because the intended audience may be unfamiliar with other examples. Cormac McCarthy’s ‘The Road’, and ‘The Raw Shark Texts’ by Steven Hall would be examples I’ve recently read.

By: mollydot

mollydot — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:18:45 +0000

My understanding is that speculative fiction is science fiction + fantasy + horror, plus other things that don't necessarily fit into the big three, like alternate history and urban fantasy. Paranormal romance, perhaps?

I agree that all fiction is speculative, but maybe these ones are even more so? Other fiction could theoretically be true, these definitely aren't.