Speculative Fiction
Recently Publisher's Weekly ran an article titled, "Speculative fiction is a tough sell in the Christian market." It has not always been so.
Speculative fiction refers to a broad category that encompasses both science fiction and fantasy. It can also include horror and literary fiction that uses science-fictional or fantastic elements. In Modern Science Fiction (1953), Isaac Asimov defined sci-fi as “that branch of literature which is concerned with the impact of scientific advance upon human beings.”
Many argue that Plato's Republic was the first work of speculative fiction, since he created a non-existent place to illustrate social ideals. Or consider the Cyprian king, Pygmalion, who fell in love with the statue of an ideal woman and asked Aphrodite to bring the statue to life, then married the woman.
As a rule of thumb: “If it’s psychic power, it’s science fiction; if it’s magic, it’s fantasy.”
Both sci-fi and fantasy are narrative forms in which the writer can manipulate setting –or even make it up entirely—for narrative purposes, which allows him or her to comment on the real world.
A fictitious setting is not an absolute requirement in spec fiction. ET landing in Dallas is still sci-fi, and Harry Potter set in San Diego would still be fantasy. So speculative fiction doesn’t have to be set in a world that’s different from earth, but if the world is different, the category is definitely speculative.
Science fiction frequently has aliens and star empires, but far more often than not, the alternate worlds extrapolate trends or criticize contemporary society.
In realistic fiction you never get out of shades of gray, whereas in fantasy you have definite Good and Evil, and you generally know which is which. Of course, it’s never that clear-cut, but you usually know where you stand. Glenda is the good witch (we’re talking “Wizard of Oz,” here, not “Wicked”); the witch of the West is the bad witch.
I hope the tough-sell trend changes soon. Where would we be without Lewis's space trilogy, L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time, Chesterton's The Man Who Would Be Thursday or the still best-selling Chronicles of Narnia?