Speculative vs Science Fiction

[bobeager]

What is the difference between Speculative and science fiction. Can stories have a combination of both? Anyone feel free to post here an example of either or both.
What would be some famous examples of speculative?

[cacian]

hi bobeager I was just thinking about things we wish were true against others that were not and science fiction is one thing I would not wish for it to come true. Ie I am far from wanting to bump onto a ufo/ovni in French because the prospect of that sounds rather unfortunate to gripping.
Apart from that, Sifi, the rest that is, is speculative.

So to answer your question I would say speculative could be theories such as conspiracies theories.

[hillwalker]

Yet again cacian's reply is of no help because she doesn't understand the question.

Speculative fiction is where the writer considers an alternative reality - in any of several guises including fantasy, dystopian fiction, etc. The writer asks the question 'what if the world turned out to be different from the way it really is?' and fits his story to this new, alternative reality.

Speculative Fiction : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction

Science fiction is simply fiction set in a world where scientific knowledge has progressed (usually sometime in the future) beyond our current level - including advancements such as matter transformation, contact with alien life forms and planetary exploration to name a few.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction

H

[kev67]

So which is 1984? Technology had progressed a bit from 1948 when the book was written, but not by very much, and the technology was not really the point.

[hillwalker]

'1984' was speculative fiction : imagining an alternative society to the one in which Orwell was living - but one he 'predicted' might well develop if fascism took hold. The technology was very much secondary to the totalitarian method of government and resultant submission of individuality.

H

[miyako73]

If a science fiction uses an alternative reality like robots, which have artificial intelligence, living in Mars among the Martians, I think, that is speculative fiction. If the setting is in rural Ohio and they live among humans who control them, that is science fiction. Even if the setting is in rural Ohio, it can be speculative fiction if the robots do things that are beyond science such as falling in love and making love. Science fiction, it seems to me, is the use of science and technology in the narrative about humans. Speculative fiction is the making of the unreal real or almost real--Gabriel Garcia's ants carry a baby, that is speculative.

[cafolini]

I think of 1984 as a ridiculous straightjacket of an impossible nature. Not science fiction and not even a speculation without idiocy.

[Paulclem]

1984 is classified as dystopian. It speculates about the political situation combined with a projected advance inpopulation monitoring techniques, but within a recogniseable, grungy, post war Britain. For all its faults, it contains some brilliant speculative ideas - the most important and relevant of these being newspeak and Big Brother.

[Shaman_Raman]

What is the difference between Speculative and science fiction. Can stories have a combination of both? Anyone feel free to post here an example of either or both.
What would be some famous examples of speculative?


Of course stories can have both, they're just labels. Brave New World could be both. Fahrenheit 451 could be speculative, but also science fiction, but could also be called a dystopian novel...

[Shaman_Raman]

Actually, if you look at the wiki pages, science fiction is considered a specific type of speculative fiction. So really a difference can't exist, because speculative fiction encompasses it.

[cafolini]

Brave New World is a set of warnings which were revealed as Wallace interviewed Huxley. There was no speculation as to a system that was to take place at all. The only speculation in Huxley's writings was that the warnings were necessary. Quite different than the idiocy of Orwell regarding the validity of a stupid and already very obsolete communistic system. There is no big brother in USA. Nor was there any in the UK after the Victorians, who were obsolete a-priori and were put to rest and sleep for keeps together with the Roman Catholics.

[Paulclem]

Brave New World is a set of warnings which were revealed as Wallace interviewed Huxley. There was no speculation as to a system that was to take place at all. The only speculation in Huxley's writings was that the warnings were necessary. Quite different than the idiocy of Orwell.

What's your beef with 1984? Do you not think the ideas are prophetic?

[cafolini]

What's your beef with 1984? Do you not think the ideas are prophetic?

In this one you made an expected mistake. LOL. You posted my quote before I posted it myself. Eaaaasy. You might get fired for inappropiate timing. Double LOL.

[Shaman_Raman]

Huxley wrote Brave New World with the same idea of "what if the future is like this?" Any time one tries to assume something is, by definition, speculating about it.

[kev67]

I would have said Brave New World was maybe a bit more science fiction than speculative fiction. Like 1984, it is a dystopia, but the technology is more important. Cloning was still a long way off back when it was written. IIRC the drugs, transport and entertainment, which were all important parts of the story, all depended on advances in technology. OTOH, speculative fiction appears to focus more on civilizations than on adventures, which would make Brave New World speculative fiction. Adventure stories that rely on futuristic technology seem more science fiction. I suppose speculative fiction could include stories like Fatherland by Robert Harris, which I have not read, but I gather is based on Nazi Germany having successfully invaded Britain in the war. Fatherland would not be science fiction, because the technology in the book is not futuristic. I suppose the key is that speculative fiction is based on civilisation taking a different course, and that can be either in the past or in the future. I would not regard a fantasy world as speculative fiction, or even a story which takes place on a different planet. I don't think dystopias are necessarily speculative fiction. The Lord of the Flies is a sort of dystopia, but there is little science in it and the story is about a community rather than an entire civilization.

[Paulclem]

In this one you made an expected mistake. LOL. You posted my quote before I posted it myself. Eaaaasy. You might get fired for inappropiate timing. Double LOL.

Apologies. Been fired and now reinstated on appeal. I hope you enjoyed your LoLs. LOL

I agree that the particular representation of Big Brother hasn't occurred - but I reckon the idea of being watched through technology is more relevant today than any time in the communist bloc. Nowadays we have more cameras, Google can do limited tracking of your searches, stalking can occur on social networking, and security services can access mobile phones - as can newshacks. (I'm not of the paranoid persuasion by the way).

I find it interesting that the real Big Brother these days are the are the big companies who are looking to glean any information about our tastes and spending habits etc. It goes as far as health insurance too. Do you not think this idea from Orwell is relevant?

Newspeak is most apparent with politicians who are now coached to answer questions in interviews, and who can turn any election setback into some kind of triumph. I get frustrated - or I would if I could be bothered - by politicians being interviewed. They may as well just give the interviewer a list of what they intend to say and have done with it.

[cafolini]

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Easy, let it last.

[Paulclem]

I thought we'd got a discussion going there. Oh well...

[bobeager]

Thanks for all the feedback. It is helpful to have specific examples. I ask the question some literary magazines only ask for speculative fiction. Why is this the case?
It does seem like a type of science fiction but then again separate.

[Paulclem]

Thanks for all the feedback. It is helpful to have specific examples. I ask the question some literary magazines only ask for speculative fiction. Why is this the case?
It does seem like a type of science fiction but then again separate.

Wikipedia's page on it refers to it as an umbrella term to include horror, fantasy etc. Perhaps it's an easy term to cover all those without specifying and perhaps putting off some writers.

You probably looked at this already, but here's the page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction

[Paulclem]

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Easy, let it last.

You reminded me of this. Were you ever in The Office?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sWeYN_xwsw