{"id":3944,"date":"2012-03-22T12:24:06","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T01:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zenashapter.com\/blog\/?p=3944"},"modified":"2021-08-30T16:36:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T06:36:46","slug":"what-does-speculative-fiction-mean-to-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/what-does-speculative-fiction-mean-to-you\/","title":{"rendered":"What does speculative fiction mean\u2026 to you?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I was asked by a publishing company to answer some questions for an author profile page. One of the questions was: what is speculative fiction?<\/p>\n

Easy to answer, right?<\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019ve read other people\u2019s explanations of what comprises speculative fiction, and when friends ask me I usually name a few Hollywood movies or TV shows to prove that they do actually watch and<\/em> like it. Very broad examples often include:<\/p>\n

Science Fiction = Star Wars \/ Star Trek \/ The Matrix \/ District 9 \/ Jurassic Park<\/p>\n

Fantasy = Lord of the Rings \/ Harry Potter \/ Twilight \/ Ghost Whisperer \/ Thor<\/p>\n

Horror = Psycho \/ Nightmare on Elm Street \/ The Blair Witch Project<\/p>\n

But it was a publishing company asking me that question, not a video\/DVD library, and I didn\u2019t want to just repeat someone else\u2019s definition, I wanted my own.<\/p>\n

So I said:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, speculative stories are thought-experiments. They are fantastical ideas that take us away from the everyday, sometimes very far away, sometimes so close it’s only when we shut the book we realise we’ve been away at all. They’re the ‘what if’ of fiction, the beyond and the magical. Speculative fiction can include science fiction, fantasy, horror, paranormal, alternate histories, dystopian fiction and everything in between. But I think it’s more than that. By putting characters in extreme or unusual situations, speculative fiction can show us who we really are.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Thinking about the speculative fiction you read\/watch and enjoy (yes, even those of you who don\u2019t think<\/em> you do!), what does speculative fiction actually<\/em> mean to you \u2013 what do you get out of it?<\/p>\n

Do you like the way it makes you think about life in a different way, about the future that might come to our world? Or do you prefer to just escape into a different reality?<\/p>\n

I did a little survey on my Facebook page (like my page here<\/a>!), and I got these results:<\/p>\n

(results as at 22 March 2012)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Facebook Poll<\/p><\/div>\n

Thanks to these Facebook pals for responding to my poll: Mary Victoria<\/a>, <\/a>Marianne de Pierres<\/a>, <\/a>Keith Stevenson<\/a>, <\/a>Michael Pryor<\/a>, Devin Jeyathurai,<\/a> Nick Tchan<\/a>, <\/a>Elizabeth Ottosson<\/a>, <\/a>Laura E. Goodin<\/a>,\u00a0<\/a>Nyssa Pascoe<\/a>, <\/a>Graham Storrs<\/a>, <\/a>Alan Baxter<\/a>, F\u00fczzy Mijmark<\/a>, Sarah Louise Martin<\/a>, Elizabeth Chick-Burton<\/a>, Cary Lenehan<\/a>, Phillip George<\/a>, Aj Spedding<\/a>, Tyson Perna<\/a>, Meta Kane<\/a>, Bonze Anne Rose Blayk<\/a>, Tarran Tyrannosaurus Jones<\/a>, Neil Gossell<\/a>, and Julie O’Brien<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Which option would you have picked in my poll<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Or perhaps you have a different reason \u2013 maybe you like speculative fiction because of the essential disaster avoidance techniques it shows you, or perhaps you love the emotional roller-coaster of experiencing such outer life?<\/p>\n

Let me know \u2013 what does speculative fiction mean\u2026 to you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I was asked by a publishing company to answer some questions for an author profile page. One of the questions was: what is speculative fiction? Easy to answer, right? Well, I\u2019ve read other people\u2019s explanations of what comprises speculative fiction, and when friends ask me I usually name\u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[170,207,416,588],"class_list":["post-3944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bookish-inspection","category-writer-advice","tag-definition","tag-facebook-page","tag-meaning","tag-speculative-fiction"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3944"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14250,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944\/revisions\/14250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zenashapter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}