Speculative fiction is an umbrella phrase encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts.
It has been around since humans began to speak. The earliest forms of speculative fiction were likely mythological tales told around the campfire. Speculative fiction deals with the "What if?" scenarios imagined by dreamers and thinkers worldwide. Journeys to other worlds through the vast reaches of distant space; magical quests to free worlds enslaved by terrible beings; malevolent supernatural powers seeking to increase their spheres of influence across multiple dimensions and times; all of these fall into the realm of speculative fiction.
Speculative fiction as a category ranges from ancient works to cutting edge, paradigm-changing, and neotraditional works of the 21st century. It can be recognized in works whose authors' intentions or the social contexts of the versions of stories they portrayed is now known. For example, Ancient Greek dramatists such as Euripides, whose play Medea (play) seemed to have offended Athenian audiences when he fictionally speculated that shamaness Medea killed her own children instead of their being killed by other Corinthians after her departure. The play Hippolytus, narratively introduced by Aphrodite, is suspected to have displeased contemporary audiences of the day because it portrayed Phaedra as too lusty.
In historiography, what is now called speculative fiction has previously been termed "historical invention", "historical fiction," and other similar names. It is extensively noted in the literary criticism of the works of William Shakespeare when he co-locates Athenian Duke Theseus and Amazonian Queen Hippolyta, English fairy Puck, and Roman god Cupid all together in the fairyland of its Merovingian Germanic sovereign Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In mythography it has been termed "mythopoesis" or mythopoeia, "fictional speculation", the creative design and generation of lore, regarding such works as J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Such supernatural, alternate history, and sexuality themes continue in works produced within the modern speculative fiction genre.
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Larry Correia (born 1977) is an American fantasy novelist, known for his Monster Hunter and Grimnoir Chronicles series. In 2014 and 2015 Correia was one of the leaders of the Sad Puppies campaign to nominate works for the Hugo Award, including his own in 2014, that he believed were more popular but often unfairly passed over by voters in favor of more literary works or stories with progressive political themes. Read more...
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The hardest theme in science fiction is that of the alien. The simplest solution of all is in fact quite profound--that the real difficulty lies not in understanding what is alien, but in understanding what is self. We are all aliens to each other, all different and divided. We are even aliens to ourselves at different stages of our lives. Do any of us remember precisely what it was like to be a baby?
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-- Greg Bear (b.1951), "Introduction to 'Plague of Conscience'", The Collected Stories of Greg Bear (2002).
The Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine is given each year for semi-professionally-edited magazines related to science fiction or fantasy which had published four or more issues, with at least one issue appearing in the previous calendar year. Awards were once also given out for professional magazines in the professional magazine category, and are still awarded for fan magazines in the fanzine category. The Hugo Awards have been described as "a fine showcase for speculative fiction" and "the best known literary award for science fiction writing".
The award was first presented in 1984, and has been given annually since. A "semiprozine" is defined for the award as a magazine in the field that is not professional but that (unlike a fanzine) either pays its contributors in something other than copies, or is (generally) available only for payment. In addition to the regular Hugo awards, beginning in 1996 Retrospective Hugo Awards, or "Retro Hugos", have been available to be awarded for years 50, 75, or 100 years prior in which no awards were given. To date, Retro Hugo awards have been awarded for 1939, 1941, 1943, 1946, 1951, and 1954, but the category failed to receive enough to form a ballot each time. Read more...
An illustration by Édouard Manet for a French publication of Edgar Allan Poe's narrative poem "The Raven". In the poem, the raven flies into the narrator's home and perches on a bust of Pallas Athena (seen here). The narrator then asks the bird a series of questions, to which the bird only replies, "Nevermore". Eventually, the narrator falls into despair and ends with his final admission that his soul is trapped beneath the raven's shadow and shall be lifted "Nevermore". Originally published in 1845, the poem was widely popular and made Poe famous, though it did not bring him much financial success. "The Raven" has influenced many modern works and is referenced throughout popular culture in films, television, music and more. (POTD)
Possible events in the future as suggested by science fiction:
- In 5000, the Filipino Army defeats the Alliance at the Battle of Reykjavik during the closing stages of World War V.
- In the year 500,000,000,000,000,000,000 (500 quintillion), the last descendants of humanity make some changes to our near present in order to release the universe's vacuum energy, spawn new universes, and prevent the Big Freeze from happening.
Here are ideas for how you can help improve the coverage of speculative fiction topics on popflock.com Resource:
Join a WikiProject or task force:
- Science fiction (task force): The 4400, Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who, Firefly, Futurama, G.I. Joe, Heroes, Hitchhiker's Guide, Life on Mars, Lost, Pokémon, Red Dwarf, Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate, Superman, Transformers, Twilight Zone.
- Fantasy: Artemis Fowl, Discworld, Fabelhaven, Harry Potter, Highlander, His Dark Materials, Inheritance Cycle, Lemony Snicket, Middle-Earth, Narnia, Oz, Percy Jackson, Redwall, Roald Dahl, Shannara, A Song of Ice and Fire, Warriors.
- Horror: Buffy, Twilight.
- Other and related: Animation, Anime and manga, Balzac, Children's literature, Comics, Disney, Machinima, Games (Board and tabletop games, Warhammer 40K, RPGs (D&D), Video games (Square Enix)).
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Note: If no articles are shown below, please work on those found in the Archive.
This list was generated from these rules. Questions and feedback are always welcome! The search is being run daily with the most recent ~14 days of results. Note: Some articles may not be relevant to this project.
Rules | Match log | Results page (for watching) | Last updated: 2020-02-21 20:41 (UTC)
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- Loveland (film) ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Ashlark (talk · contribs · new pages (1)) started on 2020-02-21, score: 80
- Nebula Award for Best Game Writing ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by ConicProjection (talk · contribs · new pages (1)) started on 2020-02-20, score: 40
- Lord Valentine's Castle ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by BOZ (talk · contribs · new pages (93)) started on 2020-02-20, score: 20
- Watchtower (novel) ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by BOZ (talk · contribs · new pages (93)) started on 2020-02-18, score: 20
- The Monitor, the Miners, and the Shree ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by BOZ (talk · contribs · new pages (93)) started on 2020-02-18, score: 20
- Catacomb Years ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by BOZ (talk · contribs · new pages (93)) started on 2020-02-13, score: 20
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- The Princess on a Pea ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Nikolai Kurbatov (talk · contribs · new pages (128)) started on 2020-02-18, score: 20
- Eden Royce ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Antiqueight (talk · contribs · new pages (13)) started on 2020-02-18, score: 40
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- Gideon the Ninth ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Jdforrester (talk · contribs · new pages (1)) started on 2020-02-17, score: 60
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- James Van Hise ( | talk | history | links | watch | logs | tools) by Stoshmaster (talk · contribs · new pages (17)) started on 2020-02-12, score: 40
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