Category:Speculative Fiction

Science fiction, fantasy and everything in between. See What If for categories of things that are speculated on. On television, series in this category traditionally have been destined for either cult status or a very short run, with a couple very notable exceptions.

The term 'Speculative Fiction' was originally a "backronym" for the initials SF; at the time, some writers felt that science fiction, or 'sci-fi', now equated to flying saucers and rubber monsters, and wanted to distinguish themselves with a new genre label. The desire for a separate category became even greater when people began to apply the sci-fi label to horror films containing blatantly supernatural elements (such as various immortals) but few if any science-based elements whatsoever. Over time, however, the term 'Speculative Fiction' grew to become a Super-Trope covering not only what self - described Speculative Fiction authors wrote, but also the Sci Fi and Horror B-movies they were trying to distinguish themselves from. Nevertheless, Speculative Fiction can be applied to a work -- correctly or incorrectly -- in order to help it avoid the Sci Fi Ghetto; it can allow the more pretentious to believe that their favourite work is a proper 'literary' work with no connection to and thus obvious superiority over that geeky science fiction or fantasy.

Today Speculative Fiction covers pretty much the entire fantastic end of the Sliding Scale of Realistic Versus Fantastic, including Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, and other, less well known genres. However, there are many speculative fiction stories that fall on the border between genres, and others that may be completely unclassifiable. Furthermore, many of these genres can be either used to terrify or Played for Laughs, with the latter producing such genres as comic SF and comedy - horror.

See the Analysis page for why the boundary between Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror is fuzzy, and why a broad term like Speculative Fiction is necessary.

Naturally it has its own page devoted to Speculative Fiction Tropes. See the Speculative Fiction Creator Index for a list of pages for Speculative Fiction creators.