Week 7 & 8

What is the difference in emphasis between the terms science fiction and speculative fiction? Which is The Man in the High Castle?


Speculative fiction can be made story-line by “what if?” background (Brown, 2001). When starting the idea of a story with a thought like 'what if?' the possibilities and potential are endless. What if this? What if that? This is why the genres that speculative fiction covers are very broad. Fantasy, horror, mystery, myth, fairy tale, supernatural, superhero, utopian and dystopian, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic and alternate history are all recognised as sub-genres of speculative fiction. Science fiction is also among these genres as it is also recognised as a sub-genre of speculative fiction. According to Robert,(2000) science fiction is "a genre or division of literature distinguishes its fictional worlds to one degree to another from the world in which we actually live." This shows me that The Man in the High Castle is more likely to be categorised as a science fiction story, as the world the story is built around is set in the future, and it is very different to our's. But then at the same time the plot of the story is based on the 'what if?' of what it would be like if the outcome of world war 2 was different, so it pushes it back to speculative fiction. My conclusion is that The Man in the High Castle is a story that falls under both science fiction and speculative fiction.


Reference

Roberts, A. (2000). Science Fiction. London : Routledge.

Brown, E. (2001).Introduction. In Dick, P.K.,The Man in the High Castle(p.v-xii). London: Penguin.