Fiction and Speculative Fiction: How are they different?
When we start dissecting the literary pieces of work through the centuries, there are two broad genres in which we can divide all the pieces of literature ever written. These two genres, namely Fiction and Nonfiction become the easiest and the most basic way through which a story can be identified. If a story works beyond the truth, beyond reality, it is fiction, if not, it is nonfiction. In Nonfiction we usually see self-help books, biographies, autobiographies, and wellness/fitness books. However, the world of fiction is grand.
When I say that anything that goes beyond the truth, beyond reality, the scope of this ‘beyond’ is unfathomable. From the deep moors of Mordor to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, from aliens coming to save the earth to humans discovering the 5th dimension, fiction has no end and goes as far as human imagination goes. Within fiction, we see many different types of stories that have different styles, tones, meaning, and motive altogether. All these categories come under an umbrella term called Speculative Fiction. Now, this is where things overlap.
Speculative Fiction is a branch of fiction under which genres like Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Supernatural, Dystopia, Utopia, Apocalyptic/Post-apocalyptic, Supernatural, amongst others feature. Speculative Fiction is any and every kind of fiction that goes natural ‘laws’ of the world. In this supergenre, authors specifically focus on world-building, in order for readers and viewers to understand what differentiates their world from this.
Thus what sets fiction apart from speculative fiction is that fiction can be a thrilling murder mystery, something we often see in our world, a story that can happen in our world. For example, Doctor Morse is a famous character created by Colin Dexter who is known for his special skills in the field of solving crimes. There is nothing supernatural or fantastical about his abilities. He is very much human, just quite smart and analytical in nature. Whereas speculative fiction includes elements that are not a part of this world, and require some explaining on the part of the author. For example, in The Wild Sheep Chase, we see a similar detective storyline where a man looks for a sheep that has magical powers. I don’t have to clarify this, but it is quite obvious that in our world, magical sheep aren’t really a thing. This is how fiction and speculative fiction are different.
All kinds of speculative fiction are fiction, but not all fiction stories are speculative fiction. That’s as simple as it can be put in words. In this article, I hoped to distinguish between the different literary genres, fiction, and speculative fiction in particular.
About the Author
Nikhil Sharma is a writer at Binge Mad, an entertainment media company.