Speculative Non-fiction post, what do we mean?
Authors of speculative non-fiction may use non-fiction to explore the ‘what-if’ that is usually associated with speculative fiction. However the difference between speculative fiction and speculative non-fiction lies in the subject material and how it is handled. Speculative fiction is first and foremost fiction, but with an element of unreality, while speculative non-fiction is largely non-fiction which extrapolates into the existing reality. That is, the speculative non-fiction does not contain elements of unreality but rather elements of extended reality, much as an unrealized engineering design proposes a future engineering reality which is possible but not yet built, and may never be built.
Alternative past histories
One of our new authors, who inspired this speculative non-fiction post, has suggested to us that speculative non-fiction could also explore alternative past histories, such as how things could have been done differently.
Alternative technology development paths
He has also pointed out to us that some speculative non-fiction can explore alternative technology development paths. These alternative paths would still use existing technology, but steer the development with different attitudes and policies. He believes that such speculative non-fiction might use technology to address issues of resource depletion, pollution, etc. In this vein, he proposes that more sustainable approaches can be presented using readily available technologies. Technologies which are not currently being used to better protect our rare and precious blue planet.
Divergent opinions
When we look look through the sites discussing speculative non-fiction, we see that there appears to be some divergence of opinion, or ambiguity of definition, for ‘speculative non-fiction’. Nevertheless, we at Seaswell Publishing stand by the above description for ‘speculative non-fiction’. We think that some of the alternative definitions of ‘speculative non-fiction’ seem more like ‘speculative fiction’. However, we welcome your opinions on this point. We may have missed something and we welcome being corrected if we have misunderstood what has been written on this subject.
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