Speculative Fiction has “Eyes Wide Open”

Gabriel Morgan has written this interesting column for the New Observer.

…unless you count yourself an admirer of fantasy, science fiction or horror, chances are you've glanced over at the "genre" section of your favorite bookstore and asked yourself, "My oh my -- what's going on over there?"

And I'm here to tell you:

Everything is going on over there…

Describe a subgenre of mimetic fiction, and there are speculative authors doing similar work. Do you prefer fiction that is heavily character-centered? Fiction that explores the human condition, that asks the big questions? Fiction that displays a sense of history, that draws connections between important things? How about fiction that explores what it means to be an American in the 21st century? Speculative authors are writing about all of these things. They, like Pablo Picasso, have every single one of the tools that a "naturalist" (read: mimeticist) has to work with; but they, like Picasso, also have the freedom to abandon the appearance of reality when it suits their vision.

Read the whole column, it’s equally as interesting – and the best part is that more is promised to come.

Via Lou Anders

EDIT: I should have waited another 20 minutes before posting this. Contrast the above with this article by Jonathan McCalmont. I think there are some good points to had, but my initial reaction was to count the number of ways I disagree.