Editing Speculative fiction (section)

=== Distinguishing science fiction from other speculative fiction ===
"Speculative fiction" is sometimes abbreviated as ''spec-fic'', ''spec fic'', ''specfic'',<ref>{{Cite web |title=SpecFicWorld |url=http://www.specficworld.com/ |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=SpecFicWorld |archive-date=14 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130114224923/http://www.specficworld.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref> ''S-F'', ''SF'', or ''sf''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Speculative Fiction Blog |url=http://www.sfsignal.com/ |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=SFSignal |archive-date=10 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130210221437/http://www.sfsignal.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="sf_vint_MIT">{{cite book |last1=Vint |first1=Sherryl |title=Science Fiction |date=16 February 2021 |publisher=The MIT Press |isbn=9780262539999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cSkWEAAAQBAJ&q=science+fiction+sherryl+vint |access-date=1 May 2023}}</ref> The last three abbreviations, however, are ambiguous since they have long been used to refer to science fiction (which lies within this general area of literature).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Best in Science Fiction and Fantasy |url=http://www.sfsite.com/ |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=The SF Site |archive-date=29 August 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060829084434/http://www.sfsite.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The genre is sometimes known as ''the fantastic''<ref name=":1">{{Citation |last=Golovacheva |first=Irina |title=Is the Fantastic Really Fantastic? |date=2018-03-27 |work=Is the Fantastic Really Fantastic? |pages=61–90 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783839440278-004/html |access-date=2024-09-09 |publisher=transcript Verlag |language=en |doi=10.1515/9783839440278-004/html |isbn=978-3-8394-4027-8}}</ref> or ''fantastika''; the latter term is attributed to [[science fiction scholar]] [[John Clute]], who coined it in 2007 after the term for the genre in some [[Slavic languages]].<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Clute |first=John |last2=Langford |first2=David |title=SFE: Fantastika |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/fantastika |access-date=2024-08-31 |website=sf-encyclopedia.com}}</ref>

The term ''speculative fiction'' has been used by some critics and writers who oppose a perceived limitation of science fiction: the requirement for a story to adhere to scientific principles. These people argue that ''speculative fiction'' better defines an expanded, open, imaginative type of fiction than does ''genre fiction'', and the categories of ''fantasy'', ''mystery'', ''horror'' and ''science fiction''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Citations and definitions for the term 'speculative fiction' by speculative fiction reviewers |url=http://www.greententacles.com/articles/5/26 |access-date=10 February 2013 |publisher=Greententacles.com |archive-date=26 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130126122019/http://www.greententacles.com/articles/5/26 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Harlan Ellison]] used the term to avoid being classified as a science fiction writer. Ellison, a fervent proponent of writers embracing more literary and [[modernist literature|modernist]] directions,<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Watts |first=Peter |date=Summer 2003 |title=Margaret Atwood and the Hierarchy of Contempt |url=http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts/PeterWatts_Atwood.pdf |magazine=On Spec |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=3–5 |access-date=9 November 2019}}</ref><ref>Davies, Philip. "Review [untitled; reviewed work(s): ''Science Fiction: Its Criticism and Teaching'' by Patrick Parrinder; ''Fantastic Lives: Autobiographical Essays by Notable Science Fiction Writers'' by Martin Greenberg; ''Robert A. Heinlein: America as Science Fiction'' by H. Bruce Franklin; ''Bridges to Science Fiction'' by George E. Slusser, George R. Guffey, Mark Rose]. ''Journal of American Studies'' Vol. 16, No. 1 (April 1982). pp. 157–159.</ref> broke out of genre conventions to push the boundaries of speculative fiction. 

The term ''suppositional fiction'' is sometimes used as a subcategory designating fiction in which characters and stories are constrained by an internally consistent world, but not necessarily one defined by any particular genre.<ref>Izenberg, Orin (2011). ''Being Numerous: Poetry and the Ground of Social Life''. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 210.</ref><ref>Leitch, Thomas M. ''What Stories Are: Narrative Theory and Interpretation'' University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1986; p. 127</ref><ref>Domańska, Ewa (1998). ''Encounters: Philosophy of History After Postmodernism''. Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia. p. 10.</ref>