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 is a broad genre which includes fantasy, horror/supernatural, and futuristic elements but science fiction is more of a main stream genre that focuses on things like imagined scientific future, time/space travel and life on other planets, but doesn’t encompass that same broad spectrum of genres that speculative fiction does. Even though speculative fiction could sometimes be similar to science fiction there are subtle differences which differentiate the two genres. Science fiction seems to be more space orientated placing emphasis on the unbelievable scientific possibilities beyond our world.

While it can be argued that The Man in the High Castle is a part of the Science Fiction genre, I believe that it more closely resembles the speculative fiction genre. “Meanwhile, Tagomi, with the conivance of Baynes (who represents a rival Nazi faction), has uncovered a Gestapo plot to destroy the Home Islands (Japan) and tip the post-war balance of power irrevocably in a favour of the Fatherland”(Mountfort, 2006). The book is about an alternate reality where the Allies lost WW2 to the Japanese and Nazi Germany which I attribute to speculative fiction as it seems more closely related to fantasy and it doesn’t have that scientific element that science fiction media consists of. “Nothing more. I am afraid, sir, you have been deceived. Perhaps by some unscrupulous churl. You must report this to the San Francisco police.' The man bowed’”(Dick, 1962). The book describes the mix of cultures and nationalities when different ethnicities cohabitate after the war and it really brings out that fantasy element in which to immerse in and consider the possibility of if the Allies really lost WW2. You can see that when the man bows, a trait uncommon to present day San Francisco so picturing a foreign man bowing in a Foreign controlled San Francisco is quite fantastic.

Dick, P.K. (2001; 1962). The Man in the High Castle. London: Penguin.

Mountfort, P. (2006). Oracle-text/Cybertext in Philip K. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle. Conference paper, Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association annual joint conference, Atlanta, 2006.