Speculative Fiction Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/section/speculative-fiction/ a magazine of ideas, arts, and scholarship Sat, 17 Jan 2026 02:17:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.publicbooks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/cropped-favicon-2-300x300.png Speculative Fiction Archives - Public Books https://www.publicbooks.org/section/speculative-fiction/ 32 32 “In Any Version of Reality”: Talking SF with Charles Yu https://www.publicbooks.org/talking-science-fiction-charles-yu/ Wed, 28 Sep 2022 15:00:09 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=50152 “It’s why science fiction matters so much to me: I’m trying to dislocate our sense of the normal.”

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]]> To Air Is Human https://www.publicbooks.org/to-air-is-human/ Fri, 29 Oct 2021 14:25:35 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=46243 An aerodynamicist and an anthropologist discuss the world of “Dune,” finding it as aesthetically beautiful as it is functionally implausible.

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]]> How to Build a World https://www.publicbooks.org/how-to-build-a-world/ Tue, 23 Feb 2021 16:00:20 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=41309 Storytelling like that of Ursula K. Le Guin or Hayao Miyazaki reveals how real-world politics is similarly an act of collective “world building.”

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]]> A Quiet Disaster: Mexico City, Mexico https://www.publicbooks.org/a-quiet-disaster-mexico-city-mexico/ Thu, 12 Nov 2020 15:00:44 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=39503 Apocalyptic writers would be surprised by the suddenness with which Mexico City, during the pandemic, took on the guise of a ghost town.

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]]> “Lovecraft Country”: A Spell Gone Awry https://www.publicbooks.org/lovecraft-country-a-spell-gone-awry/ Mon, 09 Nov 2020 15:00:44 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=39602 Lovecraft Country runs on a formula: genre clichés—however racist—only need to be painted over, so as to be enjoyed without guilt.

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]]> Experiments in Feral Futuring https://www.publicbooks.org/experiments-in-feral-futuring/ Fri, 30 Oct 2020 17:00:17 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=39441 Two futurists ran an experiment: What happens when a room of strangers plan for the future together?

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]]> The DJ Is a Time Machine https://www.publicbooks.org/the-dj-is-a-time-machine/ Thu, 29 Oct 2020 15:00:14 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=39379 Let’s rupture and reject the “timeline,” a flawed and colonial form of teaching history.

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]]> Let’s Polarize Together https://www.publicbooks.org/lets-polarize-together/ Wed, 28 Oct 2020 15:00:54 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=39139 Humans can adapt to almost anything. So if social media forces us into permanently hostile camps, we will learn to stop seeing any other way.

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]]> The Realism of Our Times: Kim Stanley Robinson on How Science Fiction Works https://www.publicbooks.org/the-realism-of-our-times-kim-stanley-robinson-on-how-science-fiction-works/ Wed, 23 Sep 2020 15:00:59 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=38599 “We're in a science fiction novel now that we are all co-writing together.”[none-for-homepage]

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]]> Can Comics Save Your Life? https://www.publicbooks.org/can-comics-save-your-life/ Fri, 21 Aug 2020 15:00:17 +0000 https://www.publicbooks.org/?p=38247 In lockdown, one shop asked for people to submit comics of “a utopian world after we survive this moment.” Hundreds around the world answered.

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