SF, Sci-fi, Science fiction and Speculative fiction

Question

In communities discussing written s*f*, I've often found the following terminology:

• Speculative fiction, or sf, is anything that asks “what if?”: stories about the future, fantasy, alternate history, etc.
• Science fiction is a subset of sf, usually for stories being set in the author's conceivable future.
• Sci-fi is somewhat pejorative, associated with B movies and pulp.

How common is this terminology amongst written sf communities? What terms do others, especially sf movie fans use?

Answer 1

I mostly agree with your definitions. I have some expansions, and then some numbers.

SF can be an umbrella term encompassing science fiction, fantasy, and horror (and their relatives). Or SF can just be an abbreviation for science fiction (which is how I'll use it in the rest of this answer -- I'll use SFFH for the superset). The intended meaning is usually clear from context.

Speculative fiction can be the SFFH umbrella above, opened up. More often (IMHO), speculative fiction is used to distinguish SF (and other SFFH, but mostly SF) that attempts to go beyond pulp adventure. Spec fic in that sense may have: less emphasis on science -- and lots less emphasis on gadgetry; societies that are interesting and complex; characters who are well-rounded rather than cardboard cutouts; and style that's more literary. Fancyclopedia 3 (a highly-recommended fannish reference) has elements of both senses, defining speculative fiction as "Any fiction of a speculative nature, but especially science fiction, fantasy and horror that feels embarrassed when it is called science fiction, fantasy or horror."

Science fiction -- yep. Defining science fiction is a fun game, so I could spend all day fussing around with your definition (here, add a pinch of alternate multiverse; over there two dashes of science -- if you're out, you may substitute the articial ingredient sciencey-ness ... ). But I probably would end up making the definition longer but not any more accurate.

To make things more confusing, science fiction sometimes is used to mean SFFH, just like SF and speculative fiction. I believe this usage is declining. The field's leading writers' organization, SFWA,

was originally named Science Fiction Writers of America. At that time, the distinction between science fiction and fantasy was less important and SFWA’s name was accepted as encompassing both.

Later, the name of the organization was changed to Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, although the acronym SFWA was not changed.

Sci fi -- spot on, although the pejorative connotation is declining. The decline was slow after the mid-1960s, and faster after 1992 -- especially among fans and writers of visual media. Some pronounce it skiffy when they want to emphasize the pulpy/B-movie sense.

• Isaac Asimov said in 1978, "We can define "sci-fi" as trashy material sometimes confused, by ignorant people, with s.f. Thus, Star Trek is s.f. while Godzilla Meets Mothra is sci-fi."
• Marion Zimmer Bradley said in 1993, "nobody in the actual field ever says 'sci-fi'..."

Let's look at some actual numbers from a couple of great resources for fannish history, fanac.org and eFanzines.com. They aren't a vast corpus of everything sfnal, but they're pretty damn good. (Both sites focus overwhelmingly on written SF. Alas, I don't know of similar places for media fandom.) This won't tell us how the terms are used within the SF community, but it shows how popular they are. I searched for phrases on each site (like this: site:fanac.org "science fiction").

Fanac   eFzine  phrase
-----   ------  -------------
2820    3460    science fiction
2100    3210    SF
 374     921    sci fi
 189     399    speculative fiction
 251     321    stf (abbrev. for "scientifiction", either nostalgic or very old-school)
  64     185    skiffy (joking -- well, half-joking -- pronunciation of "sci fi")
   0       1    structural fabulation (an academic term) 

Answer 2

I always thought SF was generally the agreed-upon term for science fiction by authors. I've always seen speculative fiction written out. Sci-fi or scifi is pejorative only outside the scifi community.

Answer 3

The term "Speculative Fiction" is largely the brainchild of New Wave 1970's writers like Harlan Ellison and Judith Merrill. They were dissatisfied with both the negative connotation of the phrase Science Fiction, and with the conventions of that style at the time.