Speculative

As I’m sure I mentioned, I started on a new project and instead of being apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic, it’s urban fantasy (gasp!) with an apocalyptic twist. Now, I’ve written urban fantasy before, but that was a long time ago, before I had a good grasp on writing. I’m still getting a feel for the story, but I like how it’s going. Plus I realized that it was still speculative fiction, which is most definitely my forte.

But “speculative fiction” is a funny title. Yes, what I’m writing is pretty close to what I usually do, but why are fantasy and apocalyptic under the same classification? If you look at something like LORD OF THE RINGS, you’re not going to mistake it for THE HUNGER GAMES. They’re nothing alike.

It happens that speculative fiction is basically the catch all term for any genre with things happening that don’t really happen. Or, as in the case of alternate history, didn’t really happen.

Then you can get into the subgenres and things get even more complicated. The family tree I posted up there hardly encompasses all the speculative offshoots. Science fantasy, dark fantasy (horror fantasy), and all the crosses with non-speculative genres. Suffice to say, it’s one incestuous family tree.

Really, as a name, speculative fiction doesn’t say much. Science fiction is speculative. Horror is speculative. But science fiction isn’t necessarily horror, nor vice versa. Unless the genres are deliberately joined, like the sci-fi horror movie Alien, they are separate creatures that for some reason share the share a genre.

Sometimes I wonder if speculative fiction is needed at all. The term, of course, not the books. I think we all know how important those are! But why such a broad classing? Is it necessary? Or useful? I’m not so sure. What do you think?

Square Cube Law

Have you heard of it? If you haven’t, I wouldn’t be surprised. I hadn’t heard of it until it was mentioned in Atomic Robo (and if you haven’t heard of that you must start reading more awesome comics).

Basically, it says giant ants can’t exist because their bodies would never be able to support them. Considering that ants are already poised to take over the world with their little, tiny bodies, I think the fact that they can’t get any bigger is a big load off our minds. Anyway, the reason the creators of Them! were thankfully wrong is because as something gets bigger, it’s volume increases exponentially. Something that’s two times bigger has eight times as much volume.

To illustrate, I’m afraid I’ll have to use math:

The volume (V) of a cube is the length of one side (L) multiplied to the third power, so L­³. If L equals 4, V equals 64. If L equals 20 (5 times an L of 4) then V equals 8000 (125, or 5³, times a V of 64). This works for any formula volume, whether sphere, cone or anything else.

The same applies to anything. If an ant is made bigger by, say, gamma radiation, whatever its size is increased by (2, 5, or whatever number), the volume is the cube of that (8, 125, or whatever³). But the ant has its original body structure, because what is this? Some kind of magic radiation? And that body structure cannot sustain the increase in volume. It would be crushed by its own weight.

This same principle applies to any building, animal or ship your characters will use, so keep it in mind before creating any gigantic titans battling over the ruins of New York City. Or dinosaurs.