Speculative Pursuits

Margaret Atwood, Curious Pursuits, 2005
This collection of essays, book reviews and speeches carries the famous piece where Margaret Atwood describes novels such as The Handmaid's Tale (and, later, Oryx and Crake) as Speculative Fiction rather than Science Fiction - a definition that has been haunting her ever since in book reviews whenever she returns to sci-fi fantastical stories. It's especially ironic that one of her current critics in relation to this term, Ursula K. Le Guin, has one of her short story collections reviewed here ...more This collection of essays, book reviews and speeches carries the famous piece where Margaret Atwood describes novels such as The Handmaid's Tale (and, later, Oryx and Crake) as Speculative Fiction rather than Science Fiction - a definition that has been haunting her ever since in book reviews whenever she returns to sci-fi fantastical stories. It's especially ironic that one of her current critics in relation to this term, Ursula K. Le Guin, has one of her short story collections reviewed here by Atwood. I wonder if they are still friends?

According to Atwood, what she writes is Speculative Fiction because it extrapolates discoveries we have made today and what their outcomes might be in the future, whereas Science Fiction explores notions that are not possible at the moment (time travel, for example). This collection also includes a fair amount of pieces examining one of her other interests - the destruction of our eco-environment - as well as book reviews from contemporary authors she likes. Weaved in between these pieces are comical recollections of her childhood and youth - the matter-of-fact anecdotes that keep bringing Atwood's feet to the ground and make her such an enjoyable writer.