reading

a brief manifesto on speculative fiction

I want to say something about the role of science fiction and speculative fiction more broadly here. Unfortunately, however, Ursula Le Guin already said everything worth saying in her 1976 introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness (Which you really should stop here to go read. Really. Go read the essay, I'll wait.).

But in spite of there being nothing new under the sun, Octavia Butler reminds me that there are, in fact, new suns, so I'll do my best anyway.

The thing, to me, that makes speculative fiction so essential is that it gives us a structure for imagining what's possible, both inside and outside ourselves. As Le Guin says, it's not about predicting the future, it's about looking at who we already are to imagine who we might be. The world is a hard one and in many cases it sucks ass. But it's also home to so much infinite beauty and possibility. Humans have built structures and systems to visit untold violence upon one another over generations. We've also built systems of care, communities, families, made art, nurtured relationships, and cared for each other and our planet. The best speculative fiction engages with both of these realities: of beauty and of suffering. To be human is both, and even stories that diverge wildly from the human are, after all, about being human.

I write my own speculative fiction, but I also just really truly love to read and talk about it. This page has some of my favorite stories of all time, including some you can read for free online. Please read some of these stories when you get the chance! Every one of them is gorgeous and thoughtful and painful and complex and have stuck with me for a very long time. The short fiction I'll keep compiling here and allow to speak for itself. As for the novels, I plan to write up some hybrid of a review and a sales pitch for each, so you can get a sense of what's so great about each of them.

Ultimately, my philosophy of speculative fiction is best summed up by Ms. Le Guin:

The future, in fiction, is a metaphor. A metaphor for what? If I could have said it non-metaphorically, I would not have written all these words...

2023

• "Away With the Wolves" by Sarah Gailey
• "Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang
• "Orange World" by Karen Russell
• "The Bog Girl" by Karen Russell
• "Summer People" by Kelly Link
• "The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling" by Ted Chiang
• "Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters" by N.K. Jemisin
• "The Day Before the Revolution" by Ursula Le Guin
• "Bloodchild" by Octavia Butler
• "Inventory" by Carmen Maria Machado
• "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang

Click the covers to find out why. Only one per author, otherwise this would just be a list of the entire collected works of Octavia Butler and Ursula Le Guin.