It's strange that your examples of spec fic that you read/liked this year were almost all "popcorn" level reads (not talking about the others you mention later)...



I'd qualify that argument quite a bit, since there's much more variety and aims within that overly-large spec fic umbrella than what you seem to be giving credence to here. But beyond that, I think there's a larger issue that hasn't been addressed in your post or in any of the responses to date, that of material culture. I think there's something very useful for the cultural historian or cultural anthropologist (and I suppose those lit majors ) to examine in how societies grasp difficult questions and how they choose to resolve them in their writing. Some forms, mimetic or speculative alike, will contain elements of genius. Others will be as edifying as reading Sweet Valley High or the Twilight series.

Readers can find things worthy of engagement in quite a few narrative forms. Like you, I enjoy quite a bit of Nabokov's writing. But I also find similar challenges and similar levels of thematic depth in say M. John Harrison's work (and he writes both mimetic and speculative fiction). Same would hold true if I were reading Paul Auster (whose works I've enjoyed) or Brian Evenson. Or perhaps for A.S. Byatt and J.G. Ballard. So much depends on what the reader is willing to wrest from the text, I believe.



While this is mostly true, there's quite a bit of fiction that utilize speculative narrative modes to do much more than escapism/diversion. I'd argue that much of Jeff VanderMeer's works operates on more levels than just that. Quite a bit of thematic exploration about the human condition taking place in his Ambergris novels.




In many cases, yes. Italo Calvino certainly used several speculative tropes in his writings, especially in Invisible Cities. Surely that is a prime example of a speculative, surreal narrative that tries to engage the reader more than divert him/her?



Oddly, I don't think as highly of Tolkien's prose and thematic elements as you do here. I grant that he does display some talent despite his desire to create an immersive imagined world, but at times this "world building" tended to get in the way of the themes he apparently wanted to explore in his writing. Have you read Ngugi wa Thion'go's Wizard of the Crow? I think that would serve as a better example here.



To a degree, yes, I would agree with this, but only to a degree. What about the speculative elements that Flannery O'Connor and (to a much lesser degree) William Faulkner used to accentuate those fundamental questions that you mentioned above? Wouldn't it be better to argue that speculative elements, when married to a more "psychological" approach to exploring Theme and Character, might touch upon the human interests in Play and Hope? Chris Adrian's The Children's Hospital I believe is a strong novel in large part because of these combination of disparate elements to create a sweeping novel that explores so many facets of human identity.




I think your argument is a little weak here, Tom. Yes, there is often a "distance" of sorts in speculative narratives. However, that "distance" can be used to raise further questions of Place and Self that serve to engage readers. After all, Rabelais was much more than a "diversion" almost five centuries ago, no? Also, sometimes "distance" can be used to show just how inhumane human societies have been over time. Art Spiegelman's Maus is perhaps more effective than straight-up Holocaust narratives because it takes the "Jews" label/identification and uses the mice to make it more understandable for non-Jews. Sometimes, it might take a werewolf to show homo homini lupus.