AlternativeFiction (AltFic) is defined by TheaLogie as "modern fiction that mucks about with reality and doesn't give a monkey's about the literary establishment", and (paraphrasing) as 'more subversive than StraightFiction' (for some value of StraightFiction). How does AltFic relate to SpeculativeFiction? Is it a subset? If so, how does it relate to ScienceFiction and FantasyFiction? How does it relate to MimeticFiction? How does it relate to MainstreamFiction? _Would you (although they're nominally children's fiction) classify things like Joan Aiken's "Black Hearts in Battersea" and the like in that category? -- WJR_ Quite possibly: sometimes children's fiction, freed largely from the constraints of the literary establishment, is the only decent AltFic around. -- TL _True, and thank you. -- SDN_ I would argue (a) the statement that AltFic (whatever that is) is more 'subversive' than StraightFiction _(whatever that is -- TA)_ is extremely simplistic and that (b) 'mucking about with reality' does not mean an author doesn't give a damn about the literary establishment. The idea that mainstream fiction should be MimeticFiction died out sixty or seventy years ago, and most major authors in the UK (SalmanRushdie, MartinAmis etc.) are perfectly happy 'mucking around with reality' as are most SF authors, who are painfully conscious of the 'literary establishment' because they never stop bloody complaining about how it ignores them. -- MF It sounds very much like what they're calling TheNewWeird... The "mucks about with reality" makes it clear that AlternativeFiction is SpeculativeFiction, but the mention of the establishment, and the original context of the definition, indicate that AlternativeFiction is MainstreamFiction. Perhaps AlternativeFiction is simply the branch of SpeculativeFiction which has inflitrated MainstreamFiction; it's SpeculativeFiction at heart, but without the superficial traits which scare mainstreamers off (the tentacled monster thinghandling the blonde in the diaphanous gown towards its rocketship etc). I believe this has long been known as SlipStreamFiction. --MF