Today’s topic comes from QSFer Anastasia Vitsky:
“I love the challenge of creating a world that is like but unlike the one I live in, and in some ways writing a “”fake”” world lets me be more brutally honest about the world I do live in. Right now, through the lens of this made-up world, I’m exploring topics I would never dare touch in a realistic contemporary romance, such as child slavery and child prostitution. And yet, I’m still writing a romance. What does sci fi allow you to do as a writer that you couldn’t do in realistic fiction?”
It’s a great question – look at what’ traditionally been explored in sci fi, from Soylent Green to Nuclear Annihilation.
What boundaries have you pushed as a writer in sci fi and speculative fiction? And as a reader, what works got your attention by flirting with subjects that might otherwise be verboten?