閱讀版本：pp. 17-21 in Rob Latham (ed.), Science Fiction Criticism (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017)
本文是 speculative fiction 一詞在科幻文類（評論/研究）定名的歷史著作，最早刊載於 Lloyd Arthur Eshbach 編纂的座談文集，也算是探究現代類型科幻的第一本專書 Of Worlds Beyond: The Science of Science Fiction Writing (1947)。（PS. 《科幻百科》（The Enclyclopedia of Science Fiction）考證該名詞最早出現於1899年，評論家 M. F. Egan 對於 Edward Bellamy《百年回首》的描述，但就類似於 Science Fiction，十九世紀首先發明的名詞到二十世紀才有真正定位與廣泛使用）然而，本文的最大歷史意義其實在於成名類型大作家現身說法如何撰寫科幻小說。
筆記開始：
p.17
There are at least two principal ways to write
speculative fiction—write about people or write about gadgets. …… Most science
fiction stories are a mixture of the two types, but we will speak as if they
were distinct—at which point I will chuck the gadget story aside, dust off my
hands, and confine myself to the human-interest story, that being the sort of
story I myself write. ……
Heinlein 開宗明義就表明他寫的是人的故事，而非機關佈景。另外，這裡隱藏的重點在於在他眼裡，speculative fiction和science fiction幾無分別。
Heinlein講到很實際的問題：如何寫出可以刊登在高檔刊物（slicks）的科幻小說，畢竟 slicks 給的稿費比 pulps 要高出許多。首先，他強調，刊在slicks的要件是故事好，而非作者牌子大。再來：
A short story stands a much better chance with the slicks if it is not more
than 5000 words long. A human-interest story stands a better chance with the slicks
than a gadget
p.18
story, because the human-interest story usually appeals to a wider audience than does a gadget story. ……
接下來，Heinlein闡述如何寫出一個好故事：
A story is an account which is nor necessarily
true but which is interesting to read.
There are three main plots for the human-interest
story: boy-meets-girl, The Little Tailor, and the man-who-learned-better. Credit
the last category to L. Ron Hubbard; I had thought for years that there were
but two plots—he pointed out to me the third type.
這一段是本文最常被引用的兩個部分其中之一：Heinlein把 human-interest story分成三類。接下來分別說明：
Boy-meets-girl needs no definition. …… It’s
the greatest story of them all and has never been sufficiently exploited in science
fiction. …… It has great variety: boy-fails-to-meet-girl,
boy-meets-girl-too-late, boy-meets-too-many-girls, boy-loses-girl,
boy-and-girl-renounce-love-for-higher purpose. Not science fiction? Here is a
throw-away plot; you can have it free: Elderly man meets very young girl; they
discover that they are perfectly adapted to each other, perfectly in love, “soul
mates.” (……)
這裡完全不需要解釋，然後最後那個點子Heinlein自己就回收了好幾次。
The “Little Tailor”—this is an omnibus for all stories about the little guy who becomes a big shot, or vice versa. The tag is from the fairy story. …… It is the Success story, or in reverse, the story of tragic failure.
The man-who-learned-better; just what it sounds like—the story of a man who has one opinion, point of view, or evaluation at the beginning of the story, then acquires a new opinion or evaluation as a result of having his nose rubbed in some harsh facts. ……
The definition of a story as something
interesting-but-not-necessarily-true is general enough to cover all writers,
all stories—even James Joyce, if you find his stuff interesting. (I don’t!) For
me, a story of the sort I want to write is still further limited to this
recipe: a man finds himself in circumstances which create a problem for him. In
coping with this
p.19
problem, the man is changed in some fashion inside himself. The story is over when the inner change is complete—the external incidents may go on indefinitely.
……
This is the story of character, rather than
incident. It’s not everybody’s dish, but for me it has more interest than the
most overwhelming pure adventure story. It need not be unadventurous; the
stress which produces the change in character can be wildly adventurous, and
often is.
Heinlein說明了他想寫什麼樣的故事，事實上，他這一輩子都這麼寫。
接下來他開始分析兩種他認為比較不優的所謂科幻：
But what has all this to do with science
fiction? A great deal! Much so-called science fiction is not about human beings
and their problems, consisting instead of a fictionized framework, peopled by
cardboard figures, on which is hung an essay about the Glorious Future of
Technology. ……
Bellamy《百年回首》屬於此類，Heinlein自己也寫過”Solution Unsatisfactory”，所以他用盡辦法讓這篇看起來像個故事，以便和真正的故事競爭市場。
另一類則是換個皮相就能改個類型的 pulp 冒險故事。這一方面的批判
Margaret Atwood 慢了先行者至少 50 年，足見科幻是一個會成長能自省的文類，事實上，科幻史邁進的腳步遠比行外人想像得要快很多很多：
Another type of fiction alleged to be science fiction is the story laid in the
future, or on another planet, or in another dimension, or such, which could
just as well have happened on Fifth Avenue, in 1947. Change the costumes back
to now, cut out the pseudo-scientific double-talk and the blaster guns, and it turns
out to be straight adventure story, suitable, with appropriate facelifting, to
any other pulp magazine one the news stand.
接下來終於到了我閱讀本篇的主要目的，也就是Heinlein的speculative fiction意涵闡述，其實就他的用詞遣字，他的 speculative fiction 大致上就等同於他定義下的純正科幻（Simon-pure science fiction，照總舵主的定名方式，可以直接用「真科幻」）：
There is another type of honest-to-goodness science fiction story which is not
usually regarded as science fiction: the story of people dealing with
contemporary science or technology. We do not ordinarily mean this sort of
story when we say “science fiction"; what we do mean is the speculative
story, the story embodying the notion “Just suppose—“, or “What would happen if—”.
In the speculative fiction story accepted science and established facts are
extrapolated to produce a new situation, a new framework for human action. As a
result of this new situation, new human problems are created—and our
story is about how human beings cope with those new problems.
The story is not about the new situation;
it is about coping with problems arising out of the new situation.
這裡要先額外說明一下：Heinlein 畢竟是作家，沒考慮到那麼多。但一進入學界等級的科幻研究，學者們沒事又會繼續細分；印象中剛過世的 James E. Gunn 就借用了 Heinlein 的 "If This Goes On--" 和 Asimov 的 “What If –” 這兩個短篇標題分別代表
extrapolation 和
speculation 兩種「不同」的幻想創作方式，我正在讀的
Carl D. Malmgren, Worlds Apart: Narratology of Science Fiction
(1991) 對此有更進一步的分析論述。
然後就來到 Heinlein 真科幻定義了，其實這差不多就是黃金時代科幻的高標：
Let’s gather up the bits and define the
Simon-pure science fiction story:
1. The conditions must be, in some,
respect, different from here-and-now, although the difference may lie only in
an invention made in the course of the story.
2. The new conditions must be an essential
part of the story.
3. The problem itself—the “plot”—must be a human
problem.
p. 20
4. The human problem must be one which is
created by, or indispensably affected by the new conditions.
5. And lastly, no established fact shall be
violated, and, furthermore, when the story requires that a theory contrary to
present accepted theory be used, the new theory should be rendered reasonably
plausible and it must include and explain established facts as satisfactory as
the one the author saw fit to junk. It may be far-fetched, it may seem
fantastic, but it must not be at variance with observed facts, ……
後面舉了幾個例子，這一則一定要記下來：
…… The term “space warp” does not mean anything without elaborate explanation. （難怪某影集要出技術手冊 XD）
因此產生了「科幻作者的責任」，當然科幻演進到現在，已經沒這麼嚴格了：
Not everybody talking about heaven is going there—and there are a lot of people trying to write science fiction who haven’t bothered to learn anything about science. Nor is there any excuse for them in these days of public libraries. You own it to your readers (a) to bone up on the field of science you intend to introduce into your story; (b) unless you yourself are well-versed in that field, you should also persuade some expert in that field to read your story and criticize it before you offer it to an unsuspecting public. Unless you are willing to take this much trouble, please, please stick to a contemporary background you are familiar with. ……
一句話總結 Heinlein 真科幻定義：
The Simon-pure science fiction story—examples of human problems arising our of extrapolations of present science.
再來則是一些題材方面的舉例（略過），以及Heinlein自己的免責聲明（想也知道這麼嚴格，他自己也不是每次都做得到）：
But don’t write to me to point out how I
have violated my own rules in this story or that. I’ve violated all of them and
I would much rather try a new story than defend an old one.
p. 21
最後幾段則傾向作家養成方面的指導。下面列出的五項規則反而是本文最被引用的部分：
1. You must write.
2. You must finish what you start.
3. You must refrain from rewriting except to
editorial order.
4. You must put it on the market.
5. You must keep it on the market until sold.
The above five rules really have more to do
with how to write speculative fiction than anything said above them. ……
對作家而言，寫就對了。（研究者呢？讀永遠比寫簡單，認命吧。）
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