Slipstream

Definitions

Bruce Sterling, 1989:

This genre is not "category" SF; it is not even "genre" SF. Instead, it is a contemporary

kind of writing which has set its face against consensus reality. It is fantastic, surreal

sometimes, speculative on occasion, but not rigorously so. It does not aim to provoke

a "sense of wonder" or to systematically extrapolate in the manner of classic science

fiction.

Instead, this is a kind of writing which simply makes you feel very strange...

Jed Hartman, 2001:

[T]hat's one definition of slipstream: fiction with fantastical elements that's published in a marketing category other than speculative fiction.

Nick Mamatas, 2004:

So I'm not slipstream because there is no such thing as slipstream as it is defined. What is generally called slipstream is just SF/F/H written by someone whose imprinted commodity consumption, and thus his or her subsequent cultural production, varies from the imprints that inform the view of the critic.

Further Reading

• James Patrick Kelly, "On the Net: Slipstream", Asimov's Science Fiction, #311, available at http://www.asimovs.com/_issue_0311/onthenet2.shtml
• Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold, "Is Slipstream Just a Fancy Word for Voice?" Strange Horizons, v. 2, no. 3 (April 2005), available at http://www.irosf.com/zine/printable.qsml?artid=10142
• Bruce Sterling, "Slipstream", SF Eye, #5 (July 1989), available at http://www.eff.org/Misc/Publications/Bruce_Sterling/Catscan_columns/catscan.05
• Bruce Sterling, "Slipstream"
• Now All Slipstream Until The End, Torque Control, 2006 Sept. 7 - 2007 Dec. 7