Atwood Interview (Real Media)

Found here. A transcript of part of the interview:

Oryx and Crake marks a return to what Margaret calls 'speculative fiction'. Louise Maher asked her how it differs from 'science fiction':

"Well, you know, this is an ongoing conversation. Because some people use 'science fiction' to mean anything that isn't Pride and Prejudice or Stephen King. So if it's got any little twist that makes it not a novel of social realism, then it's out there, and they call it science fiction. I tend to think of science fiction as the term that came in in the 1930s, the golden age of bug-eyed monsters, and I think of it in connection with spaceships, things with tentacles that can talk, maidens in diaphanous garments and all of the ancestors of those including Star Wars, Star Trek, and that ilk. It involves other planets and stuff we can't do yet, and life forms that are really quite far removed from our own.

"Speculative fiction I tend to think of - although some people use that as a blanket term for all those kinds of things - I tend to think of it as 1984, Brave New World - our planet, stuff we can actually do or are working at doing right now."

Has Oryx and Crake just been released in Australia, or is she just doing interviews for the fun of it? Either way, her definitions are getting more sophisticated with each country she visits. Now she says some people might want to use 'speculative fiction' as a catch-all term. Fancy that, eh?

And apparently the reason certain scientists can't be left to run the world is that they'd create a world of nerdy, scientifically-inclined men and babes who are fond of nerdy, scientifically-inclined men (eleven minutes in, or thereabouts).

What a ridiculous idea. :-D