MovieChat Forums > The Road (2009) Discussion > Do you consider "The Road" to be science...

Do you consider "The Road" to be science fiction?

posted 4 years ago by whynotwriteme (7720)
16 replies | jump to latest

Back in the 1980s, this kind of book and movie would undoubtedly be considered SF. I would put it on the shelf alongside novels like David Brin's "The Postman", Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's "False Dawn", and Pat Frank's "Alas Babylon" and movies like "The Rover" and "The Book of Eli". All Post Apocalyptic tales but lacking mutants, cyborgs, zombies, aliens or any other trappings of traditional SF. These are stories that present a more realistic view of what life would be like after an Apocalyptic event.

Back then in the 80s, there was no other place to put them except SF, but now with so many genres and subgenres, this type of story seems to have lost its place in literature.

These books are harder to find, now, unless you count the many "Prepper" novels, that focus on the preparations and weapons and survival gear and have a protagonist who embodies the Prepper lifestyle. A story like "The Road" with everyday people forced to survive without elaborate bunkers and skills is not the same as a Prepper novel at all.

Where would you classify stories like "The Road"? Do you consider them SF, or just a type of mainstream novel, or in a genre or subgenre of their own? Do you think there is a market for realistic Apocalyptic novels?

[–] huwdj (4566) 4 years ago

It's a story set in an imagined future and for simplicities sake and in recent terms that is the realm of Science Fiction.
Perhaps it's worth classifying it as SF/post-apocalypse but there are an awful lot of stories that start with the collapse/destruction of everything so it would be pretty meaningless.

[–] spacecomedy (2043) 4 years ago

Interesting post. The publishing industry tends to classify books like "Alas Babylon" or "On the Beach" as SF, but I think "The Road" gets a special exception because of Cormac McCarthy's status and the fact that it won the Pulitzer Prize. I think there will always be a market for realistic apocalyptic novels because people will always have a interest in the "what if" of that kind of world. Some are definitely better than others ("One Second After" was a slog while "Alas Babylon" was fascinating--I'll never forget just how desperate Randy was for a simple cup of coffee).

[–] elcamino (15540) 4 years ago

Yes in a thing that kills off people won't happen. Biden will sell us to China but we will rise up before they kill us off. But it is true that not everyone left will be good people.

[–] moviechatterer (15583) a year ago

"A thing that wont happen" is not the qualifier for science fiction .

[–] kwestmo (4385) 4 years ago

I think The Road falls under the genre of Speculative Fiction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculative_fiction

[–] huwdj (4566) 4 years ago

I had to google 'Speculative Fiction' and got: a genre of fiction that encompasses works in which the setting is other than the real world, involving supernatural, futuristic, or other imagined elements. Which seems to scoop up science fiction, and possibly many other genres as well.

[–] kwestmo (4385) 4 years ago

I edited my post with the wiki definition of spec fic. Before reading that I would have thought it was a sub-genre of sci fi, but like you pointed out it seems to encompass several genres.

[–] Icecutter (363) 4 years ago

No.

Set in future, set post apocalypse. But no I would not say science fiction.

[–] Foster (878) a year ago

I kind of like the SF idea but can see the argument against

How About

ALTERNATIVE HISTORY

[–] MCguy (1136) a year ago

Look up alternative history.

[–] FilmBuff (7234) a year ago

This definitely isn't alternative history. Personally, I've never thought of it as anything other than fiction. While it does take place in an imagined future, nothing that happens is remotely outside the realm of reality, which for me is a benchmark of science fiction. Nearly all works of fiction take place in an imagined world, and "The Road" is no different than any other. If I can read, say, "Treasure Island," and accept that fictional pirates hid some treasure on a fictional island, I can read "The Road" and accept that a fictional father and son are wandering around after a nuclear war.

[–] TandyMan (11096) a year ago

eh... this always felt like a long twilight zone to me.

[–] moviechatterer (15583) a year ago

hell no

There used to be a massive thread about that on the Mad Max page of imdb