I believe that Speculative Fiction has - for the most part - been relatively singular in its path over the course of the last 50 years. The majority of writing strays very little from the more traditional tropes (and not saying that it's a bad thing) without the sense of "revolution" that brought about changes in the more main-stream literature, such as "Post-Modernism." Robots and scientists and aliens coming for "first contact" abound within the genre; advanced societies, cures for everything known to man, and space travel have become common enough that non-SF readers know what you're talking about. The obvious, and most recent, such changes would be Cyberpunk and Steampunk. The cynical, sinister, dystopian themes of Speculative Fiction have pervaded for a long time - though not entirely for the wrong reasons. But there has been little in the way of massive changes to the genre - or its outlook - in a long time.

In the recent past, there was the movement of Mundane SF (which I've spoken about - twice).

There has risen another movement in the very recent present called The Science Fiction & Fantasy Ethics (SFFE) Group (which has proposed to change its name, in light of the comments at SF Signal). Outside of raising a brow in regards to the use of the word ethics, I found this movement intriguing. I hesitate at some of the language used in both the pro and con comments on SF Signal, because I think such things hearkens back to a previous discussing about the kind of bickering and dissension that arises when people begin to question SF or its methods.

These movements have singularly done one thing: bring about vehement opposition almost immediately. I find it strange that a genre rife with predictions of the changes to come in the future should be populated with writers afraid of change within the genre. Movements such as this should a willingness to change, as well as an ingenuity amongst a group of authors who see themselves ready to take the leap into a new realm. Look at writers like China Mieville, who began to step out of the normal boundaries of fantasy and horror and blend the two in a new way that we've embraced as New Weird. Movements happen because people take chances. Some of them catch on, and some of them do not. An open-minded audience - as well as contemporaries - needs to be had, though.

In short - or, rather, in summary - I think that all of this new revolution feel needs to be taken into consideration carefully, and it needs to be proposed in an intelligent way. I also think that creating a movement - rather than it just happening - seems to bring about some issues that might very well not get worked out. I am hopeful, though, and I look forward to the results of this experiment.