Some speculative narratives don’t ask how the future might be different, but instead, how might different versions of the future differ from one another? And what happens if they are all happening at the same time? Yes, we are talking about parallel universes or multiverses. In his introduction to the essay anthology, The Influence of the Imagination: Essays on Science Fiction and Fantasy as Agents of Social Change, Randy Schroeder provides a detailed account of some of the liberatory techniques employed by speculative writers. He focuses on the techniques of verisimilitude (imitating/mirroring reality) and defamiliarization (taking the reader outside of reality as we know it) and the limitations of both of these. Ultimately, Schroeder points to the benefits of failing at both techniques, and asks “What if…prompting change is not a matter of predicting it, but of failing to predict it with mastery?” (Schroeder 11). Schroeder indicates that the power of speculative narration lies not in its ability to predict the future, but in its ability to demonstrate the future’s mutability, and the space for change within such mutability. In her book, Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction, Sami Schalk makes the case for alternate or layered realities: "By challenging the rules of reality—particularly the assumption that there is only a single reality—black women’s speculative fiction has the potential to deconstruct able-mindedness, revealing how this (dis)ability concept is deeply dependent on racial and gendered norms” (Schalk, Bodyminds 62). Schalk’s assessment is based on the idea that “individuals, such as black women and others with extended histories of oppression, may experience time, events, interactions, space, and place in distinctly different ways than people without such histories” (Schalk, Bodyminds 65). 

In Julia Armfield's story, "The Great Awake," people's "Sleeps" have separated from their body. Their "Sleeps" are humanoid shadows who follow them around. They are not harmful, nor are they particularly communicative. Anyone who has a Sleep doesn't need to sleep any longer. However, not everyone gets one. The story follows a woman with a Sleep as she develops a relationship with her neighbor, a woman who doesn't have a Sleep. Eli Barraza’s The Far Meridian examines layered realities through mental health and trauma. The podcast series follows Peri, an agoraphobic queer woman whose brother has (possibly) gone missing. Over the course of the series, Peri’s house moves when she is asleep, and when she wakes up, she finds herself somewhere new, or in a different version of where she was before. Barraza never clarifies if one version is the “correct,” one. Instead, we are left to wander these parallel spaces alongside Peri. This movement allows and encourages Peri to challenge her agoraphobia so that she is able to be more independent. 

Mishell Baker’s Borderline uses the concept of layered worlds to explore magic, disability, and mental health. The novel follows Millie, a queer white woman with Borderline Personality Disorder who is recovering from a recent suicide attempt. She is recruited while in her in-patient facility by the Arcadia Project, a secret organization that is connected to Arcadia, a parallel universe of magic and fae. The Arcadia Project specifically recruits people who have struggled with mental health issues, as often they are more “attuned” to the supernatural connections between Earth and Arcadia. The Arcadia project is able to give them stability and housing, which means that they are unlikely to leave. Both of these are problematic, but the novel names and explores this. Millie is in a particularly unique situation in that she has a massive amount of metal in her body due to reconstructive surgeries after her suicide attempt. Metal is the fae’s weakness, and because of this, Millie is able to “undo” magic. Baker’s novel explores the advantages and disadvantages that this gives Millie in her communication with this alternate reality.