 Fantasy: October 24, 2018 Issue [#9189] |
This week: Genre Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the 'Star Spangled Banner', but in fact the message was this: So long and thanks for all the fish.
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
No, look, there's a blue box. It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. It can go anywhere in time and space and sometimes even where it's meant to go. And when it turns up, there's a bloke in it called The Doctor and there will be stuff wrong and he will do his best to sort it out and he will probably succeed 'cause he's awesome. Now sit down, shut up, and watch 'Blink'.
― Neil Gaiman
Science fiction is the most important literature in the history of the world, because it's the history of ideas, the history of our civilization birthing itself. ...Science fiction is central to everything we've ever done, and people who make fun of science fiction writers don't know what they're talking about.
― Ray Bradbury |
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Occasionally, I like to use this platform to talk about science fiction - a genre related closely enough to fantasy that I can get away with it.
This is one of those times.
People whose job it is to talk about these things - other than me - have taken to calling fantasy and science fiction, as well as other, related genres such as horror, "genre fiction."
I object to this. Not that anyone's ever asked me my opinion on how we should communicate these things, but as we here on writing.com know, everything has a genre - not just fantasy, science fiction, etc. I think some people use it to distinguish popular writing from literary fiction, but that's a distinction without a difference; they're just writing for a different audience.
The great thing about science fiction (and, to a lesser extent, fantasy) as a genre is that it can incorporate other genres - romance, sports, mystery, horror, supernatural, comedy, drama, and many more - and still be science fiction. You could even write a science fiction epic in the style of what I call "divorce porn," those stories where a woman travels to some exotic location on her ex-husband's dime after dumping him; imagine that, only with an interstellar setting.
And you can even incorporate fantasy.
I attended a book signing by fantasy and science fiction (and other genre) author Orson Scott Card once, before I boycotted his stuff for other reasons, and he defined the difference as follows: Look at the book covers, he said. Fantasy has trees. Science fiction has rivets.
While this is a perfectly adequate rule of thumb, I go back to an even older saying: "You can't judge a book by its cover."
Basically, to be science fiction, a story has to explore the ramifications of technological advances. It's a purely modern genre, exactly 200 years old this year on the anniversary of the publication of Shelley's Frankenstein. Yes, that book is science fiction, though some argue otherwise, usually on the grounds of snobbery. The particular technology involved in that story was the ability to reanimate the dead, not through sorcery or supernatural means, but by science. The science involved, of course, never came to pass in the real world. Not in the way described in the book, anyway, but today, bringing people back from the "dead" is fairly commonplace. But that doesn't matter; it explored the ethical ramifications of doing so, much as a modern science fiction story might treat on cloning or artificial intelligence.
Things get a little murky when you start to get into stories involving extraterrestrial sentient life. Consider this: stories about werewolves, vampires, demons and the like have their roots in ancient lore, but the idea of space aliens in flying saucers or whatever is relatively new. And yet, all of the above are creatures of the imagination, made up out of some author's thought processes. There's probably more realism to the vampire mythology than there is to the idea of Vulcans or Gallifreyans.
And Star Wars, for all of its science fiction trappings (spaceships, lasers, warp drive, etc.) is a work that I'd put solidly into the Fantasy genre.
There are other ways to combine the genres, of course, than to write a fantasy with spaceships. As per the famous quote by Arthur C. Clarke ("any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"), you can get away with a lot simply by setting a story in the far future.
In the end, genre is fluid. It should be a guide to your writing, not a straitjacket.
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In keeping with this week's theme, the following picks all have science fiction as a genre:
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Last time, in "Pets" , I talked about, well, pets.
Elfin Dragon-finally published  : I love pets or companions for main characters in fantasy. You see it everywhere. In many of Mercedes Lackey books, Tad Williams', Piers Anthony's, Greg Bear's, and so many others.
Really, in a way, they become a character's conscience, or sounding board. And they're particularly useful when the writer needs to explain something to the audience without boring them by lots of exposition.
That's all for me for October - see you next month! Until then,
DREAM ON!!! |
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