Magicians : Mathematicians :: Fantasy : Science
Fiction
By
Jacob Brown
Science fiction (SF) and fantasy (F) can be put on two
ends of a scale. One filled with lasers, robots, and the future, the other with
super-human powers, mystical creatures, and good vs. evil conflict. While the far ends of the spectrum are
easy to define, fiction often mixes elements of both genres together. When this
occurs, difficulty arises deciding which genre they fall into. Fear not, the
fog is about to clear.
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Google
Image search of “Science Fiction” first result. From http://eichenblog.org/?p=11239
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The title of this post does an
excellent job of differentiating the two. To many people, magicians and
mathematicians appear to do the same thing (wave their hands around and make
unexpected objects appear out of nowhere). However, deeper analysis reveals
that a mathematician can explain the steps he took to reach the conclusion,
while everything a magician does is unknown to the audience. A mathematician extrapolates, whereas a magician experiments.
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Google Image search of “Fantasy” first result. From
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Here we find the foundations of SF and F.
As Samuel R. Delany puts it in his essay “Some Presumptuous Approaches to Science Fiction,” SF generally has elements that “replace,
displace, and reorganize the elements of [the] given world.” Like a
mathematician, SF starts from a given point (our reality) and then proceeds to detail
new scenarios based off of that given world.
Examples:
Karel Čapek’s R.U.R.
Philip K Dick’s Do Androids
Dream of Electric Sheep?
H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds
F skips the
first step. Philip Martin describes in his book, A Guide to Fantasy
Literature, that “fantasy creates
a world imaginative to the highest degree.” F doesn’t have to explain anything
it creates, nor do its creations have to relate to the given world. Like a
magician, a new piece of F can hold completely new wonders that the audience
has no explanation to. That’s simply how F is defined.
Examples:
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the
Rings Trilogy
Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword
Kij Johnson’s 26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss
The
extremes of the two genres are easily distinguishable, but the task of
separating them does become challenging as they drift closer to the middle of
the scale. When this happens, the line between SF and F must be found by
searching for the aforementioned elements. Sadly, even this can become
difficult, because as SF dives farther into the future, or as F uses more of
the given world (as low fantasy does), supposedly different worlds from the two
genres may contain more and more similar qualities.
Examples:
George Lucas’s Star Wars
Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light
At
this point, defining the two comes down to the experiences the reader receives
from each genre. Martin also paraphrases Tolkien’s famous essay, “On Fairy Stories,”
when he discusses what Tolkien considered as the three key aspects of F
stories; recovery, escape, and consolation. In short, recovery refers to
recovering the ability to view a story with wonder, as a child would. Escape
refers to escaping the limits of the modern, real world. Consolation is the
feeling, once the story happily wraps up, that the reader gets coming back to
the real world. This is a process unique to F that gives the reader a unique
experience. SF proposes more of the question “What if?” It often expands on
modern issues and takes them to their limits, or presents scenarios that modern
science can’t provide, but could in the future. The “What if?” SF experience is distinct from that of a F piece.
So
why bother defining the two at all?
Because SF and F readers utilize the distinction every time they pick up
a new book. While some readers will pick up anything and dive right in, many readers
look for something specific. When it comes to SF and F, most readers have a
preference between the two or at least a preference to one or the other at any
moment (I usually prefer SF, being a tech guy). Thus, if there is no
distinction from the publisher that a piece is either SF or F (or even a mix
for that matter), there’s nothing for a reader to do other than guess and
check. This would be a frustrating process, and could turn readers away from
the forsaken Science Fantasy genre.
A
distinction is needed between SF and F. A
distinction gives us a choice.
Jacob:
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting - and apt -- that you call the science fantasy subgenre "forsaken." In many senses, it is, insofar as publishers want a label that is this or that in most cases, and so do consumers. Science fantasy is more a construct in the author's mind and in the mind of readers who see the world they've written as they do.
You've done an exceptional job of mapping out of your thinking and using the sources from this class to give some clarity to your definitional process. This was a great read.
Best,
TT