Fantasy vs Science Fiction: A Poll

[Hilarious Joke]

Yay!

That's a pretty juicy four-vote margin...

Can we declare Fantasy the winner now then?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

It's see-sawed back and forth throughout the history of this thread, but I think this is the first time we've seen either genre take such a commanding lead.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Now don't get me wrong-sci fi has its uses for those who enjoy it.

I simply don't enjoy it. I'm well experienced in both fantasy and sci fi-at least, as well experienced with sci fi as I can be I suppose. (I guess mostly Bradbury and a slew of dystopian novels don't fully qualify me in the genre.)

There's just aspects that sci fi tends to have I usually don't like. And I'm not just talking about the paranoid, lantern-jawed super space captain style that was mass produced in the 50's to accomodate the alien invasion-obsessed society, but fairly more modern stories, like Piers Anthony's Visions of Tarot series and Stephen Donaldson's Gap series.


(Now good ol' Piers' Phaze/Proton novels were something of an intrigue to me-though in theory I knew of the practice, to combine strict magic fantasy to strict techno sci fi like that caught me off guard when I first read Blue Adept. But, he proved it can be pulled off.)



Funny-this response is bringing up deja vu for me.....

 

[J Riff]

There's no argument that works against SciFi, it is invincible !
Undeniably some of the most important literature of our lifetime.
TV and Hollywood have done their best trying to turn into into a replacement for westerns and soap operas, but no - a great SciFi novel is still better ( and better for you ! ) than Avatar or even Planet of the Apes !

 

[J Riff]

No offense to anyone but there's no winner - fantasy is simply an older genre than sciFi. This discussion was old in the 30s when SciFi appeared.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Except that fantasy wasn't considered as a specific genre until the popularity of Tolkien made it into a viable marketing genre and then people began to separate it out from the mainstream.

In the 1970's, there was a lot more science fiction being written then there was fantasy. Now the tables have turned. They may turn again.

 

[Rodders]

So, does anyone get annoyed with the fact that SF and Fantasy are so very much tied together by people who don't appreciate either genre?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Since they are very much tied together by so many people who do appreciate both genres ... not so much.

 

[thepaladin]

No. They have both been the "step children" of literature for so long....I suspect most of us are used to it.

By the way, no offense to actual "step children"...

They actually sort of "grew-up together in the so called "pulp era" and still share the same shelving areas. Many of us grew up reading both and thinking of it as "imaginative literature".

 

[J Riff]

S'truth.. it was Tolkein ..and I remember well when he surged in popularity in the 70s and the middle earth posters were everywhere.
But.. it was Gernsback who wanted to put the brakes on what he called 'fantasy'. He had to do this because people were starting to write about things they hadn't before, things that were starting to become evident ; spaceflight and robots, technological issues..so he was right to put a cap on ' fantasy ' which has gone it's merry way.
In the really early writings ( even Voltaire wrote sciFi ) they often had to call it 'a fantasy ' if they went to the moon or down into the earth or anything weird.
So I guess early sciFi was called fantasy as often as not. There's many a great yarn that mixes the two so let's call it a draw .... except :

If the SciFi characters took on the Fantasy creatures.. in an all-out war... who would win ? From the side of the SciFi-ers...I suggest we nuke the entire Elf-planet from orbit.

 

[J-WO]

:

If the SciFi characters took on the Fantasy creatures.. in an all-out war... who would win ? From the side of the SciFi-ers...I suggest we nuke the entire Elf-planet from orbit.

I suppose the closest we have seen to this is the battle at the end of Avatar, with its winged beasties versus VTOL craft with armour piercing rounds. The result was, as the actress said to the megalomaniac Hollywood Writer-Director , entirely unconvincing.

I guess in a 'real' SF/ fantasy scrap, one side would lob magic fireballs, the other discharge its singularity cannons, and then both sides argue like kids in a playground as to who hurt who.

Thems the breaks in a clash of two sets of physics.

 

[Urien]

I always enjoyed the tiny Ewoks with their unbending limbs and stone age weapons defeating the Elite Imperial Storm Troopers. Still, we all know the best place to stand when an imperial storm trooper is shooting... right in front of him.

 

[thepaladin]

I know...very confusing. After all the first time we meet Obi-Wan (actually the third story in time line, but oh well, let's not go there) he says that "only Imperial Storm Troopers are so accurate" when pointing out the blast points on the Jaw's transport.... must be a different group of Storm Trooper.

 

[Ursa major]

Some must be clones, the others clowns.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

S'truth.. it was Tolkein ..and I remember well when he surged in popularity in the 70s and the middle earth posters were everywhere.

Some of those posters adorned my bedroom wall. I still have the enormous one with the Barbara Remington artwork, and very ugly it is, too. But I still keep it because it's probably a collector's item, and if I threw it away or sold it on eBay someone would probably come along later and tell me that it's worth thousands of dollars.

 

[J Riff]

Millions.
My Middle Earth map is gone, reduced to tatters, or I would trade it for something useful, like a house.

 

[The_African]

I've read a lot more science fiction and sci-fi has been my favorite genre since I was a child. Most fantasy novels are centered in medieval European culture and I can't really relate. In theory, however, I prefer the idea of fantasy over science fiction. Science fiction can allow you to experience a world that is drastically different from our world but like our world in that things are explainable and follow the same basic set of rules that our universe does. I think it takes more imagination to create a world with events that are unexplainable and follow a completely separate set of rules than events in our universe do. Besides, if you're writing a story about something that is logically impossible, why not just admit that it is logically impossible rather than coming up with a psuedo-scientific explanation for it?

Fantasy is the oldest genre of story telling (most likely), I just wish that there were more fantasy novels based on African mythology or involving Black characters. I ordered a bunch of fantasy novels online and, if I like them, I might start reading more fantasy than sci-fi. Two 'things' I love about science fiction that fantasy doesn't have are androids/robots and aliens.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

I think it takes more imagination to create a world with events that are unexplainable and follow a completely separate set of rules than events in our universe do.

Isn't this an argument for fantasy?

Besides, if you're writing a story about something that is logically impossible, why not just admit that it is logically impossible rather than coming up with a psuedo-scientific explanation for it?

I think simply because readers want to believe that what they're reading is true.

Welcome to the Chron, by the way!

 

[The_African]

Isn't this an argument for fantasy?

Yes, it is. Even though I've read more science fiction and a lot fantasy novels don't appeal to me, the idea of fantasy appeals to me more than the idea of science fiction. Besides Beloved, I can't think of a single, adult, fantasy novel I've read. Maybe once I read more, I'll find that I like even the 'stereotypical' fantasy stories.

Welcome to the Chron, by the way!

Thanks.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Even though I've read more science fiction and a lot fantasy novels don't appeal to me, the idea of fantasy appeals to me more than the idea of science fiction. Besides Beloved, I can't think of a single, adult, fantasy novel I've read. Maybe once I read more, I'll find that I like even the 'stereotypical' fantasy stories.

We'll make a fantasy lover out of you yet!