Splitting Genres, Splitting Atoms, Splitting Hairs.

[wingsmith]

How do you tell the difference between Science Fiction and Fantasy?

Well it's obvious, isn't it? It's in the names. Science Fiction's based on science, Fantasy's based on magic, right?

Well, no. Not so much. First up, there ain't much science in a lot of sci-fi, and what there is, isn't generally convincing. Don't believe me?Watch Doctor Who. Do believe me? Watch Doctor Who. (Just watch Doctor Who, OK? its a good show.)

The point being that fantasy does no more casual violence to the laws of physics than most sci-fi.

So far, so bog-standardly problematic.

Perhaps we can draw the boundary a little broader, and say that while the events depicted in fantasy are  impossible, Science, maybe, could make' A Voyage to Arcturus' come to pass. After all, 'Neuromancer' came before Second Life, and 'Star Trek' came before iphones.

But the obvious problem with the above opens up a more interesting point. Fantasy *isn't* impossible. Nothing is impossible, or maybe nothing that isn't directly contradictory, but if we're allowed to countenance quarks that are everywhere and nowhere then I'm prepared to give The One Ring a shot.

The most that you can say conclusively, is not that the events in Sci-fi and Fantasy *can't* happen, it's that they *don't*. Which delineates it precisely no way from mainstream fiction. Because it's fiction. By definition it doesn't happen.

(In fact, if you want to get technical, Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn books, being set X,000  years into the future, actually have more chance of happening than Martin Amis's Money, which was set in the 1980s, and that ship has sailed.)

There is no principled distinction you can make. Especially at the edges, like, say Cryptonomicon, which is only just barely SF in content, but is SF all the way in tone.*

Does that mean there is no difference? Of course not. It can be pretty hard to to tell the difference between red and blue where they blend into each other, they're still different colours.

So, how do you tell the difference between Fantasy, Sci Fi and Lit Fic? Well it's pretty obvious isn't it? Fantasy looks like this:



While Sci Fi looks like this:



And litfic looks like this:


#

Except when it doesn't.

And that's pretty much it.

;-)