(Untitled)

[starlin_elvea]

Now I'm interested in the connection between genre and popularity.

A recurrent theme in my data is that fantasy is more accessible to readers than science fiction, therefore it is more popular (in the sense of "more people like it"). There are various variations of this theme, e.g. saying that in science fiction, the "science" element acts as a "

Comments

[pumba_lt]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_long_tail

[starlin_elvea]

Ačiū

[starlin_elvea]

It is a plausible explanation in some respects, but... say, for the current generation which first gets acquainted with social networking online, all the iStuff and what not when they are still in the cradle, what will be/is more "natural"?
Also, even if many people hear fairytales when they're little (parents, teachers, other adults, TV), most lose interest as they grow up, others, on the other hand, develop that interest in various directions, one of them being fantasy.
Personally, I think my own interest in SF&F started not so much from fairytales (although tales from Narnia and The Hobbit were among my favourites, and I do recall hearing them told by my mum as well) as from fascination with the starry sky and a dream to some time fly up there in a spaceship or something:)

[maumaz]

"I take Star Wars for SF, for example, and is it any more difficult to understand than HP?"

Star Wars is not SF! :)

[pumba_lt]

SW is in the pop culture:

[starlin_elvea]

And I say it is! Galim pasiginčyti :D

O šiaip geras SF apibrėžimas yra Andy Sawyer: "A library of science fiction is a library of Babel: a collection of fictions classified as ‘science fiction’ because someone, somewhere has decided that they reflect, somehow, one of the many definitions of sf" :)

[unless_spring]

While many people tell SF and fantasy apart by "furniture" (e.g. does it have dragons or spaceships?), there was an interesting argument made at the World Fantasy Convention that the distinction between these two genres is the worldview they promote. I have an article on my website that sums up the discussion (http://www.geekitude.com/gl/public_html/article.php?story=20070117213559763), but the link isn't working, since my website is hosed for the indefinite future. But here is an excerpt:

Walter Jon Williams. I think there's an ideological difference between science fiction and fantasy. In Tolkien's "On fairy tales" he discussed a eucatastrophe, which we would call "a happy ending". Even when the quest has failed and Frodo has taken the ring for his own, and the Dark Lord has found out that the ring is right here, and reaches for it, Gollum interferes and saves the day. And then Frodo and Sam are stuck on the Mount Orodruin