In a science fiction class I took in college, there was a day when the professor brought in a stack of paperback novels and issued our class a challenge. Could we tell, with a glance at the cover, which books were fantasy and which were sci-fi? Try it yourself with the picture above -- can you tell which is which?
Science fiction and fantasy -- which might be thought of as the "what-if?" genres -- are often considered similar enough in style and substance to warrant being shelved together in bookstores and libraries. However, as any sci-fi or fantasy fan could tell you, the two are generally quite distinct. So how to tell the difference?
Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, is credited with explaining the difference as "science fiction, the improbable made possible; fantasy, the impossible made probable."
Science fiction is a term reserved for those fantastical stories that could one day be possible. They are stories about technology that could be invented or alien planets that could be discovered. After all, some sci-fi tales have gone on to come true: H.G. Wells published The First Men in the Moon nearly seventy years before the first moon landing, and William Gibson's Neuromancer is credited with introducing the concept of the World Wide Web ... back in 1984. Of course the details may be a bit off (rockets, not "cavorite," got human beings to the moon) -- and there's plenty of sci-fi developments that will always remain fictional. But science fiction prides itself on being the genre of "what could be," if only we have the technology or discovery to reach for it.
Fantasy, meanwhile, is about the purely impossible. Wands, wizards, spells, and magic -- things that have no scientific explanation and will always remain impossible. Science fiction has science (even if it's yet-to-be-discovered, far-flung science). Fantasy does magic. It's as simple as that.
Well ... maybe not that simple. Like Mysteries vs. Thrillers, sometimes a book will have elements of both genres mixed into it. Star Wars, for instance, tells the story of an ancient order of knights who channel a mysterious power and duel in sword fights ... with robots and aliens in spaceships. It's that last bit that keeps Star Wars classified as science fiction, even though many of its elements (such as the Force itself) seem more like fantasy. When deciding whether to classify a book in the Library as sci-fi or fantasy, we librarians sometimes rely on the author's reputation or the publisher's recommendation.
Of course, sometimes it's an easy decision to make -- often by simply looking at the cover of the book itself. You can be pretty sure that this is a science fiction read:
Whereas this is a fantasy story:
Just keep in mind that appearances can sometimes be deceiving. That book with the dragon on top, Dragonflight? That's the first novel in Anne McCaffrey's Pern series -- a series featuring a planet colonized by spaceship-traveling humans, who scientifically create genetically-altered dragons on their new home. There's not a bit of the magical about it -- once you get past your own expectations after seeing a dragon on the cover. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, on the other hand, sounds like straight-up science fiction with its talk of alternate universes ... until you meet the witches, daemons, and talking polar bears.
Bit of a trick question. Sorry about that. I'll chalk it up to the influence of my sci-fi lit professor, who was always trying to show us a new way to look at everything. Including science fiction book covers!
-- Post by Ms. B
No comments:
Post a Comment