SF vs fantasy

[CGFxColONeill]

* not sure if this is the correct place but it makes the most sense to me*

I told a guy today that I liked reading SF, his response was to start talking about LOTR
I have had similar conversations with several other people as well

my question is this... why do so few people know the distinction between SF and F and why do they get linked together so indiscriminately?

[stePH]

* not sure if this is the correct place but it makes the most sense to me*

I told a guy today that I liked reading SF, his response was to start talking about LOTR
I have had similar conversations with several other people as well

my question is this... why do so few people know the distinction between SF and F and why do they get linked together so indiscriminately?

"SF" to me means "Speculative Fiction" and encompasses both sci-fi and fantasy. 

[lowky]

* not sure if this is the correct place but it makes the most sense to me*

I told a guy today that I liked reading SF, his response was to start talking about LOTR
I have had similar conversations with several other people as well

my question is this... why do so few people know the distinction between SF and F and why do they get linked together so indiscriminately?

Well two reasons, like Steph said SF could mean speculative fiction which normally encompasses both.

The other is blame your big booksellers.  They put SciFi and Fantasy together in the same section usually.  So as your looking you will find Star wars books, Dune LotR, David Blake books, etc all mixed up as far as seperation of genre, but alphabetical by author.  So you get some who don't know any better because they don't normally read it.  They read LotR because of the movies or that kind of thing. 

[CGFxColONeill]

* not sure if this is the correct place but it makes the most sense to me*

I told a guy today that I liked reading SF, his response was to start talking about LOTR
I have had similar conversations with several other people as well

my question is this... why do so few people know the distinction between SF and F and why do they get linked together so indiscriminately?

"SF" to me means "Speculative Fiction" and encompasses both sci-fi and fantasy. 

sorry for lack of clarity... I was talking strictly SF...
as for the other stuff hooray for large book sellers every where lol

[Russell Nash]

If you're talking to people who don't have a lot of experience with the genre, they might just look at the otherworldliness of it.  Sci-Fi is other planets and space ships.  Fantasy is other worlds and dragons.  to the uninitiated that's pretty similar.

[stePH]

If you're talking to people who don't have a lot of experience with the genre, they might just look at the otherworldliness of it.  Sci-Fi is other planets and space ships.  Fantasy is other worlds and dragons.  to the uninitiated that's pretty similar.

They're both "things that aren't so" (although some sci-fi is "things that aren't so now but could be possible in future.")

[wakela]

And it's not like the fantasy and sci-fi guys don't go to the same parties.  I would assume that someone who was into science fiction was also into LOTR. 

[Heradel]

You could also classify LOTR and a lot of SF (eg, Star Wars) as Hero's Journey tales, which would provide a lot of common ground for someone to get confused.

Even if one has spaceships and one has dragons, they still end up sharing a lot of the same story genetics.

[stePH]

You could also classify LOTR and a lot of SF (eg, Star Wars) as Hero's Journey tales, which would provide a lot of common ground for someone to get confused.

Even if one has spaceships and one has dragons, they still end up sharing a lot of the same story genetics.

Like, I understand that Christopher Paolini was able to rewrite Star Wars as a high fantasy tale with dragons.  (Not that I've read Eragon nor seen the movie.  People whose opinions I respect say that what Paolini didn't crib from Lucas he cribbed from Tolkien and McCaffrey.  And Dr. Sullivan's review of the film seems to bear this out.)

[CGFxColONeill]

ok thanks for the clarification on that... that is something that has been bugging me for a while now, had several convos like that and seen it in stores etc

[Zathras]

Most of the readership for Sci-Fi and Fantasy bleeds over.  There are groups that read one genre, but not the other.  Most people I know that read military SciFi don't read much fantasy.  There are, of course, exceptions.

[DKT]

Like, I understand that Christopher Paolini was able to rewrite Star Wars as a high fantasy tale with dragons.  (Not that I've read Eragon nor seen the movie.  People whose opinions I respect say that what Paolini didn't crib from Lucas he cribbed from Tolkien and McCaffrey.  And Dr. Sullivan's review of the film seems to bear this out.)

I have (unfortunately) actually read Eragon and I can say he definitely did crib Star Wars. Which in and of itself isn't a bad thing, but he did such a poor job of cribbing it that it made the Phantom Menace look appealing. (Although the actually SW film he cribbed was A New Hope.)

I'm not saying he wasn't influenced by Tolkien and McCaffrey, as well. Just that he was definitely had some Star Wars in there.

[Planish]

I told a guy today that I liked reading SF, ...

How did you pronounce that?
"Ess-eff", or "Science Fiction"?

... his response was to start talking about LOTR
I have had similar conversations with several other people as well

One theory could be that you are blacking out (but not falling down) due to a post-hypnotic suggestion whenever you say "SF". The conversation proceeds with little input from you except for the occasional head-nod, and then when the others say any of a number of Fantasy-related trigger words it snaps you out of the trance, with you not realizing that the topic has changed.

At least it's not as bad as having Slaughterhouse Five Syndrome. Be thankful for that.

[Planish]

They're both "things that aren't so" (although some sci-fi is "things that aren't so now but could be possible in future.")

Ummm... at the risk of hijacking the thread, that got me to thinking (yeah, a dangerous thing, I know).

Fantasy has it's roots in a belief system that was deemed to describe how things actually were. People really believed (or still believe) in elves, ghosts, and such, even if they seemed extraordinary compared to, say, cows or trees. Heck, I know a fairly acculturated Inuit guy who told me in all seriousness about the Ishigaq or "little people" that he and his sister saw when they were kids.

Many Science Fiction premises are plausible because in our own lifetimes (okay, at least for some of the more senior of us) we see things around us that were once in the realm of SF, even if in a slightly different form. (eg. Computers got much more powerful, but smaller and cheaper, and not bigger and more expensive.)

Either way, maybe the "things that aren't so" quality is less important than "it might be so".

[Zathras]

They're both "things that aren't so" (although some sci-fi is "things that aren't so now but could be possible in future.")

Ummm... at the risk of hijacking the thread, that got me to thinking (yeah, a dangerous thing, I know).

Fantasy has it's roots in a belief system that was deemed to describe how things actually were. People really believed (or still believe) in elves, ghosts, and such, even if they seemed extraordinary compared to, say, cows or trees. Heck, I know a fairly acculturated Inuit guy who told me in all seriousness about the Ishigaq or "little people" that he and his sister saw when they were kids.

Many Science Fiction premises are plausible because in our own lifetimes (okay, at least for some of the more senior of us) we see things around us that were once in the realm of SF, even if in a slightly different form. (eg. Computers got much more powerful, but smaller and cheaper, and not bigger and more expensive.)

Either way, maybe the "things that aren't so" quality is less important than "it might be so".

"Make it so."