MetaChat - a wise word on metafilter

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11 July 2009

a wise word on metafilter →[More:]

I wish I could favourite this 100 times. Science fiction, at times mingling with older stories, is part of how we are teaching ourselves to live in the future.

post by: By the Grace of God at: 19:48 | 8 comments

I've been watching Star Wars bit by bit this week. It's not science fiction. It's fantasy, set in space. ;)

posted by Eideteker 11 July | 21:57

It's fiction???

posted by Ardiril 11 July | 23:12

I think people sometimes confuse science fiction with hard sf. Or don't understand the speculative fiction end of the genre.

Once you grok that there are three primary strains -- sf, fantasy, and horror -- and that they interrelated and pollinate, it makes a little more sense.

Also, there's nothing wrong, although it may be confusing, to add Western or some-other-genre trappings to sf. It's like street-clothes Shakespeare, that's all.

posted by dhartung 11 July | 23:39

Eideteker, no smiley necessary -- Lucas was always clear that he considered it fantasy with sf trappings.

posted by dhartung 11 July | 23:40

You said ... grok.

posted by WolfDaddy 12 July | 01:27

Not all fantasy is horror, but lately, I have given a lot of thought whether all horror is fantasy. Eideteker's comment expresses this with some minor editing -- "It's not fiction, it's fantasy." Rhetoric, you gotta love it.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.
I know it's only rock 'n' roll, but I like it.

posted by Ardiril 12 July | 01:48

I played Tangerine Dream's "Phaedra" (1972) for a friend of mine once, and he said, "We're stuck on a dream of the future."

Which, I think, sums up this entire conversation nicely.