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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 2274269" data-attributes="member: 19675">In response: 1)  I don't live in DC, and haven't visited the Smithsonian in over 15 years, so no, I didn't see the Making of Myth exhibit.As to what has been said that is both relevant and counter to the Star Wars = Fantasy logic:As well as the he entirety of my <a href="http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=132875&page=2&pp=40" target="_blank">post #62</a> and the link to the definition of Space Opera contained within your own link to Answers.com.Star Wars takes a classic dragonslayer plot...one that can be traced through Kurosawa and Wagner and so forth, but it changes its setting from one of fantasy to one of an interstellar empire.  But all it takes is the PLOT- all of the mechanisms have been changed.  Simply taking the plot of a fantasy is insufficient to make something a fantasy, unless you beleive in the magic of contagion.Science/Sci-Fi extrapolation abounds within the storyline: FTL travel.  Holography.  Beam Weapons.  Cybernetics.As to the "magic" of Star Wars, Lucas himeself said that "The Force" that you defend as a fantastic element was based on an extrapolation of the abilities of Shao Lin martial artists (The Science of Star Wars).  If you have ever seen a demonstration of their prowess, you will note that some of them take blows to the larynx, gonads, and other spots without flinching,  can do handstands on 2 fingers, or can bend and break spears by pressing the points against their bodies and walking forward.  How do they do these things?  Undoubtedly by intense training, but they claim that training is insufficient- one must also "armor himself in chi." Looking over this thread as a whole, seeing all the crossovers created by various authors, and, once again, Clark's brilliant observation about high tech, I'm not sure that there IS a meaningful difference other than setting, trapping, and storytelling vehicles.  In one genre, the hero is transported from one land to the other by an act of the gods, while in another, its "Welshie" at the controls of a teleporter.  In one, a scrying crystal is used to observe distant events, in the other, "hyperwave transmitter".  Intervention of the Gods saves the hero in one, in the other, the Infinite Improbability drive.Both Fantasy and Sci-Fi contain morality tales.  Both genres examine the nature of what it means to be human.  Both delve into the metaphysical.The differences lie not within the beams and walls of their particular houses, but in the carpet and drapes.</blockquote>

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