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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nyeshet" data-source="post: 2279749" data-attributes="member: 18363">Sigh. I don't have the patience to read all five pages of this thread, so I'll just summerize my own views on the subject. I tend to divide the spectrum thus: Science Fiction, Science Fantasy, Fantasy. Psionics, magi-tech [eg: Escaflowne], and psuedo-science concepts, creatures, objects, and places I tend to place in the grey area that is Science Fantasy. As science advances more and more concepts that were once (hard) science fiction seep into this category. Any story that openly mixes magic with post-ren technology I also tend to place in this category. Hard SF - plausible science fiction usually based on real science, often involving space travel, time travel, futuristic technology, aliens, and a variety of concepts that have come to be common in sf whether still plausible or not (such as FTL, worm hole portals, etc) I tend to consider Science Fiction. Fantasy I reserve for magic, magical creatures (including most traditonally mythic / magic creatures and beings, such as elves, dragons, chimeras, etc), magical places (such as the Land of Faerie, avalon, etc), and most mythic concepts that are readily and commonly known to be impossible or highly implausible. Also included are most religious concepts - as most myths are merely the stories of religions no longer practiced. So stories involving a plutonian style underworld, an oriental celestial court, etc would also be considered fantasy. Also included in fantasy are any fiction stories based on religions - past or present. Dante's Divine Comedy would be an excellent example. When you get right down to it, Fantasy involves stories based on ideas supported only by belief, and science fiction involves stories based on ideas supported only by fact or supposed potential future corollaries of currently known facts. Science Fantasy is the middle ground, the gray area between what must be accepted on faith and what can be accepted on current knowledge and theory. It's a vague system, I readily admit, but then I stated initially that it is only my own way of creating a psuedo-division between the two increasingly mixed genres. The two areas are melting into each other, but I doubt they will ever fully alloy. There will always be some stories that are most definately fantasy - not science fiction, and there will be some that are definately science fiction. The difficulty is that as science progresses what seems possible is increasingly narrowed - putting more stories that were once hard sf into the science fantasy area. I'm reminded of the phrase: 'Any sufficiently advanced form of technology is indistinguishable from magic.' In the current era we are beginning to better realize this, and the authors of our era are merely reflecting this realization in their stories.</blockquote>

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