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Worlds of Design: Fantasy vs. Sci-Fi Part 1
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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 7763633" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>I'm not really sure how to be clearer here. Fantasy, by and large, is hallmarked by an analysis of good and evil. Certainly core fantasy works, I would argue, are examinations of morality at their core. SF, on the other hand, generally isn't quite as concerned with good and evil, although, let's be fair, that does appear in lots of SF as well. But, it's generally not the central theme. Central to SF is an analysis of what it means to be human in the face of the proposed changes made within the work.</p><p></p><p>So, while Harry Potter certainly looks at things like class struggle and racism, the central theme of the story is good and evil. The evil characters are classist and racist. The good characters are not. And the story all hangs on the conflict between Harry and Voldemort. While something like Flowers for Algernon does also deal with racism and bigotry, the core conflict is Algernon's rise and subsequent fall after taking a medicine that makes him super smart. He goes from being severely mentally challenged and incapable of relating to the other characters, to being super smart and still incapable of relating to the other characters. There's no actual good or evil evident in the story.</p><p></p><p>Or take another seminal SF work - <a href="https://photos.state.gov/libraries/hochiminh/646441/vantt/The%20Cold%20Equations.pdf" target="_blank">The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin</a> In the story, there is a stowaway aboard a medical transport that only has enough fuel to reach its destination for one passenger. The whole story is about the fact that this cannot be changed and there is no actual "good" answer. But the morality of the situation isn't really a central theme. It's about how do the characters deal with this fact that this is a no-win scenario.</p><p></p><p>This is why I'm not a fan of using trope to differentiate the genres. There's so much crossover between the genres with respect to tropes that you cannot really divide them that way. In my opinion, it's much better to differentiate the thematic focus of the different genres. Again, we can both find examples that don't fit. Sure, I totally accept that. But, I'm not sure how else we can really differentiate them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 7763633, member: 22779"] I'm not really sure how to be clearer here. Fantasy, by and large, is hallmarked by an analysis of good and evil. Certainly core fantasy works, I would argue, are examinations of morality at their core. SF, on the other hand, generally isn't quite as concerned with good and evil, although, let's be fair, that does appear in lots of SF as well. But, it's generally not the central theme. Central to SF is an analysis of what it means to be human in the face of the proposed changes made within the work. So, while Harry Potter certainly looks at things like class struggle and racism, the central theme of the story is good and evil. The evil characters are classist and racist. The good characters are not. And the story all hangs on the conflict between Harry and Voldemort. While something like Flowers for Algernon does also deal with racism and bigotry, the core conflict is Algernon's rise and subsequent fall after taking a medicine that makes him super smart. He goes from being severely mentally challenged and incapable of relating to the other characters, to being super smart and still incapable of relating to the other characters. There's no actual good or evil evident in the story. Or take another seminal SF work - [url=https://photos.state.gov/libraries/hochiminh/646441/vantt/The%20Cold%20Equations.pdf]The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin[/url] In the story, there is a stowaway aboard a medical transport that only has enough fuel to reach its destination for one passenger. The whole story is about the fact that this cannot be changed and there is no actual "good" answer. But the morality of the situation isn't really a central theme. It's about how do the characters deal with this fact that this is a no-win scenario. This is why I'm not a fan of using trope to differentiate the genres. There's so much crossover between the genres with respect to tropes that you cannot really divide them that way. In my opinion, it's much better to differentiate the thematic focus of the different genres. Again, we can both find examples that don't fit. Sure, I totally accept that. But, I'm not sure how else we can really differentiate them. [/QUOTE]
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