I enjoyed this. As someone who is currently writing a sci-fi(ish) novel, this is why I prefer to characterise it was speculative fiction. While I generally agree with your definition and think that my story conforms to sci-fi in almost all areas, I know personal definitions vary and it's difficult to get everyone on side!
Thanks for reading, Lucy. I really wish there was just a big "Speculative" section at bookstores. It'd feel less like we were all acquiescing to surface-level characteristics. But I've only ever really heard super book nerds or authors use the term; I'm hoping it'll catch on. And, yeah, definitions do vary. UKLG is not infallible, and the biggest challenge is that genres change over time. We shall see what the next waves look like.
tl;dr Science fiction is about thought experiments. Fantasy is about recontextualizing human experience so that you see it in a new light. Seems legit!
Thank you for writing this. Sometimes I feel like what I'm writing isn't Sci fi because sometimes it seems to be a boy's club of trope trumps but this essay throws me back in to what I'm doing. It is Sci fi. Same with fantasy. This was a really refreshing essay.
First off, thank you! I had read A Wizard of Earthsea in like elementary school and it haa always stuck in memory but I could never remember the name!
Excellent distinctions and definitions all around. Very well put. I have to say, though, that as with all art the lines are never fully distinct. Because with both sci-fi and fantasy you (and Ursula K. Le Guin) point out the focus on the personal connection. Sci-fi is useless without being grounded in people that think and feel and act like real people. And likewise, fantasy also needs that human connection to really matter. And so sometimes you come up with something that's a bit of both. And I think that's beautiful!
Very true! I’m trying to come up with something that’s a mix of both myself. Harder than it seems and harder now that I’ve publicly set strict rules for myself. Glad I could reacquaint you!
Wearing the Cape, by Marion G. Harmon, is a superhero book that I believe follows the fantasy definition here. It's the modern world but with an "Event" that introduces superpowers only a few years prior to the events of the book. But the focus is on the main character and her human experience.
I haven't read it in a while. I just know that the characters feel like actual people? I'm not great at picking out themes. The most memorable part of the characters, I think, is that they make some not great decisions at times. (Example: best friend of main character suicided, but not because she wanted to die: she knew that near-death experiences could give you superpowers.)
I think that's a pretty good quick summary. The pedant in me wants to add the emphasis on the human experience, but I think this gets pretty close to the spirit of it.
Have your read "A Canticle for Leibowitz"? What Is it? It's labelled as "post-apocalyptic social science fiction." I'd love to hear your take. It's one of my favorite novels, and I get the impression it's wildly under appreciated.
Chock-full of memorable characters, dialogue and scenarios. It uses a three part structure that effectively captures mankind’s fallen nature resulting in history repeating itself while being hilarious and entertaining.
Good analysis! Though I’d argue, as another commenter has done, that there isn’t always a strict line between the genres. I should read more UKLG, I’ve read the Earthsea books multiple times but never her more adult-oriented novels or essays.
A sci-fi book I came to only recently, though it’s not a new one, is The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, and its sequel Children of God. It’s “what if” isn’t a new one - “What if we discovered aliens on another planet? What if we visited them?” But the way she explores that, from the point of view of a Jesuit mission and what the experience does to one man in particular, is masterful. Theological questions, suffering, cross-cultural misunderstandings, effects of time dilation, all in there. One of my favourite things I’ve ever read (including the sequel, it’s one of those stories where I feel the sequel is really essential to read too).
I highly recommend it. It’s much more complex and nuanced than “let’s evangelize the aliens” and the consequences are, well, you have to read it to find out 😉
What a wonderful essay. I see SFF the same way, and yes, I think of Star Wars as fantasy too.
Indeed, in the fantasy epic I am serializing, I have much to say about our world, and I intend to write essays about my intentions when the serializing is done. For now, I hope to make my readers better people even without their realizing it. Or at least just have a rousing good time reading.
I loved this essay and it echoes a lot of what I've been thinking about the genre's as well. More than that it makes me want to read Ursula Le Guin even more.
This is a fantastic analysis/exploration! I haven't read as much Le Guin as I should - I've tried and can't get into her fiction, but I've enjoyed recently reading her non-fiction. She has some great thoughts on sf and fantasy, and I enjoyed your post's application of them. I also appreciate your footnote on Le Guin and LoTR. In the afterword to the first Earthsea book, she mentions LoTR as an example of dualism (among other things that I disagree with), and I appreciate you pointing out the nuance in the trilogy while still using her thoughts.
Slightly unrelated, but since you included the old magazines when comparing to your differentiations of sf and fantasy, I thought you might be interested (if you haven't seen them before) in how two magazines described fantasy and sf:
The editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, in the introduction of its first issue (back in 1949!) described fantasy as "whatever our senses may reject, but our imagination logically accepts."
And Galaxy Science Fiction - which was made specifically with the goal of catching serious, high-quality sf and improving the state of sf magazines at the time (Le Guin wasn't the only one upset at the cheap state of sf tales from those days!) - mentions in 1950 magazine issue 2:
"GALAXY Science Fiction WILL familiarize you with the latest, most profound, most thought-stimulating concepts of science. They WILL introduce you to real people, genuine and believable human beings - and non-human beings, of course - in situations that are made logically, intelligently plausible. And why shouldn’t they be? The situations are extensions of present knowledge…Intellectual honesty, emotional credibility, scientific realism…these are the criteria on which stories are written and bought for GALAXY Science Fiction."
I have actually also been working on a post that also discusses where Star Wars fits in science fiction and fantasy(!), although I was mostly using it to propose that Doctor Who and Star Wars share the same genre. I planned to make it a short post, but yours inspired me to try and fit some more analysis and explanation into mine. Looking forward to your future things!
One last thing: The same issue of the Magazine of SF&F went out of its way to call Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (among others) an "anti-science fiction." I think the term is interesting because although I would consider BNW a science fiction under your terms, your definition stays neutral and doesn't differentiate between the scientific 'what if's' and purposefully dystopian musings. Then again, would you consider dystopians as 'set in our own world,' as your definition states, or in some related-but-not-quite parallel dimension?
I love those definitions especially the sci-fi one. I have a lot of respect for authors and publications that reject the surface-level popular in favor of the meaningful--that editor has got their head screwed on straight!
Will follow you to check out your SW post when it comes out.
BNW is a tough one. My gut tells me it's an extrapolative exploration of what our world might look if certain trends continue, which would fall into my definition--there are elements in it that suggest it's our world in the future. For that matter, The Hunger Games falls in there too. But both of these fall into the utopia/dystopia genre of writing as well. Nice examples of cross genre work. Now I need to find a cross genre sci-fi/fantasy story.
Interesting details about the magazines! I’m currently working in China, and SF here is (or has traditionally been) seen as a means of popularizing science. So there is actually government support (funding, official conferences and associations) for SF as a tool of science communication. It sounds a lot like what GALAXY magazine was doing back in the day.
Interesting. I did not know that. I have tried and failed to get grant funding for educational SF on a number of occasions here in the USA. Though my own schooling was full of SF: "Arena," "Harrison Bergeron," lots of short stories in Weekly Reader magazine and classroom anthologies.
Thank you so much for writing this. I really appreciate how you dig into the substance of why we read and what it means, even what it means that we read and write what we do. It’s a very tricky thing to write about, and I think you’re doing a fantastic job.
One thing that fascinates me about sci-fi in particular, which I really appreciate you defining, is how different people can look at it and project it onto our modern reality in different ways. For instance, we all read Animal Farm and imagine the pigs as very different people and organizations in the real world.
I tried to write a bit about this in a recent post called “Are we reading the same book?” I would love to hear your thoughts on that piece.
Lastly, I just finished reading Daniel Nayeri‘s book, “Everything sad is untrue,” in which he talks about Myth stories vs Hero stories vs History, and the power of all stories to define our everyday existence. If you’re looking for a great audiobook this summer, I highly recommend it.
Thanks, Tara! I appreciate the insight and thoughts here. I'm going to save your article and give it a read as soon as I get a chance. From the title alone, I already know I'm going to enjoy it. And thanks for the book recommendations. Added it to my wishlist. :)
I enjoyed this. As someone who is currently writing a sci-fi(ish) novel, this is why I prefer to characterise it was speculative fiction. While I generally agree with your definition and think that my story conforms to sci-fi in almost all areas, I know personal definitions vary and it's difficult to get everyone on side!
Thanks for reading, Lucy. I really wish there was just a big "Speculative" section at bookstores. It'd feel less like we were all acquiescing to surface-level characteristics. But I've only ever really heard super book nerds or authors use the term; I'm hoping it'll catch on. And, yeah, definitions do vary. UKLG is not infallible, and the biggest challenge is that genres change over time. We shall see what the next waves look like.
tl;dr Science fiction is about thought experiments. Fantasy is about recontextualizing human experience so that you see it in a new light. Seems legit!
Thank you for writing this. Sometimes I feel like what I'm writing isn't Sci fi because sometimes it seems to be a boy's club of trope trumps but this essay throws me back in to what I'm doing. It is Sci fi. Same with fantasy. This was a really refreshing essay.
I’m glad it helped. UKLG is always good medicine when writing in these genres.
Yes, agreed. Thank you for the reminder because it's been a long time since I read anything from Ursula!
First off, thank you! I had read A Wizard of Earthsea in like elementary school and it haa always stuck in memory but I could never remember the name!
Excellent distinctions and definitions all around. Very well put. I have to say, though, that as with all art the lines are never fully distinct. Because with both sci-fi and fantasy you (and Ursula K. Le Guin) point out the focus on the personal connection. Sci-fi is useless without being grounded in people that think and feel and act like real people. And likewise, fantasy also needs that human connection to really matter. And so sometimes you come up with something that's a bit of both. And I think that's beautiful!
Very true! I’m trying to come up with something that’s a mix of both myself. Harder than it seems and harder now that I’ve publicly set strict rules for myself. Glad I could reacquaint you!
Wearing the Cape, by Marion G. Harmon, is a superhero book that I believe follows the fantasy definition here. It's the modern world but with an "Event" that introduces superpowers only a few years prior to the events of the book. But the focus is on the main character and her human experience.
I think that's great. What aspect of the human experience did she focus on (if she did)?
I guess I'm just asking what the theme was (in kind of a roundabout way).
Uuhhhh...
I haven't read it in a while. I just know that the characters feel like actual people? I'm not great at picking out themes. The most memorable part of the characters, I think, is that they make some not great decisions at times. (Example: best friend of main character suicided, but not because she wanted to die: she knew that near-death experiences could give you superpowers.)
Enjoyed this, thank you
Would it be correct to summarize your essay as follows?
Sci-Fi: Asking what would happen if ...
Fantasy: The hero's journey
I think that's a pretty good quick summary. The pedant in me wants to add the emphasis on the human experience, but I think this gets pretty close to the spirit of it.
Thanks for sharing.
Have your read "A Canticle for Leibowitz"? What Is it? It's labelled as "post-apocalyptic social science fiction." I'd love to hear your take. It's one of my favorite novels, and I get the impression it's wildly under appreciated.
I haven’t but I’ll add it to my list. What do you like about it?
Chock-full of memorable characters, dialogue and scenarios. It uses a three part structure that effectively captures mankind’s fallen nature resulting in history repeating itself while being hilarious and entertaining.
Good analysis! Though I’d argue, as another commenter has done, that there isn’t always a strict line between the genres. I should read more UKLG, I’ve read the Earthsea books multiple times but never her more adult-oriented novels or essays.
A sci-fi book I came to only recently, though it’s not a new one, is The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, and its sequel Children of God. It’s “what if” isn’t a new one - “What if we discovered aliens on another planet? What if we visited them?” But the way she explores that, from the point of view of a Jesuit mission and what the experience does to one man in particular, is masterful. Theological questions, suffering, cross-cultural misunderstandings, effects of time dilation, all in there. One of my favourite things I’ve ever read (including the sequel, it’s one of those stories where I feel the sequel is really essential to read too).
I don't know, the idea of discovering aliens and then evangelizing them--that's a new one for me, and I'm very intrigued. Added it to my list.
I highly recommend it. It’s much more complex and nuanced than “let’s evangelize the aliens” and the consequences are, well, you have to read it to find out 😉
Loved the first, the second much less.
What a wonderful essay. I see SFF the same way, and yes, I think of Star Wars as fantasy too.
Indeed, in the fantasy epic I am serializing, I have much to say about our world, and I intend to write essays about my intentions when the serializing is done. For now, I hope to make my readers better people even without their realizing it. Or at least just have a rousing good time reading.
Love it. I’m curious about serials on Substack so I’ll check it out.
Serialists are a growing segment. I enjoy reading and writing them. I feel more engaged with the story experience.
Oh wait I was already subscribed. Now to read more of it.
I loved this essay and it echoes a lot of what I've been thinking about the genre's as well. More than that it makes me want to read Ursula Le Guin even more.
Mission accomplished! Thanks for reading. But yeah you’ll enjoy reading her even more.
This is a fantastic analysis/exploration! I haven't read as much Le Guin as I should - I've tried and can't get into her fiction, but I've enjoyed recently reading her non-fiction. She has some great thoughts on sf and fantasy, and I enjoyed your post's application of them. I also appreciate your footnote on Le Guin and LoTR. In the afterword to the first Earthsea book, she mentions LoTR as an example of dualism (among other things that I disagree with), and I appreciate you pointing out the nuance in the trilogy while still using her thoughts.
Slightly unrelated, but since you included the old magazines when comparing to your differentiations of sf and fantasy, I thought you might be interested (if you haven't seen them before) in how two magazines described fantasy and sf:
The editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, in the introduction of its first issue (back in 1949!) described fantasy as "whatever our senses may reject, but our imagination logically accepts."
And Galaxy Science Fiction - which was made specifically with the goal of catching serious, high-quality sf and improving the state of sf magazines at the time (Le Guin wasn't the only one upset at the cheap state of sf tales from those days!) - mentions in 1950 magazine issue 2:
"GALAXY Science Fiction WILL familiarize you with the latest, most profound, most thought-stimulating concepts of science. They WILL introduce you to real people, genuine and believable human beings - and non-human beings, of course - in situations that are made logically, intelligently plausible. And why shouldn’t they be? The situations are extensions of present knowledge…Intellectual honesty, emotional credibility, scientific realism…these are the criteria on which stories are written and bought for GALAXY Science Fiction."
I have actually also been working on a post that also discusses where Star Wars fits in science fiction and fantasy(!), although I was mostly using it to propose that Doctor Who and Star Wars share the same genre. I planned to make it a short post, but yours inspired me to try and fit some more analysis and explanation into mine. Looking forward to your future things!
One last thing: The same issue of the Magazine of SF&F went out of its way to call Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (among others) an "anti-science fiction." I think the term is interesting because although I would consider BNW a science fiction under your terms, your definition stays neutral and doesn't differentiate between the scientific 'what if's' and purposefully dystopian musings. Then again, would you consider dystopians as 'set in our own world,' as your definition states, or in some related-but-not-quite parallel dimension?
I love those definitions especially the sci-fi one. I have a lot of respect for authors and publications that reject the surface-level popular in favor of the meaningful--that editor has got their head screwed on straight!
Will follow you to check out your SW post when it comes out.
BNW is a tough one. My gut tells me it's an extrapolative exploration of what our world might look if certain trends continue, which would fall into my definition--there are elements in it that suggest it's our world in the future. For that matter, The Hunger Games falls in there too. But both of these fall into the utopia/dystopia genre of writing as well. Nice examples of cross genre work. Now I need to find a cross genre sci-fi/fantasy story.
Interesting details about the magazines! I’m currently working in China, and SF here is (or has traditionally been) seen as a means of popularizing science. So there is actually government support (funding, official conferences and associations) for SF as a tool of science communication. It sounds a lot like what GALAXY magazine was doing back in the day.
Interesting. I did not know that. I have tried and failed to get grant funding for educational SF on a number of occasions here in the USA. Though my own schooling was full of SF: "Arena," "Harrison Bergeron," lots of short stories in Weekly Reader magazine and classroom anthologies.
Excellent analysis!
Thanks!
I've always sort of considered Star Wars to Space Opera. It is a fantasy, of sorts, but set in the future instead of the past.
Which makes it even cooler than just being a run of the mill sci-fi like most people want it to be.
Thank you so much for writing this. I really appreciate how you dig into the substance of why we read and what it means, even what it means that we read and write what we do. It’s a very tricky thing to write about, and I think you’re doing a fantastic job.
One thing that fascinates me about sci-fi in particular, which I really appreciate you defining, is how different people can look at it and project it onto our modern reality in different ways. For instance, we all read Animal Farm and imagine the pigs as very different people and organizations in the real world.
I tried to write a bit about this in a recent post called “Are we reading the same book?” I would love to hear your thoughts on that piece.
Lastly, I just finished reading Daniel Nayeri‘s book, “Everything sad is untrue,” in which he talks about Myth stories vs Hero stories vs History, and the power of all stories to define our everyday existence. If you’re looking for a great audiobook this summer, I highly recommend it.
Thanks, Tara! I appreciate the insight and thoughts here. I'm going to save your article and give it a read as soon as I get a chance. From the title alone, I already know I'm going to enjoy it. And thanks for the book recommendations. Added it to my wishlist. :)
One of my favorites I would say is the opposite of Star Wars, namely SF using fantasy tropes -- Larry Niven's THE MAGIC GOES AWAY.
Adding to my Thrift Books Wishlist!
Some editions have b&w illustrations by Esteban Maroto!
There's also a graphic novel version drawn by Jan Duursema (if I remember right).