Damien Valentine <valends3@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Ben:
> > Huh? Watership Down has talking rabbits, so it's inconsistent with
> > what we know about science.
> So are lightsabers and time machines. "Watership" would be "soft" sci-
> fi (if not downright "cuddly"), based around the biology of British
> rabbits and other local organisms, with their common sapience as the
> fictional element. (Even the rabbit culture and language Adams
> proposes could be tied in with, say, anthropology or linguistics.)
There's a point where the science is so 'soft' that you just have
to call it fantasy. In addition to talking rabbits, Watership Down has
a ghostly black rabbit of death and a more-or-less active sun god. It's
a fairy tale, and falls squarely in the fantasy genre.
> Well, that's the problem, isn't it? What counts as a "genuine"
> science fiction story? What criteria are we going to use to let
> Heinlein in -- who's using physics and astronomy "just as tools to put
> the characters in...a story about psychology, sociology, and biology"
> -- and the kick the guys who write ER episodes out -- who're using
> medicine "just as tools to..." etc.? Because so far we've just got
> "science fiction is fiction that has some kind of science in it,
> somewhere, for some reason".
For what it's worth, I've been using the following definitions:
Fantasy assumes that the reader will suspend disbelief when presented
with common tropes. ("Okay, it's an elf with a magic sword.")
Soft science fiction uses established sci-fi tropes to create
suspension of disbelief in the reader. ("So he looks like an elf because
of genetic manipulation. Okay, I'll buy that.") Where the tropes do not
exist, 'soft' science fiction makes no attempt to explain them. ("And
the sword has computer-aided swinging action? Um, all right.")
Hard science fiction works hard to suspend disbelief in the reader,
working from scientific principles that we know are true today.
("The pointy ears are chimeric cartilage, altered in utero by that sect of
star-trek worshipping wackjobs that he grew up in. And the sword uses
liquid gallium-filled chambers, controlled by magnetic actuators that
enhance balance and increase the power of any swing. Cool!")
To summarize: Hard science fiction earns every ounce of disbelief it
gets. Fantasy relies on the readers to be willing participants in the
suspension of disbelief. And soft science fiction falls in between,
relying
on the fact that previous sci-fi stories have recognizable components that
readers will latch onto if given the chance.
.... ...
Remus Shepherd <remus@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/remus_shepherd/
Comic: http://indepos.comicgenesis.com/
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