Science fantasy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
 |
This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please improve the article by adding references. See the talk page for details. (September 2007) |
- For the magazine of the same name, see Science Fantasy (magazine).
Science fantasy is a mixed genre of story which contains some science fiction and some fantasy elements.
Contents |
[edit] Science fantasy vs. science fiction
A definition, offered by Rod Serling, is that "science fiction makes the implausible possible, while science fantasy makes the impossible plausible." The meaning is that science fiction describes unlikely things that could possibly take place in the real world under certain conditions, while science fantasy gives a veneer of realism to things that simply could not happen in the real world under any circumstances. Another interpretation is that science fiction does not permit the existence of supernatural elements; science fantasy does. Even the usage of this definition is difficult, however, as some science fiction makes use of apparently supernatural elements such as telepathy.
For many users of the term, however, "science fantasy" is either a science fiction story that has drifted far enough from reality to "feel" like a fantasy, or a fantasy story that is attempting to be science fiction. While these are in theory classifiable as different approaches, and thus different genres (fantastic science fiction vs. scientific fantasy), the end products are sometimes indistinguishable.
Arthur C. Clarke's dictum that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" indicates why this is so: a writer can write a fantasy using magic of various sorts, and yet turn the story into science fiction by positing some highly advanced technology, or as-yet-unknown but ultimately thoroughly provable science, as an explanation for how the magic can occur. Another writer can describe a future world where technologies are so advanced to be invisible, and the effects produced would be classified as magical if they were only described as such. A world might include magic which only some people (or only the reader) know to be in fact technological effects.
There is therefore nothing intrinsic about the effects described in a given story that will tell you whether it is science fiction or fantasy. The classification of an effect as "fantastic" or "science fictional" is a matter of convention. Hyperspace, time machines and scientists are conventions of science fiction; flying carpets, magical amulets and wizards are tropes of fantasy. This is an accident of the historical development of the genre. In some cases they have overlapped: teleportation by matter-transmitter-beam is science fiction, teleportation by incantation is fantasy. A hand-held cloaking device that confers invisibility is science fiction; a hand-held Ring of Power that confers invisibility is fantasy. Mind-to-mind communication can be "psionics", or it can be an ancient elvish art. What matters is not the effect itself (generally scientifically impossible, though not always believed to be so by the authors) but the wider universe it is intended to evoke. If it is one of space travel and proton-pistols, it gets classified as "science fiction", and the appropriate terms (cloaking device, matter-transmitter) are used; if it is one of castles, sailing ships and swords, it gets classified as "fantasy", and we instead speak of magic rings and travel by enchantment. In short, science fiction uses technology to explain impossible phenomena while fantasy employs magic.
Drawing the line between science fiction and fantasy is not made any clearer by the fact that both of them can use invented worlds, non-human intelligent creatures (sometimes, in sf as well as fantasy, based on myth: consider C. L. Moore's Shambleau and Yvala), and amazing monsters. It is, to a large extent, authorial fiat that tells us that C. S. Lewis' Narnia books are set in a fantasy world rather than on another planet.
Even archaism, one of the strongest conventional marks of fantasy, is not an infallible distinguishing characteristic: an archaic world of edged weapons and battlemented fortresses could simply be another planet that has entered a stage of barbarism, or has never emerged from it. Some of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books represent just such a world, complete with technology-indistinguishable-from-magic. (It is this, as much as the "dragons", that leads some readers to perceive McCaffrey's Pern series as fantasy, in spite of the science-fictional setting established in the first paragraphs of the first book.)
[edit] Historical view
The label first came into wide use after many science fantasy stories were published in the pulp magazines, such as Robert A. Heinlein's Magic, Inc. and L. Ron Hubbard's Slaves of Sleep. Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp produced the Harold Shea series. All were relatively rationalistic stories published in John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Unknown Magazine. These were a deliberate attempt to apply the techniques and attitudes of Science Fiction to traditional fantasy and legendary subjects. The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published, among other things, all but the last of the Operation series, by Poul Anderson.
Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore published novels in Startling Stories, alone and together, which were far more romantic. These were closely related to the work that they and others were doing for outlets like Weird Tales, such as Moore's Northwest Smith stories cited above.
Early science fiction book publisher Gnome Press published Robert E. Howard's Conan the Conqueror in hardback in 1950 with the book clearly labeled "science fantasy" on the dustjacket.
Ace Books published a number of books as science fantasy during the 1950s and '60s. Many of them, such as Leigh Brackett's Mars stories, are still regarded as such. Conan the Conqueror was published as an Ace Double with Brackett's Sword of Rhiannon. Others, such as Andre Norton's Witch World books, are now considered outright fantasy. Mercedes Lackey has discussed this period in her recent introduction to an omnibus edition of the first three Witch World books. In the U.S. at that time, these were almost the only stories which used that label.
[edit] Subgenres of science fantasy
[edit] Dying Earth
Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories are sometimes classed as science fantasy because the cosmology used is not compatible with that conventionally accepted by science fiction. Other stories in the Dying Earth subgenre such as M. John Harrison's Viriconium novels or Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun are usually classed as science fantasy.
[edit] Planetary romance
The planetary romance, a story set primarily or wholly on a single planet and illustrating its scenery, native peoples (if any) and cultures, offers considerable scope for science fantasy, in the sense of fantasy rationalized by reference to science-fictional conventions.
David Lindsay's A Voyage to Arcturus, published in 1920 is one of the earliest examples of the type, although it differs from most of them in not assuming a science-fictional background of interplanetary or interstellar travel; it is rather a philosophical romance, which uses an alien planet as a background for exploring philosophical themes. C. S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet (1938) is an example of the same type of story, though in its case the preoccupations are theological. In both cases the magical elements are barely rationalized, and in Lewis' case stand in stark contrast to the pseudo-scientific machinery that frames the story.
C. L. Moore's Northwest Smith stories fall squarely into the fantasy/horror camp, but utilize a space opera–like frame and various pseudo-scientific rationalization: god or monster as powerful alien for instance.
Some of Leigh Brackett's stories set on Mars and Venus might be regarded as science fantasy, especially those which occur in distant and barbarous parts of the planets, such as People of the Talisman and The Moon that Vanished. Other stories set on the same worlds contain far more science fictional tropes. All of Brackett's stories imply that a rational, scientific explanation for such things as mind-transmission and the ability to create visible illusions is available somewhere, but the explanations are generally assumed rather than attempted.
Frank Herbert's Dune novels are also classed by some as science fantasy, probably because his Arrakis dispenses with many (but not all) of the technological ornaments that conventionally mark a story as "science fiction"; however, his scientifically impossible concepts (like prescience and genetic memory) were staples in mainstream science fiction for many years. The use of swords and other bladed weapons was explained because of the Holtzman effect: when a lasgun is fired at an energy shield in the Dune universe it results in a sub-atomic explosion.
Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels are persistently but falsely branded as examples of science fantasy, the former largely because of its use of a creature called by the name of the fantasy-icon "dragon" at the center of the stories, the latter because psionic powers regarded by the locals as a form of magic are a central element. Both are based firmly on standard science fiction themes, and both share the concept of long-lost Earth expeditions that had peopled their respective planets, and over time had regressed to a quasi-medieval state of life.
Some examples of this type of science fantasy deliberately blur the already vague distinction between science fictional paranormal powers and magic; for instance, Poul Anderson's The Queen of Air and Darkness, in which aliens use psionic powers of illusion to imitate earthly myths of fairies—who are themselves traditionally regarded as magical illusionists.
[edit] SF otherworlds
Some science fantasies use fantasy worlds with the thinnest veneer of science fictional trappings, only distinguishable with difficulty from standard fantasy. An early example of this type is Eric Rücker Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros, nominally set on the planet Mercury, but a Mercury that is indistinguishable in any way from a fantasy Earth. This work may be considered a borderline case.
In Andre Norton's Witch World series, the fantasy world is excused as a parallel universe. There are a few science fictional elements in the earlier stories of this series, which are absent from the later novels.
Terry Brooks' Shannara books represent the fantasy world as the far future of a lost technological civilization (thus sharing some features with the Dying Earth subgenre).
[edit] Space opera
Space opera is not normally thought of as science fantasy, but some examples of space opera invoke vaguely explained, or completely unexplained paranormal powers, common in science fiction, which some think approximate magic closely enough to make the story fantastic. These include George Lucas' Star Wars franchise. Magic plays a major role in the Outlaw Star anime series.
E. E. Smith's Lensman series, which some might call science fantasy, historically was never considered other than science fiction, since (unlike Lucas) Smith gave its paranormal mental powers a carefully rationalized scientific veneer and, in addition, they were completely in accord with accepted conventions of science fiction.
[edit] Sword and planet
Many works by Edgar Rice Burroughs fall into this category, as well as those of his imitators such as Otis Adelbert Kline, Kenneth Bulmer, Lin Carter, and John Norman. They are largely classed as "science fantasy" because of the presence of swords and, usually, an archaic aristocratic social system; Burroughs' own novels are, however, skeptical in spirit and almost free of any non-rationalized "fantastic" element (other than the never-explained mechanism by which John Carter gets to Mars).
[edit] Magic science
A "magic science" story is a story where magic has replaced or become synonymous with technology. An excellent example would be the magitechnology of the Tales of Symphonia game, as well as the Eberron Campaign Setting for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game or the Warhammer 40,000 campaign setting (although 40K does not use "magic", much of humanity can only rationalize the physics-defying Immaterium as magic). These stories usually combine archaic elements such as swords and other low-tech weaponry with high-tech elements such as flying vehicles or power generators. The most popular Square Enix games can also be considered in the genre of magic science, as there are many advances in technology (i.e. hi-tech airships, advanced armour and weapon technology, enormous technological cities) as well as the use of magic. Yet another magic science series is the Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony. The Incarnations of Immortality takes place in a reality where magic and science co-exist. In addition, many classical personalities (such as Death, Fate, Time and others) are anthropomorphised and function as major characters.
[edit] Other subgenres
Science fantasy is sometimes used to refer to a fantasy story in which the fantastic elements are presented as compatible with real-world science, in contrast to fantasies in which the fantastic only needs to have its own internal logic. Classic examples are Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions, in which petrification means danger because turning carbon to silicon results in a radioactive isotope, and his Operation Chaos, where werewolves and other lycanthropes are the same size in human and animal form, owing to conservation of mass.
An example of science fantasy in television is the cartoon Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, which combined alien fiction, sword and sorcery, magic, technology and the superhero genre—all of them rolled into one coherent vision. Another example is the worlds depicted in the Masters of the Universe franchise.
Science fantasy is also a popular subject for role-playing games, of both pen-and-paper and computer varieties. Examples include the Rifts, Fading Suns, Shadowrun and Dragonstar role-playing games, a number of Square Enix/Square Co. games, and the Phantasy Star series.
[edit] References
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
