Separating the F from the SF in SF/F
On defining a difference between science-fiction and fantasy
I can’t say that it’s a universal thing, but pretty much every bookshop I’ve ever visited has a single, joint section for science-fiction and fantasy. As a community we tend to talk about SF/F as a genre, although sometimes we drop the slash and just say SFF. I myself say that I’m an SF/F author, since though I’ve always thought of myself as a science-fiction fan, the four novels I’ve written are actually fantasy.
This isn’t surprising. Defining science-fiction and fantasy is notoriously hard, which will by definition make defining a dividing line between them equally hard. But I’m always up for a challenge, so here’s my attempt.
Science-fiction creates different worlds that could be; fantasy reimagines the world we have.
Now that might sound confusing, given that SF is normally set in our universe, where Earth exists, while fantasy is typically set in some other universe, where Earth never existed. So just what do I mean by that definition? Well imagine two separate novel projects.
Both are set on worlds that are not our world, in universes that are not our universes. In both, the “physics” of the universe allows manipulation by word and action that in the setting is termed magic. The settings of both novels feature fantastic creatures, some of which are infused with that magic. But one of those novels is written as science-fiction, the other as fantasy.
So here’s a question: can those novels include phoenixes in their setting?
For the science-fiction novel, the answer is no. Phoenixes are a Greco-Egyptian myth from our world, and this is not our world. The presence of phoenixes would be a complete anachronism.
But for the fantasy novel, the answer is yes. True, its setting is not our world, but it can use our world as a toolkit to be rummaged through and plagiarised. Anything in our world is fair game, not only the things that exist or have existed, but the things that don’t and never did. The myths. The stories. The legends. Phoenixes. And elves, and dwarves, and fairy circles, and vampires, and ley lines, and Nordic types whose martial arts involve shield biting.
So that’s my suggested difference. What do you think?
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