Fiction, Fantasy and Sci-Fi
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 3:27 pm
Gaiman speaks of this in his intro . . . what do you think the difference between fantasy and fiction is?
In his opinion 'fantasy is fiction'. I agree with that; to my way of thinking if you have 'made up' a story, you have written fiction and fantasy at the same time.
If you really want to bring it together in a very tight nutshell, you might consider that 'fantasy' has to be fiction flavoured (or favoured) with the supernatural.
You might say fiction has to have some 'unlikely' event or situation written into it.
Were I to write of today's breakfast at The Grille (a place in west Toronto), I would write that we turned left from the parking lot, headed east along the Queensway, hung a left at Parkside, a right at the lights and on to Indian Road where we headed north to our apartment building.
Had I added something to that, such as 'I opened the window and my arm was taken off by a passing truck', that would be fiction.
Had that actually happened it would be an 'account'.
Had I invented an interesting alien creature who descended on us from nowhere and removed our radio antennae, then it would be fantasy.
Had I mentioned that the alien had used the overhead cameras on the light poles to assist in such theft, it would be sci fi.
That's the way I see it.
But what about you?
(I think this topic needs a thread on its own, which is why I have created this one)
In his opinion 'fantasy is fiction'. I agree with that; to my way of thinking if you have 'made up' a story, you have written fiction and fantasy at the same time.
If you really want to bring it together in a very tight nutshell, you might consider that 'fantasy' has to be fiction flavoured (or favoured) with the supernatural.
You might say fiction has to have some 'unlikely' event or situation written into it.
Were I to write of today's breakfast at The Grille (a place in west Toronto), I would write that we turned left from the parking lot, headed east along the Queensway, hung a left at Parkside, a right at the lights and on to Indian Road where we headed north to our apartment building.
Had I added something to that, such as 'I opened the window and my arm was taken off by a passing truck', that would be fiction.
Had that actually happened it would be an 'account'.
Had I invented an interesting alien creature who descended on us from nowhere and removed our radio antennae, then it would be fantasy.
Had I mentioned that the alien had used the overhead cameras on the light poles to assist in such theft, it would be sci fi.
That's the way I see it.
But what about you?
(I think this topic needs a thread on its own, which is why I have created this one)