genre fiction

[snugglekitty]

I know I have a lot of genre fiction fans out there.

So. In your opinion, what is the difference between speculative fiction, fantasy, and science fiction?



In my world, spec fic includes both fantasy and science fiction. But, in this latter day of genre fiction, where space opera often features telepaths and fantasy sometimes explores technological ideas, I think it's increasingly difficult to draw that line.

What prompted this post is that I'm reading Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy, and while I think it's the best anthology I've read in a long time, I'm not sure that I think that all of the stories in it are fantasy stories. But, on further examination, I wasn't sure why I thought that. What markers tell you how to label a genre fiction story or book?

Comments

[coraline]

i try to avoid the labeling, because as you've pointed out, it's really just too fluid and overlappy to make distinctions make much sense.
which isn't a very useful answer, but it's how i view it from over here.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

Hmm, interesting. I guess it depends on the focus of the book. Fantasy, for me, has a focus on elves or dragons or whatever, even if said dragons have been genetically engineered or are in outer space. For example, Anne McCaffrey's Pern is a fantasy series, to me. I think of sci fi as having a primary focus on technology or space or robots or *science*, so a lot of McCaffrey's other fiction I think of as sci fi. I'll only mentally file something as speculative if it really doesn't fit in either category well, like Kelly Link's short stories, which cross fantasy and sci fi with horror and myth and tons of other stuff.

[lady-anemone.livejournal.com]

Primary focus. Hmm. Yeah. That makes sense. :)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. :)