Fansion: The Blurring of Fantasy and Science Fiction

 Is it Just Me?

Over the past three or four years, I've become increasingly confused by the merge of science fiction and fantasy. Perhaps it's been happening before, but I hadn't noticed it. And it does seem to me an insult to either genre that, somehow, one is mingled with the other. It’s as if they both need validation because neither one can stand on its own. And then to make matters worse, there are subgenres within each genre, and these are also being merged. What we end up with is that hard science fiction is what would normally be termed high fantasy or vice versa.

Lost in Outer Fantasy Space

What do I mean by this? Simply that too often I’m seeing stories presented as hard science fiction, when really what they are doing is building. They’re building a fantasy world that is set in space. And I don't mean that you have elves flying around with lasers and swords that emit beams of cosmic light.

I mean that they have an intricate description of everything within that world. Worlds that would not normally be seen as feasible if you follow the rules of hard science fiction.

Or perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps that is hard science fiction.

Hard science fiction extrapolates existing physics into what could feasibly be imagined. I do consider some writers to be indulging in wishful thinking by calling their work hard science fiction - and the genre itself is somewhat up its own derriere at times.

However, this doesn't mean that I can make up an alien from the Planet Zorg, go into details about its life, village, country, practices, literature and make that hard science fiction. Or perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps that is hard science fiction.

In the real word, the term fantasy is seen as the product of a schizophrenic mind, a drug induced vision, or poor mental illness.

Did anyone say Dune? But to me that comes across more as fantasy, and I think give fantasy its due in that sense. Let's have hard fantasy. I don't see that term anywhere. There is this element of elitism around science fiction. Why not around fantasy?

You're Fantasizing!

After all, fantasy is a very difficult area to make seem real for a reader. Far more than science fiction because science fiction already has a foundation in the real world. Fantasy does not. In the real word, the term fantasy is seen as the product of a schizophrenic mind, a drug induced vision, or poor mental illness. “Oh, you're fantasizing!”

Nowhere in the real world does fantasy have anything that we can say is a respectable basis from which to grow. It remains embedded in Once Upon a Time zone of writing. And yes I know there's high fantasy, or even science fantasy - but does it have quite the same elan as hard fantasy? I think not. So hard fantasy is, to me, far more elitist in that sense. And certainly should be given its due and not attempted to slide over into hard science fiction. That’s just my two cents.

At this stage (too late?), I will say that I write hard science fiction, soft science fiction, and fantasy. I have no need to put one genre above the other: they all stand on their own merit. Is the story enjoyable? That's the litmus test.

Let's see what the next great merger is in fiction. Anyone for Western and Fantasy?