Being born in the late seventies had rendered me on the dirty end of the stick:  I missed the Golden Age of Science Fiction by several decades! I missed Isaac Asimov's debut, Heinlein's evolved genius. The introduction of the vacuum tube space rockets and grandiose megalomaniacs, Earthlings and Martians, walking garbage cans called robots. . .  the good ol' days of Sci-Fi. The time when Science Fiction and Adventure shared the same rack if not the same pulp magazine pages.

     Yet, I was born in the year of Star Wars. The Fantasy tale of a farm boy hero, a wizard, a pirate, a princess, and an evil overlord. . .

     Oops, that was Science Fiction, wasn't it? Sure. "A long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. . ." told us to expect a space epic, and it also told us the story is an old one, passed down through the centuries like our fairy tales. As a matter of fact, where does the Science-Fiction end and Fantasy begin? Of course we have the Death Star and multiple 'droids, but what about the "Force"? Heck, what of the whole concept of an intergalactic war in some far-off galaxy? Pure Fantasy, we haven't seen it in our reality (yet). In fact, wouldn't Science Fiction be classified as a branch-off of Fantasy?

     What are our definitions of Fantasy in general? Most likely, you would have answered with at least one of the following: wizards, dragons, fairies, witches, giants, sword and sorcery, fantastical creatures, and maybe even talking animals. All right now; how many Science Fiction titles below have, what is deemed, Fantasy elements?

Star Wars   --- George Lucas         Dune   --- Frank Herbert         Callahan's Crosstime Saloon               --- Spider Robinson         Stranger in a Strange Land               --- Robert A. Heinlein         "Star Trek" (all the series)               --- Gene Roddenberry         A Wrinkle in Time               --- Madeline L'Engle         The Fifth Element               --- Luc Besson         Contact   --- Carl Sagan               (by author's own admission)         Dawn   --- Octavia E. Butler         War of the Worlds               --- H.G. Wells         Anything written by Jules Verne

Tie Fighters Above Golden Sea

     Only a sample of many titles and authors who have blurred the boundaries between Science Fiction and Fantasy.

     I never thought there was anything wrong with the marriage of the two. My earliest memories were watching the cartoon show "He-Man":  a universe where sorcery and machinery (mecha) lived side by side, taken as is. I was fascinated by this world where the Queen is an alien (actually an Earthling) whose ship had crashed on another planet, taken as a wife by a King, and birthed a set of twins who have the power to change into a Barbarian warrior and a Valkyrie warrioress. How cheesy is that? Ah, but, the crossing of the two genres was a step in the right direction!

Dragon Fire

I began writing at eleven, creating modern day Fantasy and Science Fiction. My stories volleyed between the two, a little Horror, a little Mystery; trying to find my niche in a genre I was comfortable with. When I was fourteen, Heinlein changed my life. He had been dead for nearly three years when a relative handed me a worn copy of The Star Beast and said, "Have fun, Jill," grinning like the Cheshire Cat.      I ate up The Star Beast with relish, and found my calling:  a writer of Science Fiction and Fantasy cross-genre. Hey, why not? The above examples proved it was possible, even marketable.      But what was the trick?

     We've answered that ourselves through the decades. Fifty -- heck, sixty! -- years ago our vision of the future painted the world angular, with visi-phones, lasers, space travel, robot assistance. Far-off dreams of the mad pulp writers. Look at us now! Visi-phones are slowly making their way on the market. The principles of lasers are taught in the ordinary public school classroom. We've been to the moon, are constructing an international space station, and have sent a probe out beyond our solar system. Robots work in our factories and plants, and they don't look like walking garbage cans. Cloning is possible, computers have invaded every inch of our lives, nuclear weaponry almost available at every military surplus store. . .  well, not really, but you get the point. What the world had deemed Fantasy a half century ago is now everyday reality.

     So, if it eventually becomes reality, then where can we pin the Fantasy?

     Our everyday reality was Science Fiction years ago. Our Science Fiction today will likely be everyday reality fifty years from now. Science Fiction is merely the background of the story, the environment that shapes the characters' way of life and thinking.

     The catalyst is the Fantasy. "Star Trek:  The Next Generation" would have gotten pretty ho-hum if Q, the Traveler, and the rest of the "unusual powers" gang didn't show up every now and then to kick the Enterprise crew in the pants and make them think creatively instead of logically. Has anyone else noticed, besides Gil Reis (SFWoE Administrator) and myself, that the "Deep Space Nine" story lines revolve around Fantasy elements? The Bajorian Prophets, mental battles between Good and Evil, and Captain Sisko as a religious dignitary. It was even addressed in one episode in which the crew played a pulp magazine staff during the 1940's.

     Science Fiction and Fantasy can be intertwined, and has been done with great success. When a writer decides to combine these two genres, a whole new universe is born. A universe of logic and intuition, where anything is possible, allowing the author an even freer rein of creativity.

     Yet, it all boils down to the same brass tacks:  to play out a story of the human (or otherwise) experience to learn the deeper truths about ourselves.

(SFWoE Note:   SFWoE thanks Jillian Parks for standing up and speaking out on this subject. For a couple years, Jillian has been flirting with the SFWoE Top Ten List with interesting, well-written stories. She is deep into Anime and has a fan fiction story entitled "Cousin Zoey," which is online at the Graviton City:  the Project A-ko Web Site. Jillian describes herself as, "Just a young unpublished SF/F writer with a penchant for Anime and marathon bull sessions with other creative thinkers. I grew up in Missouri, live in Florida, and am resisting the urge to shotgun my computer service."

Well, what's your opinion? Do you agree with Jillian Parks on this subject or not? SFWoE invites you to send us your comments on our Feature Article. Please keep your opinion relatively short and to the point, and we will place your remarks online.)                                                                                                                  (Art displayed is from the Castle Trash collection.)

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     I found Jillian's article enjoyable. Although it's an old debate that will never be resolved (thank goodness), I found her perspective well worth the read.

     At the risk of sounding hard-nosed, I think the contestant's initial complaint was sour-grapes. I've entered more contests than I care to mention, and I know it's easier to deal with rejection by telling yourself it was someone else's fault (the judge, contest rules, Area 51 space aliens), instead of the unquestionable quality of your own writing.

     The only thing important is the story.

     Whether SF or fantasy -- or a deft blending of the two -- if it makes for the best possible story, then (forgive me, Admiral Farragut) damn the categories and full speed ahead. I enjoy a good debate as much as anyone, but . . . in the end the story will always decide -- and that decision will outlive us all, and our passionate debating. If the 1998 winner was the best story, then it truly is the winner.

---Rich Harris   Seattle, WA  USA

           

     I once heard or read that the difference between SF and F was that SF had to follow the known rules of science and physics. That was a basic requirement that would be applied to humans and any aliens or other beings that might inhabit the story world. I always had difficulty with that.

     The beauty of the fantasy world is that such rules could be broken. In fact it is almost a requirement that such rules be broken. Still after attempting to establish a world without necessarily abiding to all of the known rules imposed by science and physics, I found that it was impossible to write anything coherent unless you substituted a new set of rules in their place! The quandary then for someone like me, who wanted to be able to bend the rules, is that I had to impose even harsher rules of my own making.

     The bottom line? I agree with Jillian that there is no firm line between the two. They both require the introduction of elements that are not within the normal purview of day to day experience. One is more science and machine driven than the other, but even that is a generalization that falls apart as you read some of the classics in either genre.

---James Noonan   Ellicott City, MD  USA

           

     Good feature article, yes. Could have gone further, even. I'm just thinking off the top of my head, but Octavia Butler's Wild Seed is probably an even better example, and ditto for her Parable of the Sower. Nobody can say she doesn't write good sicence fiction. Kit Reed and Cherry Wilder are two more prestige authors whose science fiction contains strong fantasy elements -- or would it be better to say that their fantasy involves much technology? I've also wondered how much of the Alien movie series has roots in H. P. Lovecraft's Chthulthu Mythos.

     Jillian's quite right, and good on 'er for speeking out. Send her my congrats, will you?

---Rob Riel   Dangar, NSW  Australia

           

     Let's face it, Science Fiction and Fantasy were lumped together because they are both a form of speculative fiction. It is only natural the two would combine and that the most enduring stories of the genres contain both science of tremendous power and magic of mythic proportions. In fact, I suspect the line between the two will continue to blur and the popularity of such stories to grow tremendously.
---Bob Hill   San Antonio, Texas  USA

           

     An excellent article, beautifully illustrating the point. From my point of view, a fantasy is anything which is not reality, but what one wishes could be. Science fiction is a story which is rooted in the principles of science fact, and uses these principles to make a compelling plot. These two definitions are by no means contradictory, in fact they are extremely complementary!

     I would like to use the example of "Babylon 5," one of the most radical and enjoyable science fiction series ever. Strazlensky, the creator of the series, freely acknowledges heavy inspiration from Lord of the Rings, the granddaddy of all fantasy, and yet the science in the show is so compelling that NASA has reportedly used some of the ship designs as a starting point for new research. In fact, Babylon 5 Productions and JPL will work hand-in-hand on the new series, entitled "Crusade," in order to create an unparalleled level of scientific accuracy.

     Science fiction and fantasy are brothers; without one, the other would be dramatically diminished.

--- Neil Creek   Melbourne, Australia

           

     Okay, sure; it's an awfully blurry boundary. And I liked this essay a lot.

     But there is a difference between science fiction and fantasy, and the difference is important, even if there's no sharp border between them. Like myth and epic, or thriller and noir; the distinctions between genres are fuzzy, but have a lot of power.

     The best discussion of this I ever read is in Samuel Delany's book of essays, Silent Interviews; I won't be able to do the piece justice, but what I got from it was this:  genre matters not because it tells the writer what to write, but because it tells the reader what questions to ask of the story. Reading science fiction, the reader asks "How?" If you found Kafka's Metamorphosis in a $3.95 paperback Tor book with a Rowena painting of a giant cockroach threatening a flimsily clad damsel on the cover (Delany says), after the first sentence you would say to yourself, "Cool! But how did Gregor get turned into a cockroach? Nanosurgery? Was he always a larval cockroach and has now undergone an inevitable metamorphosis? Is he trapped in some virtual reality? Is it normal for people in his society to get turned into cockroaches?"

     That last question you ask of fantasy too -- but not necessarily of capital-L "Literature". Fantasy and SF both talk about "how" the world is (with the reader's expectation that it will be different than ours). But they are interested in different kinds of "how". Fantasy readers only ask, "how according to the story's own rules?" SF readers ask, "What are you imagining about the world I live in?" SF explores the plausible -- even if remotely plausible.

     Fantasy shows us another world -- science fiction shows us how our world might in fact be.

     So a lot of the works on Jillian's list do mix fantasy and SF -- and more power to them -- and I think their authors thought about to what extent to do so. It really comes down to whether to suggest a plausible mechanism for the rules of the world the story is set in -- is Maud'Dib a prophet, or is he precognitive in some "quantum-ly attuned to tachyons" sense? To suggest a mechanism -- pushing the story along the continuum towards SF -- is a creative choice, and has to do with how you want the reader to feel and think about the tale. And whether you want them, in that moment, to feel or to think. (Interestingly, in The Phantom Menace the Star Wars hexalogy took a turn toward SF, by offering an "explanation" for the Force.)

     So sure, I'm all for what makes the best story, and may people keep mixing and blurring and playing with boundaries to their heart's content. But whether authors use them consciously or unconsciously, the conventions of genre -- the reader's expectations of what the story's about -- are one of their principal tools for "making" it a good story. So let's not build a wall between the genres, but let's regard the difference-as-continuum between SF and fantasy as an achievement of the writers and readers who created it -- a tool for story-telling, something that makes reading more fun.

--- Ben Rosenbaum   Basel, Switzerland

(SFWoE Note:   Ben Rosenbaum is a computer programmer by day and a writer by night. He is currently living in Basel, one of Europe's most interesting cities, which stands at the junction of France, Germany, and Switzerland. Ben was one of the creators of the online fantasy game Sanctum.)