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  • Subject: What are the rules for sci-fi/fantasy
Subject: What are the rules for sci-fi/fantasy
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if anyone has their own personal view on this issue, post

  • 02.01.2005 5:20 AM PDT
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What do you mean? Rules for sci-fi and fantasy? Be specific.

  • 02.01.2005 5:23 AM PDT
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just that i am taking a class that calls for what makes up a good scifi flik, tats all

  • 02.01.2005 5:26 AM PDT
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Halo, Halo, Halo, Halo, and some space ship thingey might help too...

  • 02.01.2005 5:28 AM PDT

Science-fiction is just what it means: A "story" that is not currently scientifically possible. The science-fiction of the past is not necessarily the science-fiction of the present. In the 40's and 50's, going to the moon was a popular science-fiction topic. Obviously, it is not fiction anymore.

Some of the more over-used sci-fi themes are aliens and time travel. Choose wisely!!!

  • 02.01.2005 5:34 AM PDT
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For Fantasy, it would be like some other land/world with elves and dwarves and dragons etc. Thats the most common. Sci-Fi I would do a cataclysmic war in Space for Mankind vs. The Dreadnought (demons/aliens) but thats my little scenario for some (ahem) things of mine. But you get the gist. dmbfan stated it best.

  • 02.01.2005 6:02 AM PDT

Posted by: JohntheSpartan
...with elves and dwarves and dragons...

Oh my!!

  • 02.01.2005 6:04 AM PDT
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It seems to me that Sci-Fi/Fantasy has several purposes. First and foremost is it's ability to entertain. If it isn't entertaining no one will wish to read/watch it.

Secondly, well done fiction usually has a point. Often times the setting is a great exageration on reality with the purpose of figuring out what the meaning of life is. In fact, I'd say that, that is ultimately the point of all art. To show the world the artists vision of reality and expose certain aspects of it.

I'll use the Chronicles of Riddick as an example (I just saw it so it is fresh in my memory). It's an action/adventure/sci-fi flik. By being action packed, and having stunning visuals it fullfills the first requirment of being enternaining. The reality exposed by the movie is that of the dangers of religious zealotry. Instead of showing a movie about the Crusades, or about the 9/11 attacks, this movie avoids the posabillity of offending any one religious group, yet still shows how the misuse of religion for temporal power is devestating.

  • 02.01.2005 11:28 AM PDT
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well said

  • 02.01.2005 11:41 AM PDT
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Posted by: masterchief400
well said



Thank you

  • 02.01.2005 2:11 PM PDT
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[Edited on 2/1/2005 2:28:33 PM]

  • 02.01.2005 2:28 PM PDT
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I think sci-fi and fantasy are such a broad and imaginative genres. That it is hard to set down rules, or guidelines for it. For it is all conceived in the author's mind. But most likely as said above, the story should have some real world meaning. To allow the reader to somehow relate to it. Or through the characters to help better understand this made-up world.

  • 02.01.2005 2:32 PM PDT

A long time ago, I had a friend who gave me the The Lord of The Rings trilogy. Now, this was before the movies, and I had no idea what this book was about, but I read it anyway, just to make my friend happy.

Heh, to this day I've never gone back. I no longer find books about real places or people interesting.

Oh, I almost forgot,

What are the rules for sci-fi/fantasy
There are no rules. That's why they are so fun to read.

  • 02.01.2005 2:38 PM PDT

Posted by: Fallen Seraph
But most likely as said above, the story should have some real world meaning. To allow the reader to somehow relate to it.


I disagree. The only real-world meaning that you find in a sci-fi/fantasy book is one that you create yourself.

  • 02.01.2005 2:40 PM PDT
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Sci-Fi and fantasy never become real... Science Fiction will eventually become true...
^Ray Bradbury said something like that, and judging by Farenheit 451, he was right. Its only a matter of time I says.

  • 02.01.2005 2:44 PM PDT

-S

If you really need to water it down, I'd look at it from the standpoint of the writer.

To be more specifically, Science fiction deals mainly in time that takes place during or after the lifetime of the writer. The basic staple is "technology," which is often if not always explainable, either via a specific or complicated terminology, or has some basis for being "too advanced" for current understanding.

Fantasy runs the opposite course, taking place before the lifetime of the writer. Ballistics often do not exist unless in the form of musket or cannon, replaced by simpler weapons and/or magic. Magic is often the fantasy response to Sci-Fi's "technology" approach, and is generally only explained in vague terminology and exists more as a collection of concepts and theories rather than proven (in relation to the story universe, anyway) facts.

Plot is generally interchangable between Sci Fi and Fantasy. Any Fantasy story can become Sci-Fi if the mise en scene is adjusted appropriately, and vice versa.

  • 02.01.2005 2:53 PM PDT
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Science fiction usually deals with the future, but also makes it seem somewhat possible to achieve. Fantasy is the impossible come to life, along with some of the most imaginary things ever thought up. And I do agree that fantasy is generally set in the past, before modern inventions.

  • 02.01.2005 3:03 PM PDT
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Then there are the ones that mingle both, like even though it is a game. Phantasy Star, it has magic, futuristic technology, and fantasy creatures (elves, dragons, etc.)

  • 02.01.2005 3:23 PM PDT