I can't tell whether Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" is Sci Fi or Fantasy, Both, with a little bit of Horror?

Good science fiction and good fantasy draw apon different tropes to make their meaning.

I am trying to think this through, but am having trouble. I think this could quite possibly be the source of a doctoral thesis, or eight.

quote:

Originally posted by Chadder:
I can't tell whether Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" is Sci Fi or Fantasy, Both, with a little bit of Horror?

welll, it's magical at root, so i'd go with fantasy.

Apologies for discovering this thread so late, and I know the paper is long written, but--you guys!

You're focusing so much on the trappings, the "stuff" of science vs unicorns, etc., and agonizing about sub-genres, when, to my mind, at least, sci-fi (okay, GOOD sci-fi) is really about humanity/people, and who we consider and what we do to the Other.

And similarly, the best fantasy: Tolkien himself says LOTR was really Sam's story, that true friendhsip & loyalty is ultimately ennobling... That's also what makes the juiciest medieval-laden stories work: the people, the intrigues, what & why we do what we do (a little crossover: that's the heart of Terry Pratchett's work too).

So where I'm going with this is that what LeGuin says (and does) in terms of these genres is create a space that allows her to explore stuff about us, now, that can't really be fully expressed in the "real" world. Hence her future archaeology. Sherri Tepper too. (Oh no--she has dragons and spaceships and microbes/viruses all in the same novel!) And also Doris Lessing in her Canopus in Argos series (ooh, the disease of undulant rhetoric!).

What do we do with Lewis Carrol, btw? B&N puts him in the regular fiction section, last I looked.