Re: (TFT) TFT Mapping

[Richard Walters <rick.walters@yahoo.com>]

I'd disagree.  Fantasy isn't exactly that fantastic, and Science Fiction isn't really all that fictional.  

Consider just how much reality exists in every fantasy story.  Physics, Ethics, Mathematics, Logic, and Language still exist in some form or another.  It's very rare that stories are so abstracted from reality that they bend your imagination into dimensions of possibility that really challenge the limits of absurdity.  So, even when people fly unbounded by gravity, or use magic or breathe water; the story still relies upon 99% of the unstated other suppositions we take for granted.  

And science fiction is often more rooted in science than it is in fiction.  Sure, the "black laser" doesn't make any sense, but every bit of science that went into developing the understanding of what a laser is in the first place is pulled into the story when you mention the black laser.  If it wasn't then you wouldn't be so skeptical.  Rather you'd just shrug and continue on.  So, 99% of the laser is science and just that tiny craziness about it being a "black" laser is fiction.  

The reason I'm even replying to this thread is because I turn over the art of storytelling in my mind quite frequently.  And, I've often heard people make the same statement as here and wonder why it is so important to distinguish between these two shades of grey?  

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fiction are both stories where normally a small fraction of the story is actually fictional.  The plot may never have happened, the beasts and ships and lasers and swords also may never have cast a shadow in the real world..  But, even when an entire story takes place on a distant planet, how much of the story revolves around those unknown fictional things, and how much of it revolves around real emotions, character flaws, physical movements or basics for survival?  

I mean, you could set Shakespeare in space without much difficulty.  How much of the story would then be science fiction? And, wouldn't it probably be a better story if there were less setting elements to distract you?  Wouldn't the story itself be stronger if the setting's science or fantasy didn't distract from the plot?  Isn't that the point of a good story?  


----- Original Message ----
From: David Michael Grouchy II <david_michael_grouchy_ii@hotmail.com>
To: mailing list <tft@brainiac.com>
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 2:55:38 PM
Subject: RE: (TFT) TFT Mapping

> Science fiction and fantasy are as different as Karl Marx and Groucho Marx.

Jay,
  /Chuckle.  Yeah, heh.  But all writing is false until proven true.  So far Science has not moved to conclusion on anything being completely true.  Further, the genealogy on Fantasy shows that it is the child of Science fiction.

David Michael Grouchy II
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