Quite so. 90% of the examples cited are things that I would never, ever, ever call science fiction. Tolkein does not fit alongside Asimov and Clarke. But the split is not "elves" versus "androids;" it's not the subject matter that's really important, it's the ideology. Star Wars, for instance, belongs on the fantasy side of the split; examples are harder to find in the other direction, but I'd suggest that perhaps Glen Cook's Black Company (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/list-browse/-/15CK0PKJXUI44/102-5972666-6674510) series belongs with the science fiction, especially after you get past the first trilogy. (Yes, by the way, this is a very long series which, I insist, I swear, actually gets progressively better as the books go on, and not because it's mostly disjointed like Discworld.)
David Brin (http://www.davidbrin.com/), in addition to being an excellent and challenging author, has written a slew of articles (http://www.davidbrin.com/fictionarticles.html) which articulate the differences fairly well. Probably the most direct of them is this one (http://www.davidbrin.com/matrixarticle.html), inspired by The Matrix. Among the criteria he mentions: does the author portray a Golden Age as something that could come, and should be strived for, or something that has passed and can only be lamented? and, are the heroes chosen by fate and marked by destiny, or are they people who made a personal decision to do something?
This doesn't get into the issue of pop-fiction, really... except that most pop-fiction falls solidly into the Romantic (fantasy) camp. But it's a lot of good stuff to think about.
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2004-03-22 17:09 (UTC)David Brin (http://www.davidbrin.com/), in addition to being an excellent and challenging author, has written a slew of articles (http://www.davidbrin.com/fictionarticles.html) which articulate the differences fairly well. Probably the most direct of them is this one (http://www.davidbrin.com/matrixarticle.html), inspired by The Matrix. Among the criteria he mentions: does the author portray a Golden Age as something that could come, and should be strived for, or something that has passed and can only be lamented? and, are the heroes chosen by fate and marked by destiny, or are they people who made a personal decision to do something?
This doesn't get into the issue of pop-fiction, really... except that most pop-fiction falls solidly into the Romantic (fantasy) camp. But it's a lot of good stuff to think about.