I was talking to my Sci Fi Teacher.... well first a little note about Sci Fi
For some reason Science Fiction fans, the true fans, and authors and stuff don't like the term Sci Fi. Something about how it's a marketing tool of the man or something. Anyhoo I'm going to be good, and use the terms the Science Fiction authors want me to use, because the shortened Sci Fi pisses them off.... not like Rob pisses me off but whatever. Anyhoo you are supposed to say Science Fiction or SF for short.

So I was talking to my SF Teacher, who also teaches Fantasy, and in this class we are figuring out what the purpose of SF and it seems to be this.

"SF questions what it is to be human."

Shocker huh. So I then asked him. "What is the purpose of Fantasy." (I should note here he is also teaching a fantasy class)

Teacher said. "What, I'm teaching a whole class about that."
Then I said. "Well you can sum it up, Horror was Cosmic Fear and the Uncanny, SF appears to be questioning humanity, what is Fantasy."
Teach said. "Fantasy seems to be about how strange the world is, your walking around in a normal sane reality and then the rug gets pulled out from under you."

Which made me think this.

SF is about what it is to be human.
Fantasy is about how strange the world is.
Horror... well it appears to freak people out in two different ways, haven't figured out what horror brings to people.

Right now, in genre literature which is Mystery, Horror, SF, and Fantasy. The order in which things are selling is Mystery (HUGE SELLING), Fantasy (Thanks likely to Lord of the Rings, but I have my own theory), SF (It's really in the crapper, but not as much as...), and Horror (Only Vampire stories being released, besides the big names like Koontz and King). Romance is in there somewhere I guess but bear with me here.

I don't know why Mysteries are huge now, but Fantasy makes sence. Fantasy is about how strange the world is, SF is about questioning what it is to be human. Think about the world right now. In the wake of 9/11, in a world where some say we are fighting a war against terror, others think we are expanding the American Empire, where the legitimacy of the President is in question by some due to electronic voting, where people are being beheaded on TV, etc etc etc. So the world is pretty strange, and the rug has been pulled out from under people in one way or another. Hence why fantasy is huge. At the same time SF is in the toliet because with people doing all these horrible things to other people (I don't care if your pro or against war, all things being equal nobody wants to live in a world where Soldiers are fighting in the streets of a foreign land, and people are getting their heads cut off on TV), nobody wants to question what it is to be human, because right now humanity is a tad repulsive.

I was going to talk about my idea for a theme from an Eberron Campaign... but maybe later. But it ties into the whole "Fantasy = world is strange" thing.

Lator Gators.