Impossibility-within-currently-known-laws-of-nature is the defining element of fantasy, and magic is the most prominent (but not the only) presentation of that.
I'd always thought fantasy was about the setting, in that the setting was an imagined context. That may or may not involve magic. I'm also inclined to think science fiction is a subset/flavour of fantasy though, and lots of people have disagreed with me on that.
Date: August 31st, 2009 10:29 pm (UTC)From:twic.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)
I am developing a theory, in much the same way one might a gallstone, that fantasy is different from science fiction in that it doesn't try to convince you its world is plausible. Or at least doesn't have to.
It's not that fantasy worlds aren't plausible, it's that a fantasy can just dump its world in front of you and go "there it is". An SF story has to earn your belief.
SF is tackled with a hovercraft of disbelief; fantasy gets a flying carpet.
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chiming
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Date: August 31st, 2009 10:29 pm (UTC)From:It's not that fantasy worlds aren't plausible, it's that a fantasy can just dump its world in front of you and go "there it is". An SF story has to earn your belief.
SF is tackled with a hovercraft of disbelief; fantasy gets a flying carpet.
This is not helpful.