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What do you consider to be Science Fiction?
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Started by VintageComics,

199 posts in this topic

VintageComics

VintageComics

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On 11/28/2023 at 1:43 PM, Paul (GG) © ® ™⚽️💙 said:

We are all victims of 'not knowing' so we create distractions to feel better...hoping secretly that we never find out.

Not everyone lives in fear, but I understand what you're trying to say. 

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Lucky Baru

Lucky Baru

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In the pages of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," penned in 1818, we find the roots of a tale deeply intertwined with the human pursuit of knowledge, grappling with the moral quandaries that accompany scientific experimentation—a narrative sown in the fertile soil of speculative (science) fiction.

Edited by Lucky Baru
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Sauce Dog

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On 11/28/2023 at 12:39 PM, VintageComics said:

It's a personal belief based on my 53 years of learning about life. I genuinely believe that it's going to remain "impossible" for humans to re-animate life and restore it to what it was before death. 

Do you really want me to expound on it?

This is where ideologies diverge. 

I believe that a person is not just something physical.

I believe a person is spiritual or metaphysical but in a physical, human body, and so even if you re-animate the physical, ie get blood to pump and the brain to produce activity, you're not able to recapture the spirit of that person and put the "Genie back into the body".

A person with PTSD is still the same person as a whole, but their spirit is molded or shaped as they learn or experience something new but the physical absolutely changes, doesn't it? Hormonally, chemically, physically (if the trauma is physical). 

The human body breaks.

The metaphysical doesn't.

That's why I think some get a different "sense" or "feeling" when watching a "Sci Fi" movie with reality that is plausible to me and a "horror movie" with an implausible reality being espoused.

That's the "ring of truth" I was speaking about. Some people just sense when something is unlikely, as though it resonates with them on a vibratory level without understanding why. 

 

 

But you do see how that might be a very poor way to categorize a genre objectively, and get others on board with it....based your personal feelings that are coming from an ill defined spiritual sense and vibrations, right? Plenty of people have had a sense about them which ended up not being truth (I sense the sun is revolving around the earth...). 

I personally have seen no reason to accept a proposition that there is anything more to us than the physical, nor do I see any good reason to accept that there is anything outside of nature (no super-natural, which it sounds like you are using the word metaphysical to allude to. To be clear I'm not saying such things do not exist.). However, to me the idea of the 'soul' is one of the most dead concepts in the modern era of philosophy, put to the test countless times with nothing to back it up and counter evidence that pushes it further back -  so until there is sound reason to accept such a thing exists, then there isn't some genie we should account for when dealing with life and death. Life is a chemical system that uses energy to keep itself from reaching chemical equilibrium, while death is the moment when the system that maintains the far from equilibrium state ceases existence. Will the challenge that is death ever be conquered by mankind, I don't know, but from what I have seen from humanities progress thus far gives me no reason not to think it possible (heck, lets get sci-fi with it and backup up our minds digitally - something that doesn't seem impossible and would get around physical body limitations)

I think the issue just comes down to we have different ideas of what is 'impossible by human capability', and sci-fi is exactly that me; any glimpse that such things could be possible, regardless of improbable or fantastic they may seem to us and our personal incredulity, but still have a sliver of connection to humanity as it stands today.

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VintageComics

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On 11/28/2023 at 3:18 PM, Bookery said:

To be a science-fiction story, science has to be critical to the plot structure, and the science must be speculative in nature (otherwise Medical Center would be considered sf).  In fact, I believe you'll find today a tendency by authors to want to replace science-fiction with the term Speculative Fiction.  

This is sort of where I was going with my original thoughts, and although I didn't touch on it here, I did touch on it in the Facebook discussion. 

As Science progresses, what we consider fiction changes and what was Sci Fi in the past is no longer Sci Fi.

That was a great post, BTW. 

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VintageComics

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On 11/28/2023 at 5:30 PM, Lucky Baru said:

In the pages of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," penned in 1818, we find the roots of a tale deeply intertwined with the human pursuit of knowledge, grappling with the moral quandaries that accompany scientific experimentation—a narrative sown in the fertile soil of speculative science fiction.

Now where the heck have you been? lol

Nice to see you back. 

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VintageComics

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On 11/28/2023 at 5:31 PM, Sauce Dog said:

But you do see how that might be a very poor way to categorize a genre objectively, and get others on board with it

Absolutely. Got lots to say (would anyone expect anything less from me :D) but will have to do so later.

Genuinely appreciate the back and forth!

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comicnoir

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On 11/28/2023 at 12:47 PM, VintageComics said:

I find this really intriguing. 

How do you categorize Frankenstein as being more Sci-Fi than Star Wars?

I think most people would say the opposite.

Well if Frankenstein is speculative fiction, as many call sci-fi, it fits in. But it's in a horror setting.

Star Wars is pure fantasy without an ounce of reality, set in space. 

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Chip Cataldo

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On 11/28/2023 at 7:43 PM, comicnoir said:

Well if Frankenstein is speculative fiction, as many call sci-fi, it fits in. But it's in a horror setting.

Star Wars is pure fantasy without an ounce of reality, set in space. 

All of the main characters speak English. I'd say that's more than an "ounce of reality." :nyah:

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VintageComics

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On 11/28/2023 at 10:08 PM, Cat said:

Sound like a great Water Cooler topic. 

Sounds.

Sci Fi is the foundation of our entire hobby, and this is a general discussion, right? So this is actually the perfect spot for it. I even asked Mike and he confirmed. (thumbsu

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CAHokie

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On 11/28/2023 at 10:08 PM, Cat said:

Sound like a great Water Cooler topic. 

What does? This is a topic that is directly tied to the hobby and there have been some great comments. It has mostly stayed on topic except for those attempting to do Mike’s job for him. If it shouldn’t be here, report it. (shrug)

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CGC Mike

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On 11/29/2023 at 8:29 AM, VintageComics said:

@CGC Mike

I just lost another detailed reply I was typing to @Sauce Dog

It's so frustrating. Why does this keep happening? :frustrated:

I am not sure.  I have brought this up to web help and the Senior Site Reliability Engineer several times.  They are not able to duplicate it.  

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VintageComics

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On 11/29/2023 at 8:33 AM, CGC Mike said:

I am not sure.  I have brought this up to web help and the Senior Site Reliability Engineer several times.  They are not able to duplicate it.  

Are you saying it's Science Fiction? :baiting:

It happens about 1 in 10 or 1 in 15 times for me, and usually with longer replies that take more than just a few minutes to type out (which makes it even more annoying) so it may be a time-out thing?

I may have been typing that reply for 20 minutes or so? Maybe longer as I was doing a lot of editing. 

I don't think I've ever had it happen to a short reply, so there may be something to that. 

 

Edited by VintageComics
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VintageComics

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On 11/29/2023 at 8:47 AM, CGC Mike said:

More like a UFO.  Unidentified Forum Outage.

lol

Brilliant!

I edited my post above with more details but not sure if you caught the entire edit. Maybe relaying that info to them will help them figure it out. 

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Mr Sneeze

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How important is genre classification?

Is Frankenstein science fiction? Yes.

Is Frankenstein horror? Yes.

Where would I traditionally have found it in a bookstore? Probably in the Literature or Classics section. So in any practical sense, I don’t care how someone classifies it as long as I can find it.

Hard to think of any story lying completely in a single genre.

1984, Brave New World, We, Fahrenheit 451 all can be seen as sci-fi but you won’t find them in that section.

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