Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Schism of Fantasy and Sci-fi

In commenting on Katy's post and then reading Meg's post got me thinking about sci-fi, fantasy, and their most common elements of technology and magic respectively.

In case you didn't read my comment, my musings really stem from the quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" and then there is also the flip version that "any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology".

Where do we draw the line between the two? Is there even a line between the two or are they just the two ends/extremes of a continuum?

For example, Harry Potter is clearly fantasy with magic. Right? But looking at it closer, is it really? What is the one thing that is an absolute requirement to cast magic. Wands. So as such, could the wands just be some fancy advanced technological device? I don't personally see why not. (Just for the record, thats how I view HP, just saying the argument could be made :-P)

Very few fantasy stories exist that cannot be analyzed in this way. Even horror. Demons, vampires, zombies, all can be explained away through science. Demons can be creatures either of this world, or not, that use "magic" that we cannot understand to make us submit to their will. Vampires and zombies both can simply be diseases. Vampires being a type of hemophilia (i mean, look at the word roots there. Hemo - blood, philia - love. A hemophiliac is literally a person who loves blood. Of course, thats not what the word means, but still). And zombies can be any number of diseases with the most recent interest being a mutant rabies, which is actually not far from being a zombie virus.

It is likely due to my scientific centered mind, but in my personal opinion, I feel magic is typically only a means to easily explain that which has no conceivable or logical explanation. Thus why, as time moves on and technology advances, things that were once magic are now just technology.

But, at the same time, you can make the counter argument that humans try to explain away magic through the only thing evolution/nature has provided for us. Our brains. The things that we can explain and understand cannot scare us, thus, if we can explain magic, it cannot scare us.

So, what do you guys think?

3 comments:

John Harris said...

The way I've thought about it, the difference lies in the explanation. In sci-fi, the "hows" of events are more thoroughly described and they are usually labeled with the term technology. In fantasy, one can get away with saying that something "just is" and maybe give some extraordinary tale of how it came to be. Harry's wand's power just is. It would be very different if Rowling described this as a school where children came to learn the are of manipulating energy fields and molecular structures through the use of an advanced tool. That would be a bit more sci-fi.

Matt Meng said...

I agree with the depth of the description of the how is a big thing in sci fi writing. That's a very interesting way of looking at Harry potter. I would have never thought of that. I agree that technology is magic to those that are ignorant if it's inner workings and that the two are very interconnected.

Andy Duncan said...

John, your hypothetical school "where children came to learn the art of manipulating energy fields and molecular structures" sounds very like Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in the X-Men comics, or Battle School in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. The science fiction equivalents of Hogwarts?