Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Theodore Sturgeon once commented that an SF story is one that could not exist without the science component. If yours can, maybe you aren't writing SF.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Luke King
I think this a little limiting. There are plenty of novels in the top 100 lists that could exist without their science component, and some simply have none at all.
In this class there is 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, The Man in the High Castle, A Clockwork Orange, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Handmaid's Tale, The Chrysalids, Flatland - and that's just what I can pick from what I've read on this list:
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The science that made
1984 different from us was psychology (propaganda, mainly).
Fahrenheit 451 was SF because of the sociology (the pattern of behavioral norms that existed in that society but not ours). The science that made
Brave New World SF was an advancement in reproduction (mass-reproduction). And
The Handmaid's Tale took one aspect of our current society, emphasized it, and added a technological event (some kind of disaster with fertility).
The thing is, Luke, is that you've confused technology with science. The 2 are not the same. You've listed a bunch of classic stories that are SF because of the science, not technology.
Also, you're wrong about
Brave New World. There would be no story if not for the technology.
P.S. Thanks for listing the stories. Explaining why they were SF was fun .