Quote:
Originally Posted by Xanthe
The reader of science fiction is also required to accept "What if X..." as a basic premise of the story, with X being something that is seemingly impossible scientifically at this point in time, but is accepted as a given within the context of the story.
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The reader of science fiction *may* be required...
The "one impossibility" rule is more of a free pass for the writer than a requirement. A more liberal interpretation of the science "requirement" is to say the story should not be overly dependent on elements generally considered unreal by contemporary rationalists. (Unless there is a darned good reason.)
Your deconstruction is pretty good and a good summary of where the genre stands today. Things will undoubtedly change.
In the early days of the genre editors were pretty strict about the extrapolation aspect and Campbell's Astounding in particular required solid scientific extrapolation in service of the narrative. Preferably as the core idea. To this day, this focus is considered to be "Hard SF" with the science in the narrative being physical sciences, ideally. A good classic example being Larry Niven's NEUTRON STAR. Or Bujold's CRYOBURN.
When Boucher and McComas set up F&SF they were a bit more liberal and didn't mind a little leaking between the genres; good writing was the main criterion. Over time, the core idea requirement was "relaxed" and by the 60's we got "soft" SF, where the science wasn't the core idea but a supporting element. After that, the "New Wave" writers relaxed the requirements even further so that the genre traits could be simply background while the core idea could actually come from the humanities or politics. To them, style and mood was at least co-equal to the idea and it can be argued that some just drowned the idea in mood.
It's a far-ranging and living genre so it is still evolving.
The experienced/inspired writers know enough to take them more as guidelines... suggestions, even (
), but they can be useful for readers interested in serious exploration of the genre.
An amusing development for some of us long time fans of SF is how in recent times some elements of SF have filtered out into other media and other genres. Romance, mysteries, and thrillers now routinely use SF settings and tropes to dress up their narrative. There is even an entire sub-genre of Thrillers that has adopted the some of the SF narrative tone and discipline, the Techno-thriller, which on occasion seem almost like throwbacks to the Hugo Gernsback era.
At least the genre isn't much of a whipping boy for the snooty "high culture" types anymore. (Thank you, sparkly vamps.
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