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Old 07-27-2012, 12:12 AM   #8
Elfwreck
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What fjtorres said. Fiction used to be "real-world-esque," including present-day works and historicals, and "not-real-world," including what eventually evolved into science fiction, fantasy, and paranormal horror. (Non-paranormal horror eventually evolved into the thriller/suspense genre, cf. Silence of the Lambs.) There never were sharp lines between them.

It's easy to say "Tolkein is fantasy; Heinlein is science fiction; Lovecraft is horror." It's harder to decide where to put some of Harlan Ellison's works, or McCaffrey's... "psychic teleporting dragons" is obviously fantasy; "lost colony planet" is science fiction; "flesh-eating menace falling from the sky" is easily horror.

Today, there are people who separate them by tone and style, and people who separate them by story elements.

For the most part, I'm happy for them all to be lumped together, as long as I can tell "complex heavy worldbuilding with Deep Thoughts throughout" from "fun adventurous romp" from "creepy story with insidious elements that give me nightmares." (Or "romantic story with lots of sex." The erotica genre has crossovers into all three groups.) I don't care how they're officially categorized; I care what I'm in the mood to read, and that's rarely based on whether or not there are dragons.
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