What is Genre? - Page 4

VydorScope · 06-23-2011, 06:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crich70

Nope, it's more space opera or really soft sci. fi. with elements of fantasy.

See that is interesting, I would have never thought of Star Wars as anything but Sci-fi and used Space Opera as a sub category. I THINK that in general population the term "Sci Fi" refers to "stories told in some far future time setting."

tompe · 06-23-2011, 08:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VydorScope

See that is interesting, I would have never thought of Star Wars as anything but Sci-fi and used Space Opera as a sub category. I THINK that in general population the term "Sci Fi" refers to "stories told in some far future time setting."

It is an old argument. Story wise the original Star Wars seems to me to be fantasy. Here is one article about this:

http://thetorchonline.com/latest/wha...on-or-fantasy/

jbcohen · 06-23-2011, 08:11 AM

Yes crich is right there is a lot of mixing of generes but it still does not change the definition of that genre. A western needs a cowpoke somewhere around, a romance needs some sort of well romance, thus a western romance is love among the cowpokes. I have seen some very twisted combinations, I saw a Sci-fi western romance one time, love among the cowpokes in the 22nd century. I saw a Sci-fi western humor romance, love among the 22nd century cowpokes with a bmumbling idiot thrown in for comic relief. Getting really twisted I saw a Fantasy humor thriller murder political book, it was a bumbling idiot learning to use magic in a school for magicians where a politicians son is murdered by terrorists.

DiapDealer · 06-23-2011, 08:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tompe

It is an old argument. Story wise the original Star Wars seems to me to be fantasy. Here is one article about this:

Old argument indeed. And apparently immaterial to a viewer's/reader's enjoyment (or lack thereof) of the tale. But it's great fodder for the nitpicking mill.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VydorScope

I would have never thought of Star Wars as anything but Sci-fi and used Space Opera as a sub category. I THINK that in general population the term "Sci Fi" refers to "stories told in some far future time setting."

*Ahem* "A Long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away."

OtterBooks · 06-23-2011, 10:05 AM

It's knights and wizards in space. Frankly, that's fine by me. I liked the first three movies.

Here's a question for ya: what defines "pulp" ?

I have a friend who is big into old pulp novels, and he flipped out when I called Tom Clancy pulp. He took it as an insult to pulp, not Clancy.

Vandy · 06-23-2011, 10:38 AM

Genres... one of my most evil nemeses.

Do you know how hard it is for someone who is both a bit anal and OCD to try and work with genes? It is frustratingly impossible!

Let's see... 1633 by Eric Flint is obviously SciFi.
But there certainly are elements of Alternative History in it.
However, one could argue that Fantasy comes into play as well.
Then again, it could be considered to be in a sub-genre of Speculative Fiction.
Of course, there is also the possibility of it being veiwed as historical fiction.

Okay, then...

1633 by Eric Flint
Genre

Speculative Fiction

Historical Fiction

Alternative History

Fantasy

SciFi

AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Regards,

Jack Tingle · 06-23-2011, 09:28 PM

You're way overthinking this. It's speculative fiction no matter what. In particular, since Flint (in 1632) provided a sci-fi fig leaf, it's sci-fi. Flint is also generally a sci-fi author, so that's consistent. It is also, secondarily, alt-hist, simply because the Ring of Fire caused a branched timeline (also noted in 1632, IIRC). So it's an Everett 'Many Worlds'[1] quantum physics example, also sci-fi-ish.

Regards,
Jack Tingle

[1] As opposed to a more common Bohr (or Copenhagen) interpretation of quantum physics.

Pinecone · 07-04-2011, 09:20 AM

Genres are what YOU want them to be.

On my Sony reader, I started with SciFi and Classics as genres. But am dropping SciFi as my SciFi collections has GROWN. But I have added Non-Fiction, Aviation, and Fiction. I use these categories for smaller groupings of books, where I might not group by author or series (may not have a series). Fiction is used for one off books that I want to be able to find.

In pBook stores, genre allows you to look for similar books and discover new authors. If they were all mixed together, it would be much harder to find new scifi/fantasy authors to try, mixed amoung the general fiction, classics/liturature, etc.

06-23-2011, 10:38 AM	#51
Vandy ...always be humble. Posts: 116 Karma: 505917 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Fort Myers, FL USA Device: iPhone 5s, iPod Touch 3rd Gen, Kindle 3 WiFi, Kindle Fire	AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!! Genres... one of my most evil nemeses. Do you know how hard it is for someone who is both a bit anal and OCD to try and work with genes? It is frustratingly impossible! Let's see... 1633 by Eric Flint is obviously SciFi. But there certainly are elements of Alternative History in it. However, one could argue that Fantasy comes into play as well. Then again, it could be considered to be in a sub-genre of Speculative Fiction. Of course, there is also the possibility of it being veiwed as historical fiction. Okay, then... 1633 by Eric Flint Genre Speculative Fiction Historical Fiction Alternative History Fantasy SciFi AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! Regards,

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06-23-2011, 08:11 AM	#48
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,025 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Piper College Device: Samsung A21	Yes crich is right there is a lot of mixing of generes but it still does not change the definition of that genre. A western needs a cowpoke somewhere around, a romance needs some sort of well romance, thus a western romance is love among the cowpokes. I have seen some very twisted combinations, I saw a Sci-fi western romance one time, love among the cowpokes in the 22nd century. I saw a Sci-fi western humor romance, love among the 22nd century cowpokes with a bmumbling idiot thrown in for comic relief. Getting really twisted I saw a Fantasy humor thriller murder political book, it was a bumbling idiot learning to use magic in a school for magicians where a politicians son is murdered by terrorists.

06-23-2011, 10:05 AM	#50
OtterBooks Wizard Posts: 1,262 Karma: 2979086 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Kindle 4, iPad Mini/Retina	It's knights and wizards in space. Frankly, that's fine by me. I liked the first three movies. Here's a question for ya: what defines "pulp" ? I have a friend who is big into old pulp novels, and he flipped out when I called Tom Clancy pulp. He took it as an insult to pulp, not Clancy.

06-23-2011, 09:28 PM	#52
Jack Tingle Punctuation Fetishist Posts: 557 Karma: 1070000 Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: The Bluest Commonwealth In East America Device: Kindle PW, Nexus 7 (2013), Galaxy S5 phone, Galaxy Tab 4 8.0	You're way overthinking this. It's speculative fiction no matter what. In particular, since Flint (in 1632) provided a sci-fi fig leaf, it's sci-fi. Flint is also generally a sci-fi author, so that's consistent. It is also, secondarily, alt-hist, simply because the Ring of Fire caused a branched timeline (also noted in 1632, IIRC). So it's an Everett 'Many Worlds'[1] quantum physics example, also sci-fi-ish. Regards, Jack Tingle [1] As opposed to a more common Bohr (or Copenhagen) interpretation of quantum physics.

07-04-2011, 09:20 AM	#53
Pinecone Guru Posts: 902 Karma: 1660722 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Maryland Device: PRS-650, PRS-600, PRS-350	Genres are what YOU want them to be. On my Sony reader, I started with SciFi and Classics as genres. But am dropping SciFi as my SciFi collections has GROWN. But I have added Non-Fiction, Aviation, and Fiction. I use these categories for smaller groupings of books, where I might not group by author or series (may not have a series). Fiction is used for one off books that I want to be able to find. In pBook stores, genre allows you to look for similar books and discover new authors. If they were all mixed together, it would be much harder to find new scifi/fantasy authors to try, mixed amoung the general fiction, classics/liturature, etc.