The difference between sci fi and fantasy exists, so far as I can see, to allow people to quibble about it and serves no other purpose.
I strongly suspect that this is also the difference between 'fantasy' and 'fiction'. A lot of historical fiction should be fantasy really, because it includes characters and attitudes that could never exist at the supposed period in which they were set. Plenty of whodunnits depend on mechanisms or procedures that couldnt' actually really exist ('And then there were none'?)
Basically what we've got here is a really big pile of books but people just adore the whole pigeonholing thing.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 01:22 pm (UTC)I strongly suspect that this is also the difference between 'fantasy' and 'fiction'. A lot of historical fiction should be fantasy really, because it includes characters and attitudes that could never exist at the supposed period in which they were set. Plenty of whodunnits depend on mechanisms or procedures that couldnt' actually really exist ('And then there were none'?)
Basically what we've got here is a really big pile of books but people just adore the whole pigeonholing thing.