Science Fiction vs. Fantasy

According to Fantasy enthusiasts...

So, last time I wrote about how fantasy and science fiction were coming out of the basement and into the mainstream where, admittedly, they belong in my not-so-humble opinion. Being a huge nerd that I am, I love the fact that the things I love are now appreciated by everyone. It makes me feel less unusual. Even more important, most people only enjoy the lesser works so I still get to feel superior to them when they talk about how much they love Twilight and Eragon. I can even sympathize with them when they complain about not being able to get through Lord of the Rings, while snorting when they complain about Dune.

I have the best of all worlds!

Even better, I'm one of those people who really doesn't like High Fantasy while I can't really relate to most science fiction unless I find it on my own.

Yes, you read that correctly.

I. Don't. LIKE. High. Fantasy.

It's the real problem behind my dislike of Lord of the Rings and why I'll probably never be able to read any Terry other than Terry Pratchett.

"But, Hanorah!" You say, "Discworld has all the elements of High Fantasy! How can you say that?"

It's really easy actually. I don't like knights in shining armor off to rescue damsels from dragons. I love dragons, but I'd rather see them fighting in the Napoleanic Wars or each other than reading about someone killing them. Witches and wizards are my bread and butter, but I'd rather they were really silly and didn't actually do anything than have them be the bad guy or the evil advisor or distant helper or whatever they do in genuine High Fantasy. Elves are boring unless you stick them in modern times and have their every-changing ways face off with the way we change all the time. Dwarves are best when they have an original spin on them too, even if that original spin is taking what's written about them to the logical extreme and going from there.

I do like court politics because trying to figure out who's going to win the Battle of Manipulative Games is really fun to me. That's why I enjoyed Dune and Game of Thrones so much.

However, the rest can just... go away and stop bothering me.

Science fiction? Well, I like speculation about the future as much as the next person, but I don't like to read it all the time. It gets boring because it usually seems like the same thing over and over to me: fighting the Robot Apocalypse or aliens or zombies or all three at once.

I'm sorry.

 I like variety.

I love variety.

Everyone says that fantasy is more history-oriented while science fiction is more future-oriented. That's true, mostly. You won't be surprised to know that I love history. It makes me happy.  However, anyone who knows anything about history knows that our history essentially creates our future. Let me see if I can create an example of this...

Hmm...

Okay, H.G. Wells, my favorite Science Fiction writer wrote this story called War of the Worlds. If you don't know what that is, pull your head out from under a rock. There's many movies and the famous radio drama by Orson Wells which resulted in mass panic. Essentially, the story is about aliens coming to Earth and trying to take it over and mostly succeeding due to better weapons and preparation.

H.G. Wells originally wrote the story in light of Great Britain's... Imperialistic attitude. Basically he wrote the story where the English were the natives and aliens from another planet took on the role the English were mostly occupying at that time and in the recent past.  He wrote the story, essentially, to point out how horrible his own countrymen were being. He basically wrote a story that was a mirror for his own people and it was brilliant!

He used the science of the time, obviously and he told the story in a way only a Brit could, but he was drawing from recent history.

And that was one of the earlier science fiction novels around.

If you don't get what I'm saying, the roots of science fiction are the same as the roots of fantasy. Both are two different genres of works of fiction that attempt to tell wild lies in order to reveal hidden truths about the world around us when used correctly. When used wrongly, they're an escape from the world around us and nothing more. In both cases, they're entertaining, but one is better than the other.

Do I prefer Science Fiction or Fantasy?

Neither. I like stories that happen to have a science fiction or fantastical bend. However, I read more fantasy (usually urban fantasy or satirical fantasy) than science fiction, but I watch more science fiction TV shows and movies. Actually, I tend to watch more Horror films than is healthy, but not the gory ones. I prefer psychological horror, thank you!

Sweet Dreams!