Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

[james_davis_nicoll]

SF or fantasy? Why?

Comments

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Is Make Room! Make Room! SF? It also didn't have space ships.

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

Don't you oppress my arbitrary and inconsistent definitions, cat boy!

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Now we see the violence inherent in the system!

[doc-lemming.livejournal.com]

They're implied, as in, "Golly, if this weren't a crapsack meathook future, we could have had space ships."

I can play the "implied" card on almost any movie I want to declare SF. Even James Bond: in Moonraker he actually rides in a space ship. Therefore, SF.

If there were a myth with a space ship in it, maybe I'd have problems, but I'm sure I can come up with some kind of counter argument.

For instance, The Starlost is clearly fantasy because they only think they're in a space ship. It is clearly a Settlers of Catan version of Dante's Inferno. ("I rolled a seven, so Virgil comes and take one of your sins to the plain of Virtuous Pagans.")

[kla10.livejournal.com]

>If there were a myth with a space ship in it, maybe I'd have problems

The Spelljammer setting in D&D?

[sanskritabelt.livejournal.com]

"If there were a myth with a space ship in it..."

Celestial Matters, by Richard Garfinkle?

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Well, it's not _presented_ as myth. If alternate physics settings are fantasy, is Egan's "Clockwork Rocket" fantasy?

[dbdatvic.livejournal.com]

> a Settlers of Catan version of Dante's Inferno.

waaaaant

--Dave, we'd need at least a couple angels' worth of support for a kickstarter though