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Science Fiction (152)
Science fiction (often abbreviated to sci-fi or SF) is a broad genre of fiction in which the narrative world differs from our own present or historical reality in at least one significant way. more...
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This difference may be technological, physical, historical, sociological, philosophical, metaphysical, etc, but it should always be logically explicable with reference to the world we know (thus distinguishing it from fantasy). Exploring the consequences of such differences (asking "What if...?") is the traditional purpose of science fiction, making it a relatively highbrow "literature of ideas". However, there are also many purported works of science fiction in which a superficially "sci-fi" setting is superimposed upon an otherwise conventional tale, and it is this "lowbrow" form of the genre that is most widely recognized outside science fiction fandom. As such, there is often a perception that science fiction is escapist or juvenile.
Science fiction often involves one or more of the following elements:
A setting in the future or on an alternative time-line.;
A setting in outer space, or involving space travel (particularly interstellar) or Extraterrestrial life.;
New scientific principles, such as antigravity, time travel or psionics.;
Advanced technology, such as novel methods of transport (e.g. flying vehicles or teleportation), futuristic weapons (including directed-energy weapons taking the place of firearms), computers, robots or holography.;
In consequence or not of some items listed above, Sci-fi stories often portray completelly or very different political or social realities.;
In the past, science fiction also dealt with the discovery of unknown civilizations or species in unexplored parts of the Earth, but such stories became much less common from the middle of the 20th century onwards.
Definition
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Science fiction includes such a wide range of themes and subgenres that it can be difficult to define. Author and editor Damon Knight has summed up the difficulty of defining science fiction by stating that "Science fiction is what we point to when we say it". Similarly, says critic Bonnie Kunzel: "Science fiction has been called the books that science fiction writers write! In other words, it can be about anything in or out of this world."
Vladimir Nabokov argues that if we were rigorous with our definitions, Shakespeare's play The Tempest would have to be termed science fiction.
According to science-fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, "a handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method." Heinlein immediately adds that if you "strike out the word 'future' it can apply to all and not just almost all SF."
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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