At what point does Science Fiction become AH, or does it at all? For example, could the film and book 2001 count as AH at this point? Would books by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells count as AH? Discuss.
At what point does Science Fiction become AH, or does it at all? For example, could the film and book 2001 count as AH at this point? Would books by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells count as AH? Discuss.
Simple and efficient answer : No
As MRig say, it's the intention of the author which "makes" and characterises the genre, and in the meta-genre of SF (in a Hugo Prize sense, SF + Fantasy)
Meta-genre because an SF work could be an adventure book, an introspective one, thriller etc.
Maybe we can imagine this process like this
What is the genre of the work? -> What is the external apparence of it?
I know no author of SF who made a SF book/Movie/etc. wihtout, at the beggining the form of it
Jules Verne didn't want to make "a book with impossible or future things with adventure stuff to expose they" but "an adventure book with credible and even studied things"
Clarke didn't want to say "yooohooo, i have recieved a vision of what 2001 will be, hurry, let's make a book with plot pretext to share my prediction"
SF it's an excuse to say "no but in this universe/timeline/the future, the story is plausible"
For future AH, a good other exemple is Fallout timeline, with a 1950's PoD and introducing 2300's consequences, it's clearly AH
I think we could count a few of Verne's works as AH. Around the World in 80 Days certainly fits,
while I think 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea might also do.
I think we could also add 1984, possibly Dan Brown's works and at a push the His Dark Materials trilogy.
But all this discussion over whether scifi can qualify as AH baffles me. AH is a sub-genre of SF!
1984, sure: various attempts have made to come up with 1984-ish scenarios on this board, but His Dark Materials? Talking bears? Witches? Familiars?
Bruce