At 05:55 AM Monday 10/4/04, G. D. Akin wrote:
JDG wrote (belatedly):
> At 08:19 AM 8/25/2004 -0700 Nick Arnett wrote:
> >Doesn't science fiction require *fictitious* science, i.e., stuff that
> >hasn't been discovered/invented yet?
>
> This would eliminate novels like _Alas, Babylon_, _On the Beach_, and _A
> Canticle for Leibowitz_ - which I would be uncomfortable with.
>
> I guess the first question that would need to be answered is, does
> speculative fiction exist as a separate genre for or as a subset genre of
> science fiction. My preference would be for the latter - science fiction
> includes any speculative fiction about the future, as well as any fiction
> involving outer space or alien life forms. Of course, this definition
> would make things like _Red Storm Rising_ and Isaac Asimov's short story
> about sugar-based aliens part of the science fiction genre, but I don't
> have a problem with that.
-------------------------------------
I think the three post-nuclear war novels you list are definitely SF, unless
you discount the soft science of psychology, sociology etc.
I thought the "sugar-based" aliens story was by Ray Bradbury, but its been
so long since I read it, I'm not sure.
Nope. Asimov. One of his many stories in the shaggy-dog genre.
-- Ronn! :)
"Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever."
-- Konstantin E. Tsiolkovskiy
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