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If you don’t learn about Joyce Carol Oates’s tweet historical past, I envy you. Suffice to say, she’s infamous for going viral with some really mystifying sizzling takes. In her newest instance, she claims that “fantasy as a genre is fundamentally YA” and misrepresents Ted Chiang as saying that sci-fi is “impersonal, never ‘magical’” and fantasy is “personal, character-driven, ‘magical.’”
Of course, guide Twitter was not going to let that stand, and after the preliminary shock and joking subsided, they started discussing the actual variations between science fiction and fantasy. From pointed commentary on elementary issues in SFF publishing and fandom to jokes about actors that play in each spheres, there was an enormous vary of responses utilizing this format.
I used to be watching this unfold with rapt consideration, as a result of I like a bookish Twitter meme. In case you aren’t swimming within the depths of guide Twitter like I’m, I’ve collected a few of the greatest responses beneath.
If you need to know the true distinction between sci-fi and fantasy, you will have to observe the cash.
Interesting how there appears to at all times be a cause speculative fiction worlds are so white.
Despite usually erasing the individuals of shade, SFF worlds nonetheless handle to applicable different cultures.
Look, all of us need fancy pointed ears, regardless of the setting. Why did people get caught with these boring rounded ones?
If this tweet speaks to you, may I curiosity you in some alien romance books?
You didn’t assume we had been executed speaking about racism and antisemitism in SFF, did you?
It’s simply that easy.
Oops, extra bigoted SFF tropes.
Either means, you may’t go mistaken.
What a coincidence that I’m studying a guide referred to as The Future is Disabled as we converse. I extremely advocate choosing that up as a substitute of SFF books that function ableist tropes like this.
What about if there’s a chapter devoted to a meals truck?
It’s refined.
As somebody who lives not removed from Vancouver, this one actually acquired to me.
And, after all, there’s at all times the cheese issue.
And there you will have it! In case you had any lingering questions, now you actually know the distinction between sci-fi and fantasy. If you had been hoping for some critical solutions, you may want to take a look at this explainer put up about speculative fiction. And whilst you’re right here, why not check out the Most Influential Science Fiction Books of All Time and the Most Influential Fantasy Books of All Time?
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