In "Wireless" by Rudyard Kipling, an experimental radio set seems to initiate a rapport between a contemporary man and John Keats. I have not read this story but, from Poul Anderson's description of it, I accept his classification of it as borderline fantasy-sf.
When I was a philosophy student, a lecturer in Aesthetics suggested a definition of the form: "Art is (fill in the blank)." I cannot remember how he filled in the blank but what I do remember is that another student immediately responded with "What would you say about the borderline case where...?" The lecturer quite reasonably replied, "Why should I say anything about it? It is a borderline case."
I could not possibly agree more. Definitions are not water-tight compartments. A borderline case is not a counterexample. That should be printed on T-shirts and distributed free to philosophy students. Also, when someone suggests: "All A is (fill in the blank)," our first response should be to understand what he is saying and why he is saying it, not to think of counterexamples. That can come later.
I agree with Anderson that sf accepts the scientific worldview whereas fantasy does not.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteWell, there's the "border line case" of Anderson's two OPERATION books, where magic is one of the sciences.
Ad astra! Sean