What is science-fiction?

In the last post I wrote, I stated that Star Wars isn’t science-fiction. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest reading it before reading this one. In that post, I stated the definition of science-fiction from Merriam-Webster. To sum up that definition, science-fiction is about technology and its effects on the characters and ultimately society. So science-fiction has nothing to do with space. It can definitely take place in space, but the setting of space doesn’t make something science-fiction. Think of some of the other major genres like comedy, drama, and romance. None of them are determined by a setting. So why should science-fiction be? (If you think fantasy is defined by its setting, I will be defining fantasy within the next few days in which I will further discuss Star Wars and its subgenre.) I, Robot, Looper, and Blade Runner are all science-fiction films but none of them are set in space. They are about artificial intelligence and time traveling and humanity’s relationship with those things. If you remove the androids from Blade Runner, there is nothing that they can be replaced with to tell the story the same. In order for a story to be science-fiction it has to have technology as the focus. Star Trek, which I referenced in my last post, is about how humanity uses technology to explore and better itself, it just happens to take place in space.

One of the comments I received asked if Iron Man was science-fiction because it featured technology but wasn’t set in space. So I’ve stated that space isn’t essential to science-fiction so that’s unimportant. Also Iron Man just isn’t science-fiction to begin with. It’s a superhero movie. That’s become its own genre in the past 15 years just like westerns were a major genre back in the mid-20^th century (there is an entire other discussion about whether superhero movies will die out like the western). In that same comment, I was asked about the original movies on the sy-fy channel. Those movies are just awful in the most entertaining way but they are monster movies for the most part, a subgenre of horror. Very few are focused on technology, they just have technology in them. Not everything with technology is science-fiction.

If you’re wondering if something is science-fiction, ask yourself if the movie is about technology’s effect on the characters or society or does it just have cool gadgets in it. Are the characters building a robot? Is the guy falling in love with Siri? Has the main character just been recruited by an arcade game to be the last starfighter? If so, it’s probably science-fiction.