Science Ficition Genre

Science Fiction Genre

1. Science Fiction is such a diverse genre and therefore there are many different definitions and different origins of science fiction. Some believe that science fiction came from scientists trying to explain the universe and different occurrences that happen and developed from scientific research and different fiction stories. The scientific part of it began during the Scientific Revelation from Galileo and Newton whilst trying to explain physics, astronomy and mathematics. From this people began trying to explain what they didn’t know, some very far fetched. Others believe that it originated with the book ‘Frankenstein’.
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• Science ­Fiction can be broken up into several different sub-categories including History, Language, Military, Parallel worlds/universes, types of beings, the future, sci-fi horror, technology, etc.
• History is within Science Fiction and often comes up. There can be alternate historical themes such as history that has diverged from the actual history of the world. This can involve time being split and running into two universe, ‘cross-time’, or ‘time splitting’. They add to science fiction novels by adding history and known facts then twisting them. Language is a sub-category that is seen in most sci-fi books that contain aliens or developments in species. Language can be portrayed as an alien dialect, an international language, universal translator, etc. This appears often because it is a source that fits in with the science fiction genre and is almost always in a novel. The next sub-category is Military, which occurs a lot in science fiction books because they normally contain alien invasions. It includes reference to military ranks, strategy and weapons. An example of each is different military promotions such as private, a strategy including invasion of an alien world and a futuristic weapon such as a ray gun. Parallel universes are a ‘different’ sub-category because it is hard to get a grip on. The idea has to be kept simple so people can understand it and so it would make sense. A parallel universe example is like a world that the only opposite is that the toss of a coin outcome is different. In one when a coin is tossed heads comes up and the other tails and vice verse. The different types of beings are important in the characterisation and are important in a good novel. They need to be relevant and fit the story otherwise the story is boring and jumbled. Aliens, androids, mutants, etc. are examples of different beings associated with science fiction. The most common sub category in sci-fi is the future. It is a major category because many science fiction novels develop from future themes because they are more advanced and developed therefore beginning able to relate to discover of currently unknown things such as aliens. Sci-fi horror is also a category that forms the basis of a sci-fi story. The horror comes into it through different means such as death, torture, aliens, destruction, etc. and is vital in a sci-fi story because it makes it more relatable and realistic. Technology falls under a lot of the sub-category but is a rather wide and general category in sci-fi. A lot of the complications are caused by technology either failing or altering something that it should of and is pretty important in a sci-fi novel. An example is a portal that transports to the wrong place.
• Therefore, there are many different categories that make up sci-fi and the base structure of sci-fi genre. There are many more but the main ones are History, Language, Military, Parallel worlds/universes, types of beings, the future, sci-fi horror and technology.
3. The convections of the sci-fi genre were historically focused mainly on creative writing, but the purview of many expands to such other boulevards of expression as movies and television, comics, animation, and games. They are based on the many common genres that sci-fi is based on such as science genre, fantasy genre and horror genre. The science genre is the beliefs in the extraterrestrial and the belief of life on other plants. The different technology and futuristic advancements as well as the views of the future are all within the science genre. The fantasy genre is important in the sci-fi convections because many of the key theme within the fantasy genre are ‘borrowed’ such as the ability to create any story based on ones interpretations of there ideas. An example is that aliens would invade earth, which is ones own opinion on a common idea and then a resolution to that problem such as a saviour defeating them, which is ones ‘fantasy’. The last genre in which ideas are received from is the horror genre, which is portrayed through many things including death, disaster, vicious acts and suffering. Therefore, from these three genres different convections could be made. The examples are extracted then combined to create the sci-fi themed story. Then the stories lead to television shows and movies.