Bill Stifler - Science Fiction and Fantasy Fiction

Definitions of Science Fiction

Bill Stifler "Science fiction deals with scientists working at science in the future" (Asimov 21).

"Science fiction stories are extraordinary voyages into any of the infinite supply of conceivable futures" (Asimov 23).

"Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology" (Asimov 76).

"Scientific methodology involves the proposition that a well-constructed theory will not only explain away known phenomena, but will also predict new and still undiscovered phenomena. Science fiction tries to do much the same--and write up, in story form, what the results look like when applied not only to machines, but to human society as well." --John W. Campbell, Jr ("Definitions")

"SF is . . . a literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author's empirical environment" (italics in original) (Suvin 8-9)

Science fiction is "a fictional tale determined by the hegemonic literary device of a locus and/or dramatis personae that (1) are radically or at least significantly different from the empirical times, places, and characters of the "mimetic" or "naturalist" fiction, but (2) are nonetheless--to the extent that SF differs from other "fantastic" genres, that is, ensembles of fictional tales without empirical validation--simultaneously perceived as not impossible within the cognitive (cosmological and anthropological) norms of the author's epoch. Basically, SF is a developed oxymoron, a realistic irreality, with humanized nonhumans, this-worldly Other Worlds, and so forth." (Suvin viii)

Science fiction is "Fiction dealing principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals, or more generally, literary fantasy including a scientific factor as an essential orienting component. Such literature may consist of a careful and informed extrapolation of scientific facts and principles, or it may range into farfetched areas flatly contradictory of such facts and principles. In either case, plausibility based on science is a requisite" ("Science Fiction," Merriam-Webster's)

"SF is a form of fantastic literature that attempts to portray, in rational and realistic terms, future times and environments that are different from our own. It will nevertheless show an awareness of the concerns of the times in which it is written and provide implicit commentary on contemporary society, exploring the effects, material and psychological, that any new technologies may have upon it. Any further changes that take place in this society, as well as any extrapolated future events or occurrences, will have their basis in measured and considered theory, scientific or otherwise. SF authors will use their strange and imaginative environments as a testing ground for new ideas, considering in full the implications of any notion they propose." (Mann 6)

Works Cited

Asimov, Isaac. Asimov on Science Fiction. Doubleday, 1981.

"Definitions of SF." The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. 26 May 2025. 2 May 2026. <https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/definitions_of_sf>.

Mann, George, ed. The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2001.

"Science Fiction." Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, 1995. Literature Resource Center. Gale Group. 21 Aug. 2001. Accessed: http://www.galenet.com/servlet/LitRC.

Suvin, Darko. Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre. Yale UP, 1980.