Monday, December 26, 2005

What Genre?

Okay, I've been thinking about science fiction and all it's lovely forms.

We have the obvious: outerspace. Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlefield Earth, etc.

And the other obvious: Alien invasions: War of the Worlds, Signs, and--well Battlefield Earth :)

But what about all those great(?) movies of the 50s and 60s? The Fly, The Man with Two Brains, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, etc. (okay, I wasn't born yet then so I can't recall many.)

So my question now is, in todays literary world, would books like Jurrasic Park, Timeline, Prey (can ya tell I'm a Crichton fan? *G*) be considered science fiction--with perhaps an added clarifyer--like 'action' or 'adventure'?

How would you describe the non-outerspace, non-alien type of sci-fi? Would you call it sci-fi at all?
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2 comments:

ROCCO LOTEMPIO said...

I do believe movies like "Fly" and "50 Foot Woman" were classified under horror, although they certainly have more sci-fi elements in them.

Back in the 50's and 60's - there were not so many categories -people were not as fussy, I guess. :.)

2:27 PM
J.R. Turner said...

Thanks so much for the feedback, Toni :)

I guess it's hard to reconile the idea of 50s horror, with what we recognize today as horror. Would you think Jurassic Park is horror? I'm pretty sure Timeline wouldn't be (nobody get's eaten in that one. ;))

This genre thing can be so confusing once you start to *really* think about it. It's like taking a normal word and saying it fifteen different ways until it begins to sound like Klingon.

Thanks again!
Warmly,
Jenny:)

10:17 AM

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