Superhero Fic: Science Fiction or Fantasy?

[Christopher Wright]

Well I guess that would place Superhero stories more on the fantasy side of things, since that puts them in Mythology status -- Hercules, Perseus, Zeus... Thor, God of Thunder...

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

It would be science fantasy.

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

I personally don't see fantasy, science fiction, or superhero stories as different genres or really any genre at all. I prefer to think of them as hm... flavors for genres. You can have a mystery story set in the future or the past, and same with romances. To me, "Superhero" is just another flavor as well..

I see it as the other way around. Romance, mystery, action? Those are all flavors. The only genres are[Speculative Fiction]and Realistic Fiction. When I say Speculative Fiction, I wanted to change it to Sci-Fi and Fantasy, but thestupid Mythic Scribes system won't let me edit words, only replace letters with other letters, so I ended up making it say Fantadeastic Fiction.

 

[Insolent Lad]

The only genres are[Speculative Fiction]and Realistic Fiction.

I would maintain there are three genres (or maybe we should use some other word than genre): Realist Fiction, Surrealistic Fiction, and Speculative Fiction. Realism gives us the world 'as it is,' Surrealism takes that real world and twists it, Speculative Fiction creates a new reality. By these definitions, 'magic realism' would be a flavor of Surrealism, not Speculative Fiction.

And I stole this more-or-less from Ursula K. Le Guin.

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

When I say flavor, I mean mystery or action or romance. The way the story is told. Magical Realism would be a genre/subgenre. Also, that is not the commonly accepted definition- in the modern definition, surrealism fits under speculative fiction.

 

[Insolent Lad]

I consider genre to be tied to subject matter, not how it is told. Mystery is about mysteries. Romance is about romance. Science fiction is about science...sort of. And I very much hold by those three 'categories' I mentioned underlying all fiction.

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

Romance is a flavor applied to realistic fiction (most romances), fantasy (which tends to be involving vampires, sadly enough), or sci fi (aliens falling in love, and whatnot)

 

[Electric Bone Flute]

But it was all plausible at the time. SF is about dealing with plausible futuristic science, technology, and sociology. Sure, some of the ideas they came up with are now (to us) obviously absurd, but at the time they made as much sense as something like nanotech immortality does to us now. (Of course, science as a whole has advanced greatly in the intervening time, so I think we have a somewhat better–though not perfect–idea about what kinds of things are plausible.)

Superhero fiction should be considered a separate genre, as its plausibility threshold (and scientific accuracy) is much lower and it's not really about how science or technology affects society. It's more mythic than that; it's about how abnormally powerful people deal with the world. It's more akin to space opera or science fantasy.

I second this. Further evidence is how superhero fiction, especially literature, has its own set conventions. I’ve seen masks, personae, “power classes” for lack of a better word, and the like imitated repeatedly in superhero fiction and only superhero fiction.