I think what's telling about genre discourse is that the Nerd Genres, fantasy and science fiction, act like the definition of a "genre" is having "rules" about what's "allowed to happen" in the setting, and nerds think all genres work this way when mostly they don't
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SF and fantasy don't even actually really work this way The distinction between these two genres is just the superficial chrome, what it looks like - "psionic powers" aren't actually less impossible than "magic" in any sense, they just look and feel different
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Replying to @arthur_affect
These days my own working definition of the "difference" between SF and Fantasy is basically "how much is (whatever is going on) susceptible to rules-based thinking?" Like Brandon Sanderson doesn't write "Fantasy", he writes (lousy) SF with 'magic' instead of 'physics'.
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Replying to @iridienne @arthur_affect
It's also a continuum rather than a bright line imo. Which is why i tend to just say SFF or speculative fiction these days and not even bother trying to really differentiate.
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Replying to @iridienne @arthur_affect
I've been an "it's all sff/spec fic!" That Nerd for 20+ years. Highly recommend
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I *love* pointing out that virtually every "classic of Hard SF" has psi in it, too
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Replying to @zhinxy_vs_media @iridienne
It is worth pointing out that a much bigger chunk of people in the mid-20th century thought of psychic powers as "fringe science" that was "unproven but might turn out to be valid"
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Like, the evidence was never very good, and most actual respectable scientists who cared about the issue were always very convinced it was bunk But you had the Men Who Stare at Goats stuff going on
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So I mean that just shows how much this basic concept of "plausibility" varies over time *Sometimes* "yesterday's science fiction is tomorrow's science fact", just as often "yesterday's science fiction is tomorrow's corny fantasy"
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Okay but the book and movie are both hysterical
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And sci fi isn't really backing away from psi, if anything it feels "grandfathered in" to them now
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