A/N: please have in mind that i am not a proffesional and obviously this is just a sum up of my research on th etopic, obviosuly credits will be given at the end of the post and i will give links to all my resources so you can check them out! Lastly please keep in mind that english is not my first language so there might be some mistakes here and there but ill try to not make them so this can be easily read! Thank you for the understanding!!
In all honesty i believe that every single person in the world is familliar with the term "scifi" or more complete "science fiction", but do we all know eveyrhting about it? Is it truly what we think it is? Are all scifi media the same? Well thats what im about to analyze today.
To begin this lets make sure that everyone is familliar with the term scifi and what it actually means in media. Going by definition science fiction, commonly known as sci-fi, is a .speculative genre that focuses on imaginetive futuristic concepts such as advanced techology, time travel, space exploration, alien life and technology.
A common question that is posed is what is the difference between scifi and fantasy. Well, the world in fantasy novels and films is different from our own due to fantasy whereas the world in scifi is different from our own due to technology.
It is widely believed that sci-fi starte dmaking an apperance in the beginning of the 20th century but thats not true. Im not going to be talking about various media that may or may not have some aspects of scifi in them, but scifi goes back to the 4th/5th century BC in ancient India. Back then many poems were released that had scifi elements one of the most popular being a HIndu poem called "The Ramayana" which included clear scifi indicators. It included flying devices that took mankind to the water, the sky but also space. It is interesting to think that people all the way back thought about this without even having invented cars.
Now, if we go to more "modern" time? I guess not mordern but surely closer to us that the 4th BC can ever be, we will be able to see the masteriece and the first book to actually indicate scifi phenomena, "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley in 1818. It is a mix of gothic horror and scifi, and it included scientific advancement. Shelley, was able to forge a path for future scifi writers to be able to take a dive into and reflect on the moral and ethical impications of scientific advancements. It is also worth mentioning that by having these ideas Shelley went against the progressive ideals her time had, making her stand out.
In 1926, H.G.Wells with "The War of The Worlds" along with Jules Berne and his book "2.000 leagues under the sea" made a huge impact and almost kind of shaped scifi as we think about it now. But during these times, another leap for scifi media to spread came crushing in and that is non other that Pulp, and with it came the scifi pulp magazine. Magazines like "Amazing Stories" , and "Weird Tales" made people aware of scifi as a genre, becaus eevn though "The War of Worlds" and "2.000 leagues under the sea" helped shape scifi, people didnt yet think of scifi as a genre. Along with everything else that was also the time of the first space operas, including "Star Wars".
It is important to note that history affected scifi. A big example for that is Octavia Butler, who used scifi to spread a strong essage about topics such as racial injustice.
And now, we have finally reached the Golden Age of scifi, when authors like Heinlen, Asimov and Clarke came into picture and made scifi what it is today. Scifi was not about building character anymore, t wa sabout scientific ideas and their ramifications. The well known piece of literature "Dune" by Frank Herbert had so much impact on how sicfi went but also how it was split.
With the arrival of Dune, scifi got split into two parts, hardcore scifi and soft scifi. This made so many people fight due to hardcore scifi fans sating that soft scifi fans werent "real" fans and soft sicfi fans just wantign to enjoy their movies and book. It notable though, that soft scifi was usually more successful with the box office. Int became more popular in the 70s and 80s with movie ssuch as Star Wars, Back to the Future and many more. While hardcore scifi movie spopular to us are movies like "2001: The Space Odyssey", "The Annihilation" and "Arrival".
For a quick runup hardcore scifi mainly focuses around worldbuilding and science over characters and plot or focuses on chemistry, physics, biology etc , while soft scifi focuses around characters and the plot more that worldbuilding and science, or focuses on sciences like psychology, sociology, political sciences etc.
But generally speaking scifi movies have also been here for a long time, maybe not a long time, maybe not as long a sbooks but still they date back to 1902 with "A trip to the moon". While "2001: Space Odyssey" was the height of visual scifi and maybe scifi as a whole.
You may think that books and films are the only media that mad e an impact on the sicif genre but that is not correct. Video games were also a major help to develop scifi as a genre and played a huge role in its popularity, especially in recent years and they also helped push credibillity for scifi as a whole.
I believe that we are all aware that scifi is a genre, and obviously like every other it has its own subgenres. While we talked about hardcore and soft scifi, there are way more subgenres that we can come across in the scifi genre as it is. But lets take look at them one by one.
Millitary scifi: As the name suggests millitary scifi, is a subgenre that distinctly revolves around the envirnment of the millitary. Most of the time characters are a part of a military organization and usually the plot will revolve around a war that might take place and/or millitary conflict.
Robot fiction: I believe the majority of us is familliar with this term and even if youre not it is easy to make out what it is by the name. Uusally media of this subgenre revolve around robotics typically relating to the work of Isaac Asimov and the ideas advanced in his robot series.
Social scifi: Fiction in which future societies are extrapolated, explained and often criticised, usually for the purpose of social satire. The social sciences are the main theme of this topic, however that doesnt mean that you wont see technology and science play a distinctly important role in this society. Certain writers that publish works dont prefer to label it as socal scifi and mostly stil with speculative fiction due to the stigma attached to science fiction, especiall when technology and science dont play a big part on the plot.
Space opera: Personally space operas are my favourite media. It is one of the more confusing and ill-defined terms the genre has to offer. It often refers to a long running series based on space with many continuing story arcs. They are usually based in space, hence the name, have a large number of characters and focus on epic fictional events, such as galactic wars.
Steampunk: The basic idea of steampunk is the introduction of futuristic concepts into an earlier setting, or vice versa. It argely focuses on the "age of steam" and the perceived inventiveness of industrial engineers. Since the 1980’s steampunk has grown beyond a simple literary genre and expanded into a large-scale artistic and cultural movement.
Cyberpunk: It focuses between the link of biology and technology and highlights and explores humanities relatoonship with computer systems. Cyperpunk niche g hand in hand by social decline.
Biopunk: It focuses on the link between genetic engineering and bio-technology.
Nanopunk: It is closely related to cyberpunk and biopunk, with the only difference that it focuses on nanotechnology.
Superhero fiction: Another one of my favourites, and as resources point out, it is still unsure whether or not superhero fiction belongs in the scifi genre or the fantasy one. Many also believe that it belongs in its own genre. But th emajority of people believe that it is a scifi subgenre.
Voyages extrodinaires: Jules Verne usually used this term to characterize his own work way before the scifi genre was discovered and named. In our days, this term can be placed upon works that are immediately influenced and inspired by Verne or works that use the same format as his own works.
Scientific romance: This term has been goingaround beore th eterm scifi was coined. It refers to the wrokds of early Bristish scifi writers.
Gothic scifi: Gothic scifi is a blurring on the line between gothic horror and scifi. It often takes gothic concepts such as vampires, werewolves and such and tries to explain them with scientific terms.
Mundane scifi: It is science fiction whcih uses the currently available or even achievable technology. The writers of works which fall into this genre usually aim to create realism, although this subgenre is ore of a movement.
Scifi/horror: It is a mix between horror and scifi
Scifi/comedy: a mix between scifi and comedy
Scifi/fantasy: Although usually opposed this subgenre mixes elements of the scifi world such as science and technology with elements of the fantasy world as as magic.
Apocalyptic scifi: A widly knwon subgenre which revolves around a cataclysmic event thay plays a huge role on society or even the whole human race, such as a zombie apocalypse or the end of the world.
post apocalyptic fiction: This subgenre usually revolves around the aftermath of a cataclysmic event and how it impacts the characters but also the changes sociaety and the world faced.
Zombie fiction: Most of the time it is considered to be straight up scifi without any doubt. An individual story about zombies, the majority of the times zombie apocalypse, can fall into more than one of these subgenres. But it usually falls under the post apocalyptic scifi subgenre because we are talking about the affects of the zombie apocalypse.
Alien invasion: As the name suggests we are talking about an alien species invading the planet and the attempts of humans to survive
Alien conspiracy: Fiction in which the existence of aline life, or the goverments interaction with alien, is hidden from the public.
Time Travel: Again as the title suggests, time travel is a subgenre which revolves around characters travelling back or forwrd in time and many times we see them come back and try to warn people of the current times for a catastrophic event, or if they moved backwards in time we see them try to chnage the pace of history
Alternate history: Evene though it can fall under many genres Alternate history converges with the "social science fiction", "time travel" and "pararell universe" subgenres of scifi.
Lost Worlds: A continuation of Jules Vernes voyage extrordinaires. This specific subegnre is more of a story telling format than it is a genre and it usually revolves around voyages on forgotten lands and scientific discoveries.
Dystopian fiction: We are all aware of what it is i believe, itdeal with political issues and it usually revolves around rebellious teenagers or people that try to chnage the flow of the world, because usually the said worlds freedoms are limited and generally it loks morality. This is the opposite of a utopian world.
Space Western: One of the lesser known subgenres of scifi, it consists of a future space-bourne society prortrayed as being like that of the American West.
Retro futurism: An attempt to recapture the spirit of the "Golden Ages" of scifi.
Recursive scifi: It is a science fiction in which there are multiple references to other scifi works or which attempts to examine, parody or pay homage to existing science fiction works.
Speculative fiction: This is an umbrella term which includeds the larger genres of scifi such as horror and supernatural fiction.
Slipstream: Highly dubious genre that is still being debated upon if it is a part or not in the greater scifi umbrella.
Pulp scifi: This is not a genre of scifi it just refers to the Golde Age of scifi where pulp, a swe mentioned, was going around.
Scifi fanfiction: Much closely to todays fanfiction, scifi fanfiction are sotries written by fans for an already existing scifi world.
Erotic scifi: Sexually explicit scifi also made by fans.
The "Complete" History Of Science Fiction
Every Science Fiction Subgenre Explained
Science Fiction: A Complete History
How to Write Science Fiction [ definition ]
A Guide to Science Fiction Subgenres
A/N: That was it for today! If you want me to make a more detailed post about anything here or anything else scifi, superhero or space relted please dont be afraid to ask me to do so! Im planning on making a post solely focused of scifi movies so wait for that! Also justa reminder that i am not a proffesional and quite frankly im just really intrested in the subject so please dont send any hate thank you!!
