Mandy:I love sci-fi esp that talking horse show, that was one of my favorites
Hodges: Mr. Ed? Yeah... That's not science fiction
Mandy: Sure it is. It postulates an alternate universe in which horses evolved a larynx
Hodges: That's fantasy
Mandy: No, Fantasy is anything that travels faster than the speed of light, Hodges, which is why if Albert Einstein were alive today,he'd slap your face.
-----CSI:A Space Oddity

What constitutes “Science Fiction”?

This is probably one of those questions you’ve never bothered to ask yourself. Fans of the genre, however, ask it a lot—and write about it a lot. Some of them even get angry about it.

Take a look at the following titles of movies and books (that I hope you have at least heard of): Star Wars; Plan 9 From Outer Space; Star Trek; Buck Rogers; Flash Gordon. Which of these would you consider science fiction?

At some point, all art is subjective.

As I read the arguments in favor of (or against) more vigorous critiquing of science fiction, accompanied by discussions of just what exactly is science fiction, what isn’t, what is fantasy, where they do or shouldn’t intersect and whether sentences like this can actually be diagrammed, I have many thoughts, which may or may not be arranged into a cogent article but … why not try?

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