Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Brief Essays on Genre, Part 3: On Fantastika

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On Fantastika

 

The term fantastika, meaning a single genre encompassing both science fiction and fantasy, originated in Eastern Europe. Science fiction chauvinists object to it strenuously. But, given that Hugo Gernsback included work by Edgar Rice Burroughs in Amazing Stories, the ur-zine of what he then called “scientifiction,” it has to be admitted that the distinction between fantasy and science fiction was blurred even before the latter was named.

 

--Michael Swanwick

1 comment:

Peter D. Tillman said...

Good point, re Gernsback & ER Burroughs! While I personally prefer trad science fiction, I read lots of fantasy too, and other stuff that straddles the line. . . .