Avatar Battle Royale-Discussion Thread XXI: We're a Big, Happy, Dysfunctional Family

[Keris]

Ask your English teacher or something, I've only heard them mentioned once (it's part of basic danish education to know the genres and what they generally are not why) but I know that they are part of some official rules for literature (I believe it's for stuff like "the years best Scifi book" awards so you are sure it qualifies for it, or maybe it's just how governments are) whether or not we need to use them is up to us, they only matter if we want to have it official (we could call it scifi but they might say fantasy).

I don't have an English teacher, as I don't take English. But when I was taking English there was no mention of "Genre Rules", and at times we discussed what genre particular works of literature fit into.

There are no "rules" as to what defines a genre, just general consensus. If a fantasy novel was nominated for a Sci Fi award, it just wouldn't win, would it?

Why?Because MM and Keris said it was Fantasy without any elements of Sci-Fi and don't want to admit they were wrong.

Ah, screw you. I said it wasn't Science Fiction. ABR isn't even soft sci-fi (which is defined as not being hard sci-fi), it's Fantasy with Sci-Fi elements. It's definitely Speculative Fiction, and P3 at least is Science Fantasy.

Let me settle this once and for all. Just because it has magic doesn't completely alter the setting. Don't some people consider Shadowrun Sci-fi?

Yeah, but "some people" are generally ignorant. Shadowrun is cyberpunk/urban fantasy

The way I see it, the general setting is based on technology and culture.
P3, definitely scifi. Just because it had magic in it didn't make it not sci fi.

Having magic makes it fantasy. Having advanced technology that resembles magic is Sci-Fi, but sword and sorcery style magic is fantasy.

For once Back to the future is in the future of Marty Mcfly (and start in the future of the time it was made thus everything that happens is a future event of that time) no matter how far back he travels in time it's still HIS future (else it would be pretty paradoxical)

By that definition, every work of fiction is set in the future, and so using the time of setting to define genre is redundant.