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Pablo Obando
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Ciencia ficción
Agosto 3 de 20ll

Ciencia Ficción y Fantasía

Ciencia Ficción:

"Science Fiction is all about science. lt is the sole literary form that examines the ways in
which science penetrates, alters, and transforms the themes, forms, and worldview of fiction.
Since the Renaissance, what is called "fiction" becomes a vehicle of choice for the

"humanist" culture that increasingly sets itself in opposition to the culture of science that was
inaugurated by Francis Bacon (...) Thus are created two parallel paths of inquiry that in the
trventieth century are seen to diverge to form a "two cultures gap" betrveen the humanistic and
the scientific. Along this trajectory, rvhatever brings these cultures into contact or conflict are
the necessary conditions fbr a science fiction as an ''unstable compound" of the trvo" (Slusser
28).

"Science fiction is the branch of literature that deals with the eflbcts of change on people in

the real world as it can be projected into de past, the future, or the distant places. It often
concer.rrs itself with scientific or technological change, and it usually involves matters rvhose
irnportance is greater than the individual or the community" (Cunn 6).

Fantasía:

"Fantasy might be defined as the literature of difference. Fantasy occurs in a world not
congruent rvith ours or incongruent in some significant rvay" (Gunn 10).

Diferenciación:

"the difference between fantasy and science fiction lies in the fact that f'antasy takes place in a

world in which the rules of everyday experience do not apply, and science fiction in the world
of everyday experience extended. That is, fantasy creates its own r.vorld and its own laws;

science fiction accepts the real world and its larvs. We could not live in the real world if we

operated by the assumptions of the fantasy rvorld; but the assumptions of the science fiction
rvorld are compatible with our own" (Gunn 9).
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"Fantasy and science fiction belong to the same broad category of fiction that deals u,ith
events other than those that occur, or have occurred. in the everyday world. But they belong

to distinctly different methods of looking at those worlds: fantasy is unrealistic; science

fiction is realistic. Fantasy creates its own universe with its own laws; science fiction exists in
our universe with its shared laws. Fantasy is a private vision that one accepts for the sake of
vision; science fiction is a public vision that must meet every test of reality. The basis of
fantasy is psychological truth; nothing else matters. The basis of science fiction is the real
world" (Gunn I l).

Bibliografia:

Gunn, James. "Toward a definition of Science Fiction". S¡tectrlation on speculafion. Theories

of Science Ficlion. Ed. James Gunn & Mattherv Candelaria. Maryland: Scarecrow press,
2005.5-12.

Slusser. George. "The Origins of Science Fiction". A compunion to Science Fiction. Ed"
David Seed. Oxford: Blackrvell publishine. 200g. 27-42.