Genre Classification

[Brian]

There have already been a few different threads hitting on this sort of thing (Leviathan Wakes: Space Opera?, Hyperion: Genre Grief,
Superhero Genre: Sword or Laser, Steampunk: Sword or Laser, etc) but I wanted to start a broader discussion. I had been working my way through old episodes of Extra Credits and got to the episode on Technobabble. It starts with the differentiation of Science Fiction and Future Fantasy. Science Fiction is a possibly future extrapolated from current facts and scientific understanding. Future Fantasy is where technology is the magic that lets the characters move through an interesting story.

This got me thinking about what the similarities and differences actually are for these different genres and how they can be classified. My current theory is that stories can be classified by two things.
1 - The base time setting (or equivalent Earth technology age)
2 - What sort and how much of a fantastical element is added

In other words:
1 - Standard Medieval fantasy level, present day, far future, etc
2 - Strict logical magic, high magic, plausible technological advances, physics breaking technology, etc

Laser is generally considered set in the future some amount with additional technology, which includes both Science Fiction (plausible technology) and Future Fantasy (technology can do whatever is needed). Even though they have the same general time setting, the vast difference in how the fantastical element is treated makes some people feel they are vastly different genres. Compare something by Arthur C. Clarke to Star Wars expanded universe books.

Sword is generally a medieval technology setting with additional magic. In Stormwarden and the Cycle of Fire series, the magic is given a more scientific explanation, albeit still fantastical - (view spoiler)[Demons are aliens, magic is from alien parasites, the good guy mentor is the AI from a crashed spaceship (hide spoiler)]. I'm sure there are some books that have less fantastical/more realistic magic, but my mind is blanking. The point is that fantasy books are more consistent and so sub-genres aren't brought up much beyond low vs high magic - which still don't vary much on how the fantastical element is actually treated.

Steampunk is set in Victorian/Wild West/etc era with additional technology. Similar to Laser, some steampunk is somewhat realistic and is more similar to Science Fiction, and others may have giant steam robots and be more like Future Fantasy.

Urban Fantasy is set in modern times with more fantastical magic.

Cyberpunk is set in recent past/modern day/near future with either fantastic technology or realistic technology.

The anime Full Metal Alchemist is set in the recent past but had a realistic/scientific magic. I think this post is more turning into how stories using advanced technology can have either realistic technology or fantastical technology, but stories with magic tend to be exclusively fantastical magic because realistic/scientific magic is much more complicated and almost seems paradoxical.

I am interested to hear what other people think of this idea.

[Random]

I think people spend too much time worrying about genre. :D

[Rasnac]

In literature, as in all art forms, definitions of genres, styles and periods are fluent and subjective.

[Jenny (Reading Envy)]

I really love the sub-genre lists over at Worlds Without End. They let books fall under multiple categories, and it has been great for discovering unknown authors and books by following a path from a book I knew I liked.

[Gordon]

That looks awesome, thank you Jenny!