This morning while I was drinking my tea, I read a review of After Yang, an upcoming science fiction film staring Colin Farrell. The Dazed review painted an intriguing picture of the film, but I was thrown off by the description of the film as "a sci-fi".
This is my first encounter with the use of sci-fi as a singular stand-alone noun, rather than an adjective or an abstraction, and I'm not sure that I'm entirely on board with this.
Karli and I had a lengthy discussion about the abstract versus the singular in entertainment genres, and decided that whereas terms like "drama", "comedy", and "romance" may work as both, "horror", "science fiction" and "action" still need to be adjectives. If you feel that "sci-fi" has somehow crossed the floor in the recent past, please let us know, and please cite some examples. (Sorry, the After Yang piece that starts this discussion doesn't count.)
This all begs the question of sci-fi versus science fiction, which has been hotly debated for most of my time as a genre fan/geek. "Science fiction" dates back to the 1920s, although some scholars say it may be in use as early as 1851, whereas the term "sci-fi" as an alternative to science fiction is attributed to uber-fan Forrest J. Ackerman, circa 1954.
I feel that sci-fi as a synonym for science fiction is a relatively recent development - in my mind, sci-fi traditionally defines a less elevated sub-genre of science fiction: B-movies and so forth. As an example, Star Trek is science fiction, whereas the Sharknado franchise is sci-fi - and to be honest, I'm open to debate on parts of Star Trek.
- Sid
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