When I'm reading his stories I don't read them as sf, I see human beings acting as human beings in a different time and place. The I consider sf is "Fahrenheit 451", becuse I don't see Bradbury worried with scientific details. I think his works live in the kingdom of fantasy.

From interviews I've seen, Ray himself considers F451 his only Science Fiction work. He views the others as fantasy or fiction. His distinction between fantasy and science fiction is that fantasy could never happen and science fiction could. An example he cites are his Mars stories (including Martian Chronicles). He sees them as fantasies because he ignores scientific elements (breathable oxygen, etc.) in order to tell the stories. This makes them fantasies. I see a few more of his works as science fiction, by his own standard . . . stories like The Pedestrian and Kaliedoscope, perhaps; but generally agree that most of his writing is fantasy and fiction.


[This message has been edited by Mr. Dark (edited 12-30-2002).]

Yes.

Both.

Ray is wrong.

Even if a story could never happen, it could still be science fiction. It's SF if the material is presented in such a way that there is a scientific background to the events, however vague.

I have no doubt that the Martian Chronicles are SF. The categories aren't watertight, anyway.