What makes the difference between an alien creature and a fantasy creature? Is the difference something we know? Is it something we have seen in movies which lends us to mentally associate it with fantasy or science fiction?
I have another question then.... Where does this lay?
I have another question then.... Where does this lay?
Is it the Spice Worm from Dune? Is it a dragon's mouth from any number of our fantasy tales? No. Neither. It's the inside of a mouth of a Leather Back Turtle, here on Earth. It is neither fantasy nor science fiction, nor even horror. It's just a turtle.
So, if something so outstanding and typical of our world be questionable and uncertain upon virgin eyes looking at it, then why is a dragon only fantasy?
My answer, it has to do with the virgin eyes of the reader. How a writer cultivates their world, how they describe a creature or an event, the way they can put together words which allows two very different people to see a similar thing and KNOW it exists...or maybe, those two very different people see two completely different beings and KNOW the being exists SOMEWHERE.
Is it the creature which decides the genre'? No, I say, it is the reader...
So, if something so outstanding and typical of our world be questionable and uncertain upon virgin eyes looking at it, then why is a dragon only fantasy?
My answer, it has to do with the virgin eyes of the reader. How a writer cultivates their world, how they describe a creature or an event, the way they can put together words which allows two very different people to see a similar thing and KNOW it exists...or maybe, those two very different people see two completely different beings and KNOW the being exists SOMEWHERE.
Is it the creature which decides the genre'? No, I say, it is the reader...