Harry Potter: Fantasy or Sci-Fi?

[Rosemary]

No: HPFGUIDX 14098

Jim wrote:
Does Harry Potter have more in common with Randall Garrett's work or 
with the Lord of the Rings? Or with Robert Jordan's work?


Well, actually, I keep my Potter books on the same shelf with my
collection of Terry Pratchett's discworld stuff.  The covers say that's
fantasy, although as Pratchett remarks, cardboard isn't very smart. <g>

	Jim asked what I meant by typical science fiction, and mentioned some
of the masters. The trouble  is, works of genius transcend their genre.
You'd have to be a nutter to argue that the Mona Lisa is not a portrait,
but it also contains one of the most perfectly realized and influential
landscapes in the history of art. 
	The insistence that the science fiction and fantasy categories be
mutually exclusive says more about the politics of the critic  than it
does about the work. But what I expect from science fiction is the
Eureka! moment. Somewhere at or near the climax of the story, the
protagonist observes or deduces something about the nature of his world
which leads directly to the resolution of the story. When Paul Atreides
says, "I've seen the Now.", when Louis Wu realizes what Fist-Of-God
mountain has to be, when Luke Skywalker pushes away his targeting
computer...those are Eureka! moments.
	There are Eureka! moments in the background of Harry Potter, just as
there is a landscape in the background of the Mona Lisa. But in the
foreground, there is what Tolkien calls the Eucatastrophe, the "sudden
glorious turn that lifts the heart", when, by something we never
expected to happen, the day is saved. When the Stone drops into Harry's
pocket, when the sword drops out of Gryffindor's hat, when Prongs
gallops out of the darkness, when Harry's parents appear from
Voldemort's wand...those are  Eucatastrophes. They belong to the genre
Tolkien called fairy-story and we call fantasy: the genre of The Lord of
the Rings and of Harry Potter.
	
Pippin