Sci Fi

The Debate Over "Sci Fi"

Younger sci fi fans are going to find this hard to believe, but for some older fans, there is (or was) some controversy over what to call science fiction. Similar to the Trekker versus Trekkie debate, the contention was simply this - the only appropriate and respectful abbreviation for 'science fiction' is 'SF'.

Then What is "Sci Fi"?

Of course if you have two words that start with similar syllables, you are going to take the first syllable of each word and put them together. "Hi-Fi". "Slo-Mo". It was inevitable that people outside the genre began to refer to science fiction as 'sci-fi'.

Many old-time science fiction fans often pronounced the word, 'sci fi' as 'Sciffy.' The more inclusive term at the time, 'SF,' was pronounced as either 'Es Ef' or 'science fiction.' Sciffy was used for fluffy or less serious works such as Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers. While the less serious forms of science fiction have always been quite beloved, to use the term generically, was for many a belittling. Many of those who wept at the victorious end of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, or marveled at the richness of image in The Snow Queen, had strong issue with such works being labeled as degraded forms of the genre - space opera, sword'n'sorcery, media product...

At the time when this debate was joined, most science fiction movies and television shows were considered puerile by the readers of science fiction literature, and they had a point. Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, It's About Time, none of them sterling examples of science fiction's more thought-provoking aspects.

Thus, for a time, science fiction fans insisted on reserving the disrespectful diminutive 'sci-fi' for media-trash. Their genre was science fiction, or at the very least, SF.

Language Moves On

While this distinction enlivened proceeding at many a college science-fiction bookclub meeting in the sixties and seventies, no one else was paying any attention. Enthusiasts used the terminology debate for a time as a way of marking insiders from outsiders, but that was about the extent of the impact.

Meanwhile media caught up, and most science fiction fans embraced Star Trek in one of its many incarnations as 'science fiction' in their sense of the word. Thus media lost its disreputable air and to some extent defanged the debate.

Some Debate Persists

Believe it or not, the debate in some form still exists in online communities. In March '05, editor Lou Anders of Prometheus Books attempts to clarify Science Fiction Vs. "SciFi".

In Jan '05, online science fiction magazine SciFiDimensions defends its own name in Letters.

Fortunately to most readers and watchers of science fiction, particularly those under the age of, say, thirty, the debate is perplexing and ultimately meaningless.