Eunuch Stories, Science Fiction or Fantasy?

[Josh Goodman (imported)]

It has been said that Science Fiction is Fantasy, but that Fantasy is not Science Fiction. What it really comes down to is the expectations of the reader.

When Kipling wrote the Jungle Book he made no attempt to make the story plausible. Kipling never bothered to explained how it was that Mowgli (a boy) was able to talk with animals and we, the readers, have no problem with that. It is, after all, fantasy.

Now let's say that we are watching Star Trek and Capt. Kirk is visiting Earth in 1850 and he is in India. That could happen, Capt. Kirk has, after all, visited the past on Earth on quite a number of occasions. But what if Capt Kirk came across a talking bear who was taking care of a little naked boy. We would expect Kirk to ask the bear something like, "Gee as a bear how are you able to talk and why are you careing for a human child?" If Kirk didn't bother to ask the question, or if he did and the bear gave a really poor answer we, the viewers, would think Star Trek had hit an all time low.

My point is Science Fiction is Fantasy but it is a Fantasy that at least attempts to be somewhat reasonable. I tend to think that the best Eunuch stories are a bit like Science Fiction. All sorts of crazy stuff can happen but they should be somewhat plausible.

Anyone want to agree or disagree?

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

Yes, I think plausability helps, let's my mind really get in to the story.

[Slammr (imported)]

I like both Science Fiction and Fantasy, but the story should be plausible within the context of the story. There's nothing wrong with magic, but you want your reader to be able to enter the world you've created and believe, while he's in it, that it's real. You want to be able to transport the reader from his world to the one you've constructed. Don't violate the rules you've set up for that world.

I like alternate realities, and who knows...they may actually exist. Quantum Mechanics and Inflation Theory, among others, suggest that we live in the Multiverse, which may include infinite Universes. Perhaps, in some of those, the worlds we create on EA exist. If there are infinite Universes, everything is possible.

[A-1 (imported)]

It has been said that Science Fiction is Fantasy, but that Fantasy is not Science Fiction. What it really comes down to is the expectations of the reader.

When Kipling wrote the Jungle Book he made no attempt to make the story plausible. Kipling never bothered to explained how it was that Mowgli (a boy) was able to talk with animals and we, the readers, have no problem with that. It is, after all, fantasy.

Now let's say that we are watching Star Trek and Capt. Kirk is visiting Earth in 1850 and he is in India. That could happen, Capt. Kirk has, after all, visited the past on Earth on quite a number of occasions. But what if Capt Kirk came across a talking bear who was taking care of a little naked boy. We would expect Kirk to ask the bear something like, "Gee as a bear how are you able to talk and why are you careing for a human child?" If Kirk didn't bother to ask the question, or if he did and the bear gave a really poor answer we, the viewers, would think Star Trek had hit an all time low.

My point is Science Fiction is Fantasy but it is a Fantasy that at least attempts to be somewhat reasonable. I tend to think that the best Eunuch stories are a bit like Science Fiction. All sorts of crazy stuff can happen but they should be somewhat plausible.

Anyone want to agree or disagree?

Fiction is fiction... All you need is the bare necessities... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ogQ0uge06o) ...if you can get the damn thing to download... and he wasn't naked...



...now quit monkeying around... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV8HrpOu1FA)



...how much fun is one person allowed in this life? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPEEFu_csIE&NR=1)

ONE MORE TIME!!!

NOT ENOUGH!!!!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hdrcDDq ... re=related)

[StefanIsMe (imported)]

I think, Josh, you hit the nail on the head by mentioning plausibility.

I can believe darn near anything if the author paints the story in a way that I can submerse myself into it. All the best writers here at the EA do that very well, including you.

I think, the thing to avoid is going too far with expecting the reader to 'put up' wth too many layers of unbelievability. Having, for instance, Captain Kirk meet up with talking, walking stuffed Teddy Bears would be too much for viewers. Warp Drive, transporters, and Phasers, yes; Warp Drive, talking teddies, and tentacle-sex, no.

Although that last one would make a fun anime...

[curious_guy (imported)]

Warp Drive, transporters, and Phasers, yes; Warp Drive, talking teddies, and tentacle-sex, no.

In every version of Star Trek except Star Trek Enterprise phasers can cause a human, or human sized object, to glow red, or green, and then disappear as if it never existed. There is no explosion, smoke, ash or debris of any kind. Mass/energy cannot be destroyed. I think this is totally unacceptable for Science Fiction and very undesirable in Fantasy.

[Slammr (imported)]

In every version of Star Trek except Star Trek Enterprise phasers can cause a human, or human sized object, to glow red, or green, and then disappear as if it never existed. There is no explosion, smoke, ash or debris of any kind. Mass/energy cannot be destroyed. I think this is totally unacceptable for Science Fiction and very undesirable in Fantasy.

Every time on Star Trek they go from Warp speed (faster than light speed) to full stop I cringe. Everything in space, if it isn't accelerating, is in free fall. Nothing ever stops in space. It's always moving relative to something. They might match their speed to another space craft, but both are still moving.

I also have some problems with Warp speed, not so much that they obtain it. Although faster than light speed is impossible in space, there may be a way to warp space itself. Some portions of the Universe are beyond our light horizon because space itself, where those galaxies are located, is expanding faster than light. Space can expand faster than light, but objects located in space can't move faster than the speed of light within space. The only way the Enterprise can move at faster than light speeds is to manipulate space itself.

The question is then, how do they stay in sync with Earth and the rest of the Federation? If they're moving at faster than light speeds, they have to be seriously out of sync with Earth time wise. Earth should have aged thousands or millions of years while they are gone. Star Trek completely disregards the Law of Relativity.

I wonder, too, how a Klingon or other alien life form can mate with a human. I would think it would be easier for a chimpanzee to mate with a human than it would be for an alien life form to mate with a human.

I'm sorry to see that hundreds of years in the future they haven't cured baldness. They seem to have cured everything else.

Don't get me wrong: I still like Star Trek, but I have to seriously abandon disbelief when I watch it, especially when they come to Full Stop.

Back to the subject of this thread: I have no problem with Fantasy, Science Fiction, or Magic, but the story, for me, needs to be logical given the world that has been created for the story.

[curious_guy (imported)]

Many of the stories on the archive involve men/boys who allowed to volunteer to have some (or all) of their genitals removed. In most of the stories (including mine) the number/percentage who do so is far higher than is realistic.

Many of the stories on the archive involve men/boys who have some (or all) of their genitals removed by other people. In most of the stories (including mine) the number/percentage who have this done to them is far higher than is realistic.

I think this is acceptable for archive stories. If less than one man/boy in 1,000 lost something, the stories would not be very interesting. Other than that, I think the archive stories should be internally consistent. The change in a character's desires and beliefs should be gradual and logical.

[Slammr (imported)]

Whereas the Multiverse, possibly the existence of Infinite Universes, was strictly science fiction as little as five years ago, most of the theories of the creation of the Universe point to the existence of multiple Universes.

Infinity is a difficult concept for a finite being, but if there are infinite Universes, there are infinite Universes of identical copies of each of us and there are infinite variations of our world. It's not unreasonable to believe that in some of them, boys and men are regularly neutered. If we can conceive such a world, it probably exists.

Again, the trick it to keep the story consistent and plausible within the context of the created world.

[Kortpeel (imported)]

Science Fiction is Fantasy but it is a Fantasy that at least attempts to be somewhat reasonable. I tend to think that the best Eunuch stories are a bit like Science Fiction. All sorts of crazy stuff can happen but they should be somewhat plausible.

Anyone want to agree or disagr

ee?

Plausibility within the context of the story is essential. Yes, the reader will willingly suspend disbelief in return for his enjoyment of the story but there is a breaking point.

I'd like to make another point. A lot of the stories here use first person narrators and it is the narrator who gets nutted. For the story to work the reader has to identify with the narrator in order to share his emotions regarding the nutting. This means it is up to the writer to make his narrator as much of a real person as he can so as to have as strong an identification as possible.

But having said that, each reader is different from every other reader. The story that appeals to everyone has yet to be written. This archive is specialised in that any kink or personality trait a writer can think of will be shared by someone out there. And it is okay to write it. So allow your imagination and fantasies to flow and know you are going to entertain someone.