For example, many supernatural fans tend to like vampires...i think they're balogna and better suited in the Horror section, and then sub-genred as supernatural. Others would not agree. So how do we set the boundaries for what is or is not a supernatural?

Is supernatural really a sub-genre of the Horror type, Fantasy, or even Sci-Fi? Is it a clever mixture? Or is it one on its own defined by boundaries that we are yet to comprehend?

About defining the supernatural, I think part of the problem is that due to its nature supernatural events escape definition. It's a bit like the difference between a chair and a couch, you might be tempted to say it's the legs, the padding, but there are clear examples of chair and couches that will be left out, and yet when you are in front of the bloody contraption you will say: oh that's a chair. It's the same, you have a hard time putting it in words but when you see it you say: oh that's supernatural.

I must admit that I really don't like boundaries, in my good days I like to think of myself as a rebel =P. My first instinct is to say: Why set boundaries? Why not rejoice in the ambiguity, do whatever we want and call it supernatural? But when I'm not so hyped I see the usefulness of trying to find a working definition.

I can’t come up with a straightforward definition so let's try to approach it by saying why it wouldn't do to have it as a sub-genre of Horror, Fantasy or Sci-Fi.

Horror tries to get a very specific reaction from the reader, it's there to scare, supernatural may be scary in the sense that it takes you away of what's usual, it takes you away from what is comfortable and familiar, that might be scary but it's not necessarily so.

Fantasy depends upon the creation of an alternative reality, it may have different rules especially when magic is involved, but it has it's own sense of normalcy, so a dragon is not an apparition, it has a place in that world and for that it can't be considered supernatural, but a dragon puffing fire one Saturday at 6:00 pm in a Wal-Mart might be. A rule of the thumb may be that in a supernatural story werebeasts hide from the humans and their existence is not generally known and in a Fantasy setting you might have a werebeast trading clan with human customers that are somehow aware of the inhuman nature of the creatures or at least recognize the plausibility of their existence.

Sci-Fi is a composite of science and fiction, it works with a pseudoscientific logic, in fact it depends on it, and some reason has to be put forward for what's going on. Whether it's the aliens have landed and they are all telepathic or the child has a weird genetic mutation that gives her otherworldly powers, you have to take some time to explain things. That's not the case in supernatural stories, sure you can have your own explanation about why do ghost exists, you can even have daring ghost-hunters with complicated machinery and terminology but most of the times you just ask your readers to suspend disbelief and agree that ghosts exist.

Finally and example of why it deserves its own section: What about angel stories? Most people will agree angels aren't scary so Horror is out, the setting might be a very realistic suburban neighborhood in which the only odd element is the angel itself, that hardly classifies as Fantasy, about Sci-fi well, mind you I'm not starting a discussion about the existence of angels but I'd say it hits the fi but it doesn't hit the sci. So there next time that someone starts saying the genre is not deserving you hit him/her with the angels.;P

I think supernatural is anything that goes on in something that is our world, or close, our time, or close, and involves something beyond a strictly materialistic worldview. Modern fantasy, for one, could be supernatural. Vampires and werewolves and other creatures, if occurring naturally with no supernatural powers, would be - and when intended to scare, they're also horror. God stuff would be, at least when dealing with a more active God than your everyday story about christian characters or a strictly conceptual or religious god or gods. Really anything involving active forces or beings that do not exist in a strictly materialistic view of our world.

Let's put it like this, if God heals in a story, it's supernatural, unless science explains it. If science in the story explains it, it's scifi. God, angels, deamons, spirits, ghosts, magic - in something close to our world, makes it supernatural.

And whether or not any of that exists in the real world, a strictly materialistic view can yet not allow for it, and so - its supernatural.

As for scifi, as I mentioned above, there are many branches of science. Psychology, psychological science fiction - doesn't that make every thriller, every horror story scifi? What about history and all sciences related? Those make every pirate or medieval story scifi. And when we get as far back as to touch upon the evolution/creation controversy and conceptual possibilities, they idea that is not true is, with whatever science supports it, science fiction. Scifi usually involves technology, space and/or the future, but the word itself could include so much more.

Heh, if we have horrific and technologically advanced aliens, in a historical western setting, with magic, and run the story along the general boy-meets-girl plot... what genre is it?

I think the genre system is a little too limited, although it does come with the possibility of writing something that plays on those very limitations.

To me, supernatural isn't really horror at all, even though it can easily be part of a horror story. Supernatural is a combination between spiritual, sci-fi, anf fantasy. I don't know how to properly explain it right now, as I've said, I just woke up.

-Nods her heads towards Mercurial Weather-

Hey there, hope you don't mind that I stopped by your forum. I can't believe I never even saw it before you told me, because I used to read all the forums here without posting.

Guess it just never registered that it was you, because I hadn't heard from you. Sorry.

~TWR

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