Children of the Night

An idea's just popped into my head:

There's an attitude which says "There's a universe of strange stuff out there."...and after a pause adds "It's terrifying!". That's horror.

There's also an attitude which presupposes the same universe but adds, "Wow, let's explore!". That's science fiction.

And somewhere in between there's an attitude which adds "We must civilise it!". That's...bad science fiction. AKA, most science fiction.

It's commonplace that horror and scifi (and fantasy and porn) blend into each other at the edges, but what I'm suggesting here is a sliding scale, something like this:

Cowering in terror	Lovecraft
Resigned to horror	Poe
Defensive war	Battlestar Gallactica Star Trek DS9 Alien Star Wars
Kill all bugs	Starship Troopers Predator Invasion of the Bodysnatchers
Civilising the natives	Star Trek TOS Enterprise Planet of the Apes
Enlightened empire	EE Doc Smith Orson Scott Card Babylon 5 Star Trek TNG
Cute childlike aliens	Space Precinct Mork & Mindy
Peaceful coexistence	2001

And now, the next time you've got three and a half hours to spare, see if you can figure out where Bram Stoker's Dracula fits on the scale.