I invoke the famed SF SS identification powers of the SDMB, does anybody remember a story where a lone astronaut lands in a planet where the plants emit some kind of allucinatory effect that makes him see them as women? he ends up er… pollinating them.
Also, anybody knows who said something like “A book is an SF book when it says ‘Science Fiction’ in the cover” ?
Probably not what you’re thinking of, but the classic “Martian Odyssey” (Weinbaum) has plant-like creatures that can hypnotize animals (and humans) into seeing attractive things. One astronaut sees a famous actress, and is only saved by his alien counterpart.
Nope, It wasn’t “Martian Odyssey”.
The protagonist had an FTL space ship, and his name was (I think) Randy.
Could be * The Pollinators of Eden * by John Boyd
Nope, it was short story, nothing like novella length and it was a somewhat comedic story.
Bit of a stretch but “Child of Mind” by Norman Spinrad has the plants but instead of hallucinations, they summon up “actual” women, tailor made to the fantasies of the three crew members.
Norman Spinrad said
“There is only one definition of science fiction that seems to make sense: ‘Science fiction is anything published as science fiction.’”
And I’d have guessed it was The Pollinators of Eden as well; maybe there was an earlier short story Boyd expanded?
Definitively not “The Pollinators of Eden”, there was just one astronaut, I remember the story had a comedic tone, and in the end he gets rich by planting “gardens” in different worlds and selling the plants “services”, he gets called “Randy green fingers” and it’s implied that there is a coarser version of his nickname where what is green is not precisely his fingers.
But in either case, he’s still Randy?
I don’t know, how randy can he still be after all those hard years of pollinating?
Found it! it’s Planting Time by Peter Adams and Charles Nightingale, I read it as “Epoca de Siembra” in the spanish language version of Brian Aldiss anthology “Galactic Empires, vol I” in 1986 or so.
Damon Knight once said that science fiction is what I point to when I say “this is science fiction.”
Samuel R. Delany once pointed out that this was the only accurate definition since it’s impossible to come up with one that includes all you consider science fiction while excluding everything you don’t think is SF.
Well, and if I came up with such a definition, it would certainly not work for you. Somebody out there thinks Lord of Light is science fiction, and somebody else thinks it isn’t.
Yes. Because, as Chip said, there can’t be a definition that includes everything you consider SF and excludes everything you don’t.
I personally use the definition that “Science fiction is a form of fantasy that assumes the fantastic events have a ‘scientific’ explanation.” But some people get very upset if you suggest science fiction is a form of fantasy at all. And I’m sure there are counterexamples to my definition.
Science fiction and fantasy are certainly akin, and both (along with alternate history) fall under the umbrella of speculative fiction. But the line between the two can certainly be blurry. Key, I think, is to not regard the classification as one or the other to be pejorative.
The vast majority of science fiction is fantasy. Which leads to so many people today believing that many of the pure fantasy elements could or might happen some day.
Congratulations!
That’s not definition too, but I agree that there are probably counterexamples.
You had to poke that scar, didn’t you!?! That is one of my absolute favorite books of all time and while I agree that it straddles the line (I would call it science fantasy), what I can’t stand is:
I CAN’T GET IT ON KINDLE!
I find it increasingly difficult to read paper books, but I recently gave my copy to ZakSon and I want to reread it to refresh for the inevitable questions, but the Universe has told me “NO”. 
I think that’s always been true (both parts)