Sorcery in Star Wars

During class the question "is this sci-fi or fantasy" was put before the class. I found the discussion of Star Wars as either Science Fiction or Fantasy to be especially interesting, but I think the question was too constrictive. I don't think that it should be considered to be an either-or situation.

Star Wars has always been the metric I've used to measure other science-fiction against, and I know that I am not alone in this. In class it was proposed that Star Wars should be placed in the category of fantasy instead. This idea was counter-intuitive, but it does make sense. The Force certainly seems to belong in a world of dragons and elves than one of Star Destroyers and Wookies. And as Professor Jackson pointed out, the archetypes are almost Arthurian. But just because there is the presecne of fantasy, does this exclude the possibility of science-fiction?

It is wrong to think that two separate genres cannot both be present in the same work. The discussion never touched on this possibility, and I think that this was a mistake. Firefly shows that sci-fi can be compatible with the western genre, so why can't Star Wars be an example of a sci-fi fantasy? It should be obvious that Star Wars is deep into the sci-fi genre, even if it exhibits some clear fantasy elements as well. Even though the actual science is rarely touched on, from the dialogue between Han Solo and Obi-Wan debating the merits of the force versus those of having a good blaster we can tell that the technology in Star Wars comes from rational science, and that there is a tension between the adherents of each. When we look at Star Wars this way, we see that it is not either a sci-fi or a fantasy series, but both, and is in fact partially about the very subject we were discussing in class: the differences between sci-fi and fantasy.