As opposed to, say, SF? Does the presence of psionics / ESP make something Fantasy (or SF)? How about things that are claimed to be tech, but meld up with Clarke's Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"?), including things that we'd currently consider impossible by our understanding of the laws of the universe (gravity plates on ships; FTL drives)?
Is it Fantasy if the guys with pointed ears come from a Fairy Mound, but SF if they come from Vulcan?
For that matter, what about religious elements? If a prayer is apparently answered in a novel, does that make it fantasy? How is that different from a magic spell (which would be "clearly" fantasy)? Or a psychodrama delusion (which we'd consider simple drama)?
Some thought-provoking musings in the below from De. #ddtb
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I've been thinking about fantasy novels, having written a lot about mirrors lately during NaNoWriMo (via Through the Looking-Glass). What is fantasy? A reflection, either internal or external, of …
I think people like Orson Scott Card have written about this in their How To Books. He said to Ben Bova that fantasy has trees and scifi has rivets.
I love the True Game and Mavin Manyshaped series by Sherri S. Tepper as well as the Angel series by Sharon Shinn. Both have very fantasy elements that turn out to be scifi instead. Both share this premise that when you scratch at the magical Talents or beautiful, heavenly angels in the respective series, you'll find a genetics program or genetic engineering program for developing the psionics and wings on a primitive planet from star-spanning ancestors.
This is similar to the Darkover novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Ah, yes. Darkover. Another "It's SF! No, it's Magic! No, it's Psionics!"
The problem with the trees vs rivets (though amusing) is it leaves out urban fantasy.
My understanding of urban fantasy is that it's basically our current city lives with magic added to increase freshness.
I think the trees vs. rivets still holds if you're not too literal. Just change it to lamp-posts vs. space ships or nymphs vs. aliens.