I think a pail of air is more like soft science fiction. It might focus more on the human experience and emotions related to the concept rather than strict scientific principles.
I'm not sure as I haven't read the story. But typically in a story like this, there could be a protagonist who is somehow associated with the pail of air. Maybe it's a scientist trying to preserve the air, or a survivor who depends on it.
Well, it could be that the 'pail of air' is a symbol in the story. It might represent hope or life. In many short stories, such simple objects carry deep meanings. So perhaps the story revolves around characters who are in some sort of desperate situation and this pail of air becomes the focus of their struggle, whether it's a physical, emotional, or mental struggle.
The main theme in 'A Pail of Air' is survival and the determination to keep going. It highlights the strength of the human spirit and the lengths people will go to in order to endure. Additionally, it raises questions about the nature of existence and our place in a chaotic universe.
Avatar was a sci-fi film based on modern biology and physics. It explored the story of humans entering Pandora and establishing civilization there. In the movie, there are many technological and biological differences between the creatures on Pandora and humans. These differences are very different from the biological and technological levels in our real world, so it can be considered a hard science fiction movie.
Soft science fiction can be defined as the type of science fiction that doesn't rely as much on strict scientific accuracy. It's more about using scientific ideas as a backdrop to tell stories about human nature, culture, and society. Stories in this genre may involve time travel, but the focus is less on the mechanics of time travel and more on how it impacts the characters' lives and the world around them.
Soft science fiction is all about the softer side of science. It looks at how science influences our emotions, behaviors, and social structures. It might explore concepts like artificial intelligence and its impact on human emotions rather than just the mechanics of how the AI works.
The Martian leans towards being soft science fiction. It emphasizes the characters' experiences and emotions in a scientifically plausible setting, without delving too deeply into complex technical details.
Early science fiction often depicted air weapons as simple extensions of existing military technology, like bigger and more powerful guns on flying machines. For instance, in the old pulp science fiction stories, there were biplanes equipped with oversized machine guns.
Science fiction in children's literature courses was usually divided into two types: hard science fiction and soft science fiction.
Hard science fiction was based on scientific principles and known technological facts. It included some technological settings and worldviews that were contrary to the real world, such as time travel, aliens, superpowers, and so on. These settings needed to have a scientific basis in the novel and needed to be compared and discussed with existing science and technology.
Soft science fiction novels, on the other hand, focused more on human nature, society, culture, and other aspects. Their scientific and technological settings were relatively more basic and common, such as " Milky Way Empire " and " Three-Body Problem " novels. Although the characters and technological settings in these novels were based on the real world, their emotions, values, and social systems were different from the real world, so they paid more attention to the discussion of human nature and culture.
It is important to note that hard science fiction and soft science fiction are not a strict classification but a relative and subjective classification. Therefore, different readers may have different opinions on which category the same novel is classified into.