Week Three

How is science fiction different from fantasy, according to Le Guinn?

Looking at different sources opinions of the difference between science fiction
and fantasy - Attebery (1980) says that “Science fiction spends much of its time
convincing the reader that its seeming impossibilities are in fact explainable if
we extrapolate from the world and the science that we know of” (p. 3).
This would be an example of the film The Matrix which is clearly a true test
for the protagonist Neo himself to understand what is real or not.

Tax (2002) breaks down Le Guin’s work of Science fiction and Fantasy as
“Le Guin’s science fiction is about social and political life; some reads like
ethnographies or imaginary societies, some deals with revolution.
Because of its social themes, it appears more political than her fantasies,
which deal with inner life.” (p.16).

Le Guinn’s (2005) own idea's of science fiction in Plausibility Revisited is that it can be either present or past and then it is told as truth as “the future is a blank page, and the imagination can write anything it likes on it”. Le Guinn (2005) also notes that science fiction can be just as realistic as fiction as it needs to meet the rules of how people generally act and avoids events that the reader may find ‘improbable’ but if they do use these events they will need to plausibly explain them. This is done for the reader to connect to the story without feeling
completely removed. She quotes “It's often said that science fiction is the
modern mythology”.

Le Guinn (2005) also expresses that we cannot write myths but the nearest we can
come to writing myths is fantasy. Was was confused by that remark as it contradicts what she said previously that science fiction is modern mythology but then says the closest to writing myths is fantasy so which one is it? When looking at fantasy Le Guinn (2005) says that “fantasy is far more direct in its fictionality” that there is no need for the story to take on any real life circumstances, places, events, people etc. Le Guinn (2005) says “there is no agreement to pretend this story happened, might have happened or might ever happen”. She also says that in fantasy human character's behaviours generally meet the normal expectations of in the real world and even if the characters are not human they may have human emotions which relate to the real world. But as far as that goes for relating to the reader, fantasy does not necessarily need to be relatable as fantasy; as I quote from the Collins dictionary, Fantasy is “an imagination unrestricted by reality.” (p.213).

In short fantasy is the impossible but may have familiarities to reality so that
reader can relate to the story or characters in some ways. The impossibilities
in fantasy although they are impossible they are treated as if they were real and
so are not forbidding to the reader. Science fiction however is making the
impossible sound possible as it could be described as a myth in the past or as a
future we do not know yet and throughout the story the reader is trying to be
convinced that this could be a possible reality.

References:

Attebery, B. (1980) The fantasy tradition in American Literature: From Irving to Le Guinn. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1980.

Collins mini Dictionary (4th ed.). (2010). Glasgow, UK: Collins

Le Guin, U. (2005) Plausibility Revisited. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://www.ursulakleguin.com/PlausibilityRevisited.html

Tax, M. (2002) Year of Harry Potter, Enter the Dragon. In The Nation.