How is science fiction different from fantasy, according to Le Guin?
Both science fiction and fantasy are not actually happened in real life which could be defined as fiction.
According to Le Guin, “fantasy is far more direct in its fictionality than either realism or science fiction. Its contract with the reader is a different one.”
Fantasy has no limitation that the story may have more broad imagination or portray. It creates unpredictable things.
Science fiction is more likely to describe or imagine the future based on the real world. “Most science fiction pretends that the future is the present or the past, and then tells us what happened in it.” Le Guin said.
Making unknown future correlates with the characteristics of current people or society.
In science fiction, making unknown future, mostly it has relationship between present and future which makes a condition of explanation why the future has been created. However, fantasy does not necessitate explaining the reason of creating new world because fantasy itself has to be unrealistic, unexplainable and unbelievable stories that is Fantasy.
In the movie that we watched in the class, it was about the magic which is unrealistic and we could not expect to happen in our real life, so we can easily determine that is fantasy.
Reference
Le Guin, U. (2005). Plausibility revisited wha hoppen and what didn't. Retrieved from http://www.ursulakleguin.com/PlausibilityRevisited.html
Hi Hye-Young, I feel like you have made a start on something here, but not quite sure where you are going with it.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you can use some examples from Earthsea to illustrate how you think it's similar (or not similar) to other fantasy stories?
Also, please reference your quotes next time - so I know where they have come from!
It is great to see that you are starting to come to an understanding of the text though.
I agree with you.Although they share some common plot and settings, Science Fiction says that the universe is explicable and understandable while things we can hardly understand in fantasy novels.
ReplyDeleteI added reference :)
ReplyDelete"the science fiction label belongs on books with things in them that we can't yet do, such as going through a wormhole in space to another universe; and speculative fiction means a work that employs the means already to hand, such as DNA identification and credit cards, and that takes place on Planet Earth."(Atwood)
ReplyDeleteI think the history of both Genres can also really reflect the differences of science fiction and fantasy. Fantasy has been derived from the supernatural and "fantastic" and has been heavily influenced by Romanticism. The old pagan religion and superstition also has had a great influence on fantasy, from witches and wizards to knomes and fairies.
I think a key word for science fiction is "logic". Science fiction is based on the justified and i feel has risen as a genre, out of the modern need for logic. Things like the Darwin theory and the progression of technology meant that there was a demand for a new genre that could satisfy the trend for reason, but still entertain the reader.
Sorry, this doesnt really answer the question put foward by Hye-young, this is more my thoughts on the question. The quote i put in my comment was from an interview with both Le Guin and Margeret Atwood, who was a sci-fi writer. Atwood describes her own thoughts on science fiction as a genre
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