Question,
How is science fiction different from fantasy, according to
Le Guinn?
To answer this
question, it is necessary to define what fiction is. In the article “Plausibility
Revisited”, Le Guinn (2005) defined that fiction is an imaginary story, it is
not what happened. There are many branches of it. Science fiction and Fantasy
is one of those. Basically, these two fictions can be divided by plausibility.
Fantasy is the story of magic and other supernatural phenomena whereas Science
fiction is imaginary but more or less plausible element such as future settings
(Le Guinn, 2005). For example, Le Guinn’s famous fiction “The Earthsea Quartet”
is a fantasy. As we can see a picture left side of a text, the Earthsea is a high fantasy,
setting with fully realised other world. Science fiction, on the other hand, is
more realistic. Our coming reading task, Dick’s Man in the High Castle is a
Science fiction that a story based on the Second World War. In the lecture,
Professor Jonhnson refer to Fantasy that the suspension of disbelief, and reaction
to modern technology. From this idea, it might be said that Science fiction is
our desire of future life.
Reference :
Le Guinn, U. K. (2005) Plausibility Revisited. Retrieved
August 10, 2012, from http://www.ursulakleguin.com/PlausibilityRevisited.html
Good points here Jin. SF often extrapolates from present trends in society and technology whereas Fantasy seems to make a radical break from the the real world by the introduction of supernatural elements and imaginary worlds. Both genres, however, reflect the culture that has given rise to them - our fantasies (with or without the science) tell us a lot more about our world than anything else!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment! It makes me much clear about that two types of fiction.
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