Week Four: How is science fiction different from fantasy?
According to J.R. Tolkien, 'the secondary creation must be entire and self consistent.' This is to say, a creation of fantasy must be self sufficient and coherent in its entirety.
The main difference between science fiction and fantasy is plausibility. Ursula Le Guin argues plausibility in fantasy is peripheral, that fantasy fiction deliberately violates plausibility using realistic details to ground a story otherwise too improbable.
Science fiction in contrast, fictionalises the past or future. Rather than inventing a parallel fictional world like Le Guin's Earthsea, science fiction employs traditional standards of fiction writing by creating an imaginary world within a world. In Philip Dick's 'The Man in the High Castle,' Germany and Japan win the Second World War, the fictional outcome of a historical event presenting itself as criterion of plausible science fiction writing.
The unspoken contract between reader and writer is altered across genres. In general, the reader agrees to suspend disbelief and be absorbed into a world that is not his own. It is generally agreed upon and reinforced by Le Guin that science fiction meets conventional standards of modern human behaviour and follows a structure typical of fiction works. While Fantasy follows the same structure, the conventional standards of modern human behaviour are largely disregarded. The characters convey exaggerated human emotion (Ged's tenacity and heroism in Earthsea) but are not necessarily human, be the character an enthusiastic wizard or a brooding vampire. This is a classic example of applying realistic elements to an improbable story to connect the reader with an entirely imaginary world.
Le Guin, U.K. (2005). Plausibility revisited: What hoppen and what didn't. Retrieved from http://www.ursulakleguin.com/PlausibilityRevisited.html on 08/08/12
Hi Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteThis is a really well written argument and shows that you've given the subject good thought.
Do you have more examples from Earthsea that you can give to show how you think it conforms (or doesn't), to traditional ideas about fantasy?
The readings should be able to help you with that. I'm interested to hear your response.
I back up Karen's comments - but karen, how did you know that ACS was Rebecca? Rebecca, please use your full name on the blogs for evaluation purposes!
ReplyDeleteAccepting that both are works of fiction, Le Guin notes that ‘science fiction is a branch of realism’ by explaining that it meets the conventional expectations of how people ‘generally act, [by] either avoiding events that will strike the reader as improbable, or plausibly explaining them’. This juxtaposes against Le Guin’s notions on the fantasy genre by admitting that it ‘deliberately violates plausibility in the sense of congruence with the world outside the story’. So although the two are both fiction, one incorporates elements that will differ from the other most of these differences, playing on the dividing line between reality and fiction.
ReplyDeleteEarthsea ‘violates plausability’ by incorporating magic, wizards, an alternate realm and a storyline that is fantastical as the main character ‘relates to non-human beings in unexpected ways’ (Le Guin, 2005).
This can contrast against a science fiction novel or movie such as Star Wars, which plays out in another world typifies the sci-fi genre by ‘employ[ing] plausibility to to win the reader’s consent to the fiction’ (Le Guin, 2005).
References
Le Guinn, U K. (2005) Plausability Revisited: Wha Hoppen and What Didn’t Retrieved from http://www.ursulakleguin.com/PlausibilityRevisited.html
Le Guinn, U. (1993; 1968). A Wizard of Earthsea. In The Earthsea Quartet. London: Penguin.