How is science fiction different from fantasy, according to Le Guinn (http://www.ursulakleguin.com/PlausibilityRevisited.html)?
According to Le Guin (2005), "correspondence
of the real world and fictional world defines characteristic of realism, which
it’s not a defining character of fiction" (para. 1).
In saying this Le Guin (2005) purposes that plausibility and the intuition of
reality provides readers a pretense of a
factual report. By doing this genre of science fiction branches out as part of
realism. Science fiction is able to pretend that the upcoming is part of the current or historical as it lies in the unknown so it is able to be a basis of the science fiction
genre. This is a lot different in contrast to fantasy where its fictionality is far more direct than realism and science.
This is because fantasy draws on a secondary creation without an agreement to
pretend that the story occurred or would occur. It
takes readers into unknown territory where the world outside of the book is
more imaginative and requires readers to be immersed in a fantasy journey,
where the protagonists are fictional as well as
the environments.
For example in A Wizard
of Earthsea is a tale, which shows the idea of magic in a village, happened by
ordinary people. The theme of magic is constantly
represented through Ged and his hunger to use the power of magic for both good
and evil. He does this when he attends the ‘magic
school’ on Roke where he exercises his magic to prove a point. By doing this he
unleashes a shadow monster, which becomes a danger to not only Ged’s life but
to those he surrounds himself with. He continually finds himself fighting
against the shadow, a representation of the shadow within himself, that of
guilt. Le Guin does this through magic to display the realities of life can also be portrayed through fictional protagonists and
settings and does not need to rely on the idea of realism to show life lessons
within the story. She allows readers to identify the allegory within the tale
of Wizard of Earthsea, and we
in turn are able to see that fantasy can play a major role in interpreting the
realities of life by a number of fictional protagonists and settings.
Both Science Fiction and Fantasy contain plausibility, but are crafted
differently. LeGuin (2005) states that Science Fiction utilises plausibility to
connect with its readers, while plausibility in Fantasy consists of the
“coherence of the story [and] its consistent self-reference”. In relation to
the “consistent self-reference” that LeGuin states, Laetz and Johnston (2008)
mentions that “whatever features define a genre must be prominent in a work in
order for it to belong to the relevant genre” (p.162). So, the consistency in
mentioning particular terms or features related to the genre, keeps the
plausibility within that genre.
I think Le Guin is trying to draw comparisons in that science fiction is
able to draw reflections to the world outside and is able to draw links among
the readers and reality. Whereas Fantasy they are not able to understand its environments
nor is it able to give an idea of what might occur. This is because fantasy
uses our most divine and human capacity, which is the imagination.
Reference:
Laetz, B. & Johnston, J. (2008). What
is fantasy? Philosophy and Literature,
32(1), 161-172. doi: 10.1353/phl.0.0013
Le Guin, U. K. (2012). A wizard of Earthsea Retrieved August 14,
2015, from http://www.shmoop.com/wizard-of-earthsea/summary.html
LeGuin, U. K. (2005). Plausibility revisited: Wha hoppen and What
didn't. Retrieved August 14, 2015
from http://www.ursulakleguin.com/PlausibilityRevisited.html
Ok Nistha, I can see you have read the leGuinn link. Good. At some points you were finding it hard to express yourself clearly but your final paragraph shows a fairly clear understanding of the differences between SciFi and Fantasy. I think you should start looking at your word choices - you often use words that make your communication a little unclear (eg intuition of reality provides readers a pretense of a factual report). Ok.
ReplyDelete