Week 3 How is science fiction different from fantasy, according to Le Guinn?

      Star Wars - Science Fiction             Earthsea - Fantasy

Accepting 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.

Earthsea ‘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.

McCallum, R. (Producer) & Lucas, G. (Director). (2001) Star Wars: The Phantom Menace [Motion picture]. United States: 20^th Century Fox