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

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

According to Le Guinn, fiction is not based imagination but always based on reality, he suggests “fiction didn’t happen”, and fantasy is “Fantasy is shamelessly fictive” (2005).  My understanding is that science fiction is creating a new world based on the observation of reality world, but the fantasy is based on the author’s imagination which is the ideal world for the fantasy to happen.

If like Le Guinn suggest “What validates fiction is plausibility “, then science fiction is based on science plausibility. And the story background is often based on future ideal development of science technology. It will relate to the reader with the rational possible idea, unlike fantasy is gains the laws of nature. For example, the book of “The Man in the High Castle” is a science fiction, the story is based on the alternate history event. In the book, it implies fifteen year after Second World War and involves countries include Japan, Italy, Germany, North America and U.S so on… This science fiction is based on the observation of realism and extending it in author’s ideal future after the Second World War. According the study of  “Parallel universes/Multiverse” and “the many world interpretation” imply the same theory “approach to quantum mechanics according to which, in addition to the world we are aware of directly, there are many other similar worlds which exist in parallel at the same space and time. The existence of the other worlds makes it possible to remove randomness and action at a distance from quantum theory and thus from all physics. ”it is just a theory, but there might be the possibility that story “The Man in the High Castle”is happening in a parallel universes. In our world we can never authenticate the possible from other parallel universes. But Philip K. Dick’s book offer the possibility of history have been changed, the dominate structure of the world have been changed, and the America/U.S. have been changed. Even the book is faction, but according to the theoretical ideal, there is a sense of realism in it. Which obey the principle of Science fiction- “pretends that the future is the present or the past, and then tells us what happened in it.” (Guin,n.d.)

Unlike fiction, fantasy it is happened in an ideal world, where/ what/ how/ is happened does not matter in the reality. Reflecting on the book called “A Wizard of Earthsea”, the story was based on an imagination world called Earthsea, the young wizard growth and development while exploring the Earthsea. Then the fictionalise world setting of A Wizard of Earthsea continues in The Tombes of Atuan and The Farthest Shores. It is established the facticity of the Earthsea. Ged the main characters was related to many non-human being in the book. Le Guinn suggests that it is impassable to predict what will happen in fantasy, or where the story will lead you to. Therefore the event in the book and movie has suggested a lot of the impossible factor which happened around Gen. For example, the powerful spell, shape shift, and dark-side of Gen…The law of nature is not applied, but the invention of Wizard capability in “A Wizard of Earthsea” is contradicted within the fantasy imaginative authority and inner coherence, Guinn said” the coherence of the story, its consistent self – reference” is the principle of constitutes plausibility within the fantasy. It is very different from the science fiction. Science fiction implies the law of nature according to the realism.

In fantasy, the reader will enjoy the story happen in a fictionalized world and admire the powerful being in the story; but science fiction empathizing with reader. 

Reference

Le Guin. (n.d.). Plausibility Revisited: Wha Hoppen and What Didn't. Retrieved Oct 5, 2012, from http://www.ursulakleguin.com/PlausibilityRevisited.html

Le Guinn, U. (1993; 1968). A Wizard of Earthsea. In The Earthsea Quartet (pp.13-167).London: Penguin.

Dick, P.K. (2001; 1962). The Man in the High Castle. London: Penguin.

Vaidman, Lev, "Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2008/entries/qm-manyworlds/>.