Science fiction tends to avoid the present day, and instead creates the idea of 'the future' as the present, past, or actual future. This is because the creation of 'the future' is a creation of a blank page, in which fact and possibility can be plausibly meddled with. Sci-fi usually stays away from the actual present, thus avoiding problems such as factuality, and becoming laughable, or nonsense.
"In general, science fiction proceeds just as realistic fiction does, meeting conventional expectations of how people generally act, and either avoiding events that will strike the reader as improbable, or plausibly explaining them. Realism and science fiction both employ plausibility to win the reader's consent to the fiction." (Le Guinn, 2005)
Fantasy tends not to bat around the bush, and pretend that it's story actually happened.
"[Fantasies] invention is radical. With the informed consent of the reader, fantasy deliberately violates plausibility in the sense of congruence with the world outside the story." (Le Guinn, 2005)
Though more realistic details are usually kept for smaller aspects of the story, such as human behaviour and emotion, regardless whether the characters are human or not.
"What constitutes plausibility in fantasy is the coherence of the story, its consistent self-reference." (Le Guinn, 2005)
The completely fictionalized world must remain consistent within its own creation and continually back itself up.
The only type of science fiction I feel that does not stay in the future is pieces of work that involve time travelling. The Terminator movie series are a perfect example of this as you have menacing killing robots that come from the future trying to kill off the Connor family in the present day.
ReplyDeleteThe Back To The Future trilogy is another prime example. Marty McFly (Micheal J Fox) in the first film is from the '80s but travels back to the '50s. In the second movie, he goes to 2015, 1955 and back to 1985 all in the one movie while in the third and final movie it is set in the 1880s during the Western days.
Another example was last year's Cowboys and Aliens movie. That movie has science fiction elements to it, but it was still set in the 1800s.
Cowboys and Aliens is an awesome example and I loved the movie.
DeleteI think because science fiction can be written in the past, I separate it as aliens/technology vs. magic.
Hi Isaac, you've paraphrased the readings nicely but it would be good to see you draw some of your own conclusions about what has been said. Also, Le Guin's name is spelled with just one 'n'. Nice referencing though
ReplyDeleteFantasy tends not to bat around the bush, and pretend that it's story actually happened.
ReplyDeleteExpression is, beat around the bush! I take your point, but it's not so much a question of what actually happened but that which might plausibly happen, and in both genres that plausibility depends on the internally consistent nature of the world presented. However, some SF does seek continuity with the known world in way Fantasy violates!