Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 22:03:32 +0000
From: Dave Coull <coull-AT-ocicat.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Lib-Caps are Dumb.



Roger wrote (about Ursula LeGuin)

 > she did say in her talk (and afterward in conversation) that
 > she's moved very far from her early sci-fi days.  i'm not sure
 > if she has a science background or not.  she's very much
 > a fantasy writer now

I like science fiction to have a plausible scientific basis.
Of course science can be really fantastic, the latest thinking
amongst some cosmologists is that our entire universe
is in fact a computer programme. Yes, science fiction did
that idea loads of times before the scientists got around
to it, but the point is, it was a plausible scientific idea.
I can think of a lot of science fiction stories which I would
class as genuine science fiction which are "fantastic"
and yet which have a plausible scientific basis.

I didn't used to like actual fantasy but then I discovered
Terry Pratchett. I like a lot of his discworld stories.
The thing about Pratchett is he is consistent within
his own universe, flat world, with seas spilling over
the sides, carried by four giant elephants, which are
carried by a giant turtle, and folk there laugh at the idea
of  OUR  universe, and say it's ridiculous. Which it is.
But of course what I really like about Pratchett is that
he can be really  FUNNY . I hate fantasy which takes
itself seriously. Tolkien and that sort of crap. Terry
Pratchett can actually manage to say some interesting
stuff without being a pompous arsehole like Tolkien.

I still like real science fiction, not the space western
stuff but something with a bit of actual science to it,
but nowadays I like some fantasy as well, as long as
it is by Terry Pratchett.

Dave C