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My personal feeling is that writing about dragons and Elves doesn't make a book escapist, any more than writing about viruses or new technology automatically makes a book "relevent" to life.
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Yes, exactly!
I think
Radagastly hit it on the head, though--science fiction
seems more relevant because it is often concerned with social commentary; it is frequently a projection of our own society into the future, a what-could-happen-to-us-if-we-don't-shape-up kind of story. I have to admit that I don't read a lot of science fiction, but my husband does, and these kinds of stories are where his taste runs--I know that there are other kinds of science fiction stories in the world, but my experience is mostly with authors like Philip K. Dick, whom my husband occasionally foists upon me. He likes these books at least in part because of the social commentary; he reads them as cautionary tales and realistic, thoughful projections into the future. I don't like them--I've only rarely read a science fiction book that I didn't find to be at least a little preachy. Philip K. Dick in particular really sends my preach-o-meter spinning.
Fantasy, on the other hand, tends to have its primary relationship with the past instead of the future and therefore relieves itself of any resposibility to comment directly on our current society. Tolkien, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Jack Whyte (again, I'm betraying my own personal taste here--I know that there are other kinds of stories to tell)--all of these authors are telling stories that are supposed to have taken place a very long time ago. The society they describe is not ours, nor is it a society we're in any danger of becoming. Therefore, both the author and the reader can treat it as a little more "other" than many of these science-fiction worlds. We don't have a responsibility, in other words, to find lessons in these books, and the authors don't feel a responsibility to put them in. I think that's why I like Tolkien so much--there is so much meaning, so many universal truths, and so many important themes, but there is never any kind of urgency or imperative to my taking them in. I can read the book ten times and find something new in it each time, and I never have to feel Tolkien is making a specific negative point about the world I am currently living in. It would be interesting to read some science fiction that attempts a similar kind of storytelling--any recommendations?