Robots and Aliens vs. Elves and Orcs - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Lachwen · 09-11-2004, 10:43 PM

I don't know where Sawyer came up with those ideas for the shift, but I heartily disagree with them. I believe it's due more to a proliferation of very good fantasy authors - Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey being two that jump to mind immediately - than some sort of craving for escapist literature. After all, who says science fiction isn't escapist? "Escapist" is not a synonym for "unrealistic." I am a fan of both fantasy and sci-fi, and I find science fiction to be just as good for escaping the "real" world as fantasy. Have you ever read Ringworld, The Integral Trees or Fallen Angels by Larry Niven? Larry Niven is one of today's very best "hard" sci-fi writers, but that doesn't mean his books aren't escapist. After all, who wouldn't want to escape into a world where humans live in free-fall, building their villages in the foliage of hundred-kilometer-long trees shaped like integer signs? (Really, read The Integral Trees and its sequel The Smoke Ring; it may all be real-life science, but it's as escapist as you can want

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To summarize: I think Sawyer's claims are a load of fetid dingo's kidneys (a term from a truly wonderful sci-fi/fantasy book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

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09-11-2004, 10:43 PM	#2
Lachwen Wight Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Greenwood the Great. Posts: 115	I don't know where Sawyer came up with those ideas for the shift, but I heartily disagree with them. I believe it's due more to a proliferation of very good fantasy authors - Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey being two that jump to mind immediately - than some sort of craving for escapist literature. After all, who says science fiction isn't escapist? "Escapist" is not a synonym for "unrealistic." I am a fan of both fantasy and sci-fi, and I find science fiction to be just as good for escaping the "real" world as fantasy. Have you ever read Ringworld, The Integral Trees or Fallen Angels by Larry Niven? Larry Niven is one of today's very best "hard" sci-fi writers, but that doesn't mean his books aren't escapist. After all, who wouldn't want to escape into a world where humans live in free-fall, building their villages in the foliage of hundred-kilometer-long trees shaped like integer signs? (Really, read The Integral Trees and its sequel The Smoke Ring; it may all be real-life science, but it's as escapist as you can want ) To summarize: I think Sawyer's claims are a load of fetid dingo's kidneys (a term from a truly wonderful sci-fi/fantasy book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. ) __________________ "'...Home is the sailor, home from the sea, And the hunter home from the hill.'"