Understanding Ursula

One of my favourite science fiction writers is Ursula Le Guin. Her first book 'The Left Hand of Darkness' was my introduction to the amazing worlds she creates - she goes so far as to map them out. But, I have to admit, I struggled at first to comprehend her stories - well, no, not her stories, but HOW she tells them.

On her website (well worth a visit http://www.ursulakleguin.com/) Le Guin describes three types of stories - those that walk and let us see every detail (what a nice field of blue flowers!), those that run and get us caught up in the action (what flowers? I'm running for my life here!), and those that dance and move us through detail and action and from that event to this event and into the past and into the future (I saw those flowers next year, but now I'm running past them...there's an alien on my tail!). Le Guin's stories dance - they spin the reader around the floor rather than taking them from the front door to the back door in a straight line.

This challenges the notion that all stories must be told starting at the beginning, moving through the middle, and finishing at the end. I like it!

'The Dispossessed' by Le Guin was very, very challenging and really showed me that stories do not have to be linear. I felt like a bit of an ignoramous (I love that word!) when I had 'huh?' moment after 'huh?' moment. Okay, this was mostly because I read this novel sporadically over a few months - don't do that if you are going to read it...you'll lose the plot (so to speak).

Now that I understand how stories can dance, I'm looking forward to getting down and boogying with 'The Dispossessed' again in a few months time. I'll let you know how it goes.

Sci-Fi Camping

I've been thinking about the camps people inhabit in regards to science fiction. At first I thought there were only two camps.

There's the 'I love Sci-Fi' camp - the one I and, as you are reading this blog, you belong to. We know why we're here - we're cool on a galactic scale.

There's the 'I hate Sci-Fi' camp - I'm afraid there's very little hope for these people - best put up a large fence and pretend they live in another dimension.

There is, I believe, a third camp - the 'Sci-Fi 'huh?'' camp. These are the poor souls who just don't get sci-fi. They can't hate it or like it, because they just don't really understand it.

How do I know about this third camp? I used to live there (picture me hanging my head in shame...). I thought Star Wars was fun and Star Trek vaguely interesting...but that was about it. I didn't know anything else about sci-fi and wasn't really prone to finding out more.

Then Stargate SG-1 came into my world. I got it. Why? Because I could relate to the characters - O'Neill had a dry sense of humour and wit and wasn't some stiff and boring leader, Daniel Jackson was somewhat nerdy, and Samantha Carter was a woman who was smart, attractive and gave as good as she got. These weren't perfect people, but they could kick alien ass when they needed to.

Can you believe it's 16 years since Stargate the movie was released? 16 years of a love that will last me a life time...sigh...true love!

I've expanded from Stargate into other realms - and that's what this blog will be about.

Hope you'll stick around.