Re: Is Levi-Strauss essential? was It still works? Avoid it anyway.
Toby Cockcroft (hegeman@wchat.on.ca)
Thu, 16 Jan 1997 19:34:38 -0400
>In article <5bk1g5$srg@darla.visi.com>, dsgood@visi.com says...
>>And -- what anthropological literature IS useful to science fiction and
>>fantasy writers?
Perhaps it has been mentioned before but one individual that you might want
tyo read is Ursula K. LeGuin both an eminent anthropologist (from a long
line of anthropologists all the way back to Boas: but I'lll let you find
out how for yourself) and an eminent fictional novelist. LeGuin manages to
combine the best aspects of anthropology and fiction in her novels, _The
Right Hand of Darkness_ immediately comes to mind. If you want what is
perhaps the best example then this is it.
As far as L-S is concerned the reader must not forget how L-S uses literary
tropes and styles to convince the reader of both his authority and the
beleivability of the cultures that he is describing, and here I am
referring specifically to _Tristes Tropique_.
Perhaps anthropological knowledge can supply the fiction writer with a
model of how society works but it is the skills of the fictional writer
which gives life to that society to the readers. Anthropological knowledge
is no enough, one must also be a writer.
Toby
--
----------------------------------------
Toby R. G. Cockcroft MA (in progress)
Dept. Of Anthropology
Univerity of Western Ontario
London, Ontario
Canada
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