Re: Is Levi-Strauss essential? was It still works? Avoid it anyway.
Michelle Malkin (malkinb7@mindspring.com)
Fri, 17 Jan 1997 04:46:42 GMT
hegeman@wchat.on.ca (Toby Cockcroft) wrote:
>>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
Wonderful suggestion, but the title of the book is "Left Hand Of Darkness".
Michelle Malkin
|