Does it? Or has the internet just brought all of us together and made it SEEM that way? I still get weird looks from those not in my immediate circle of friends when I say I watch Buffy or the X-Files or play D&D or anything "geeky."
Yeah I dunno. Sci-fi, fantasy are and always will be an instant turn off for many, and dissed and ridiculed. And honestly, fans of these genres can often be social misfits to varying degrees...there's some truth there. Just seems like fantasy, sc-fi is as big a part of mainstream pop culture as it has ever been...especially with vid games, and everything that's technically feasible in film now.
Those Le Guin essays sound really interesting though. I'd be curious about
when she wrote them, cos I'm just wondering if there isn't an ebb and flow in American culture...like maybe it's sometimes more, sometimes less receptive to fantasy, imaginative fiction.
I definitely feel like there's a strong no-nonsense, grounded, pragmatic streak in the American character, whatever you'd want to call it. And there's not an ancient mythological, fantastical literary tradition to draw on.
Is there something in the British character that's more tolerant of, receptive to eccentricity, oddness, fantasy, whatever? That seems to be the perception at times. No idea.
What is mildly interesting though is when you consider Sci-fi/fantasy by region, and wonder if there is any kind of distinctive flavor, and if so what that might be, or what might cause it, and is it a regional thing, or more how a historical period acts upon it.
For example consider Asia today, or recently with Manga/Anime, or chop suey flicks warping into fantasy.
Or consider middle Europe and how film sci-fi is kind of birthed out of German expression with Metropolis, or the evolution of Sci Fi from something like Kafka.
Does regional Zeitgeist matter when you consider what sci-fi/fantasy is, where in the human mind does it come from, what's it's purpose?
American film noir has had an impact on American sci-fi. And...I guess noir has its roots in German expressionism, somewhat. The visuals, anyway. There's all kinds of back-and-forth, cross-pollination. And I wonder if the tradition of the Western hasn't had an impact on American fantasy. Firefly/Serenity, of course. Stephen King's Dark Tower stuff, etc. Westerns are American mythology if there is such a thing. But there are similar lone warrior themes in other cultures too.
Yeah I think you can get unique, interesting flavors, from country to country...and maybe specific themes come up more often in certain traditions? I dunno.
As far as science fiction specifically, I wonder if that's not (historically at least) a unique strength of Western culture...linear, forward driven, technology driven...the Western scientific method, Western logic. You think of Japan, China being so technology driven these days...but there's the huge impact from the West.
And now there's just the tremendous cultural back-and-forth of Eastern and Western ideas, approaches.
