{"id":1976,"date":"2017-02-03T21:24:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T21:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/03\/ursula-k-le-guin-wants-everyone-to-know-the-huge\/"},"modified":"2017-02-03T21:24:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T21:24:00","slug":"ursula-k-le-guin-wants-everyone-to-know-the-huge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/03\/ursula-k-le-guin-wants-everyone-to-know-the-huge\/","title":{"rendered":"Ursula K. Le Guin Wants Everyone to Know the Huge Difference Between ‘Alternative Facts’ and Fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ursula K. Le Guin Wants Everyone to Know the Huge Difference Between ‘Alternative Facts’ and Fiction<\/a><\/p>\n

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“The word \u201calternative\u201d appears both in the fun new craze sweeping the government (\u201calternative facts\u201d) and in a few science fiction staple ideas (\u201calternate history\u201d and \u201calternate universe,\u201d for example). Despite that superficial similarity, legendary scifi author Ursula K. Le Guin wants to make su… ” – My Comments : Yes. Full text:<\/p>\n

A recent letter in The Oregonian compares a politician\u2019s claim to tell \u201calternative facts\u201d to the inventions of science fiction. The comparison won\u2019t work. We fiction writers make up stuff. Some of it clearly impossible, some of it realistic, but none of it real – all invented, imagined \u2014 and we call it fiction because it isn\u2019t fact. We may call some of it \u201calternative history\u201d or \u201can alternate universe,\u201d but make absolutely no pretense that our fictions are \u201calternative facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facts aren\u2019t all that easy to come by. Honest scientists and journalists, among others, spend a lot of time trying to make sure of them. The test of a fact is that it simply is so – it has no \u201calternative.\u201d The sun rises in the east. To pretend the sun can rise in the west is a fiction, to claim that it does so as fact (or \u201calternative fact\u201d) is a lie.<\/p>\n

A lie is a non-fact deliberately told as fact. Lies are told in order to reassure oneself, or to fool, or scare, or manipulate others. Santa Claus is a fiction. He\u2019s harmless. Lies are seldom completely harmless, and often very dangerous. In most times, most places, by most people, liars are considered contemptible.<\/p>\n

Ursula K. Le Guin, Northwest Portland<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ursula K. Le Guin Wants Everyone to Know the Huge Difference Between ‘Alternative Facts’ and Fiction “The word \u201calternative\u201d appears both in the fun new craze sweeping the government (\u201calternative facts\u201d) and in a few science fiction staple ideas (\u201calternate history\u201d and \u201calternate universe,\u201d for example). Despite that superficial similarity, legendary scifi author Ursula K. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Ursula K. Le Guin Wants Everyone to Know the Huge Difference Between ‘Alternative Facts’ and Fiction”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2],"class_list":["post-1976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-fbshare","post_format-post-format-link"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driko.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}