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Jeff Wood's avatar

It reminds me of Brecht's idea of "alienation," where the audience is made to see something familiar seem strange and thus see it in a new light. Really effective technique, and perfectly suited to fantasy and speculative fiction.

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Elana Gomel's avatar

You are absolutely correct. Brecht used this technique to great effect in his "epic theater". One of the scholars of SF Darko Suvin who wrote about estrangement in SF is also a Brecht scholar.

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Dana Mich's avatar

I took your course in English Lit at TAU (around a decade ago) and it was always extremely interesting and insightful.

Very happy to subscribe for this newsletter and looking forward to the next posts !

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Elana Gomel's avatar

Thank you, Dana! I'm glad to connect with you, again, and hope you will enjoy my writing!

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CJ Chang's avatar

I think you're right. Some may call it escapism, but good fiction hits a certain truth and it helps us make sense of our reality in some way. In fiction, it strips away all the muddy and ambiguous parts of the real world and shines a light on the essence of life. This is such great topic! I can't wait for your next post!

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Elana Gomel's avatar

Thank you! I really believe that SF tell us more about reality than so-called realistic fiction.

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