Gregory Benford is an extremely bright man with things to say that are worth
considering; but having reading several essays by him on hard SF, I think he
may have (I am trying to find a polite or neutral term and failing) a hidden
agenda when he writes about LeGuin.
At present, he seems to be the chief spokesperson for the idea that "hard
SF" is the core of science fiction.
In theory, hard SF is science fiction about science, but Benford and the
other self-proclaimed hard science fiction writers give priority to physics,
astronomy and (they always say) chemistry, though I can remember very little
SF that turns on chemistry.
The lists of hard SF writers -- their canon -- never seems to contain women
writers, though several female SF writers have impressive scientific
credentials. Hard SF writers tend to use utilitarian prose and to have a
limited interest in characterization. This last may be related to their lack
of interest in psychology and the social sciences. They also tend to
undervalue biology, though starting with THE TIME MACHINE or FRANKENSTEIN,
the biological sciences seem to be key to the development of science fiction.
Hard SF plots tend to be action driven. Hard SF writers tend to resolve
problems through violence; and they tend to have right of center politics.
Now, I am not claiming that Benford's work always fits the above
description. I have liked some of his work a lot. But he seems to have a
tolerance I don't have for quite godawful, technophilic SF, stuff that
doesn't convince me for a moment; and I think there's a good chance that he
likely to undervalue psychology, the social sciences, writing by women,
"literary" writing, left of center writing and plots that are NOT action
driven and do not use violence to solve problems.
So he may not be the ideal person to analyze LeGuin.
Given LeGuin's background -- raised among anthropologists by parents who
were not especially religious, as far as I have ever heard -- I doubt that
there is a Christian subtext to her work; though Benford, a physicist raised
in the American deep south, may have a Christian subtext in his mind, which
he reads into other people's work.
All best, Eleanor Arnason
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