Sci-fi thoughts, part two

Laura, I am your fellow science fiction nerd. The thing I love the most about the genre (and I'm talking the good stuff, not you know, Star Wars dime novels) is the opportunity that it gives you to take a step back from the world that you live in and view it from a different angle. I suppose that's true of all great books, but there are just ridiculous amounts of freedom available to a science fiction writer. Douglas Adams can have a whale spontaneously appear out of nowhere high in some alien atmosphere and plummet towards the ground while having a stream-of-consciousness monologue with a pot of petunias, and not only do you somehow believe in it while he's writing this, it's also a kind of profound (and VERY morbidly funny) take on mortality and the human condition. Come on! That's great!
Rediscovered Ursula LeGuin this past week. What an amazing writer! Elegant, intelligent, extremely thoughtful and creative writings that affirm life without glossing over the problems and struggles of being human. Plus, they're just great, incredibly readable stories. :)