In Ursula K. Le Guin’s chapter, “Why are Americans Afraid of Dragons?” in her book, The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, I felt that I could see some of what she was saying contrary to what the author of the previous post before my post believes. Le Guin said that the people who reject fantasy books are usually those who are over 30, working, and male. I kind of see this with the older men in the country or just the more serious people. I have a friend who only reads books that benefits him. He’s serious in character and is always trying to improve himself and become successful in his career. He’s what some may call a workaholic. He does try to be sociable sometimes but I find that I have a hard time talking to him because he’s usually only talking about work and school. Another person I once met also seemed kind of rigid and only focused on work. He was my interviewer and when he asked if I read any books, I told him I was currently reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. It’s a fantasy series and at the time I was so interested in it that I was glad when he asked me what it was about but as I continued to talk about it, I felt he lost interest in our conversation and he quickly changed the topic. I feel that people who don’t like fantasy are hard to connect with.

However, although I kind of see what Le Guin was getting at when she talked about males over 30 and working, I also see that our people are slowly changing. I think her statement of males over 30 was probably just to encompass those who were working, trying to provide for a family, and with little free time to relax as they probably had to worry about bills and life. It was an attempt to make a label for the group of people she was talking about but it wasn’t a label that should be set in stone. Today, I have many friends who are male that also love to read fantasy or write/produce videos based solely on their imagination or inspiration gained from other fantastic things. So as the males in my generation grows and later on becomes the males over 30 that Le Guin was talking about, I think more of her labelled people will start to separate themselves from her label.

Also, as a side thing, I think it’s kind of questionable that she claimed males would watch things that they assured themselves were realistic such as cowboys, in order to not be caught watching or reading fantasy books with dragons and such. Because maybe they just really do have a different taste in fantasy. My dad likes to watch stuff with wars. Maybe they like it because it’s easier for them to understand or they don’t like the more farfetched fantasy with magic. Everyone has different tastes in fantasy.