If the purpose of literature is to illuminate human nature, the purpose of fantastic literature is to do that from a wider perspective. You can say different things about what it means to be human if you can contrast that to what it means to be a robot, or an alien, or an elf.
Jo WaltonI sat on the bench by the willows and at my honey bun and read Triton. There are some awful things in the world, itโs true, but there are also some great books. When I grow up I would like to write something that someone could read sitting on a bench on a day that isnโt all that warm and they could sit reading it and totally forget where they were or what time it was so that they were more inside the book than inside their own head. Iโd like to write like Delany or Heinlein or Le Guin.
Jo Walton