Thanks for posting a hint on Lessing (Brian).
What critics and probably most readers don't realize is why sci-fi is attractive to write. The gendre can be completely imaginary and experiemental without being too formally abstract. You can get to people, places, events that can not be had any other way. I've tried both naturalism and sci-fi and sci-fi seemed more difficult and more demanding, the sense that I had to figure out a `logic' that fit the imaginary world I was trying to play with. One of the best short stories for working with weird logic is Mimsy were the Borogroves, Padgett.
Most critics think of sci-fi as something like comic book writing and much of it is. But some isn't. I might actually go order one her later works. Maybe the one referrenced. I too am tired of reality, the pointless struggles and so forth. Why read it when you live it?
Another interesting thing about trying to write fiction is how do you creat any dramatic plot or even the motive force of an indefinite outcome, if you have no belief what so ever in a moral universe?
CG