Slightly tangential, but I discovered recently that the famous literary critic Harold Bloom was a huge fan of Ursula Le Guin and rated her one of the great canonical writers of the 20th century, in all of literature not just sci-fi. Also, they never met but they struck up a polite friendship over email when they were both old and chatted back and forth.
Some might consider this raises the stature of Ursula Le Guin. I consider it rather as raising the stature of Harold Bloom. He recognized how she transcended genre and belongs alongside (or perhaps, above) writers of highbrow literary fiction.
leejoramo 4 hours ago [-]
I remember Le Guin speaking at my university around 1990. She was amazingly open about her writing process. While she did not directly answer questions about the “meaning” of her writing, she did facilitate the discussion about her work’s meaning, and asked the audience challenging questions.
Of all my time at uni, I wish I had a recording of this event.
I understood from students who had attended a writing workshop with her earlier in the day, that she was gifted teacher.
codeduck 5 hours ago [-]
Le Guin's characterisation of magic and the power of Names remains one of my favourite treatments of the themes in modern fantasy. Earthsea remains one of my pleasures.
mark_l_watson 5 hours ago [-]
Interesting perspective of someone curating an exhibit for their famous mother. I am a fan of her writing, but strangely I most often go back to Le Guin’s audio book reading of ‘Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching’ with short musical interludes and small sound effects. 100% satisfying to listen to.
dtgriscom 4 hours ago [-]
Thanks for the tip. My local library has it; I'll grab it tomorrow.
grahamburger 18 minutes ago [-]
I just started reading the Earthsea series to my kids last night, what a coincidence to see this here! I discovered Le Guin relatively late in life and I'm so glad I did.
jacquesm 5 hours ago [-]
Everybody that I know that reads SF has their own favorite Ursula K. Le Guin story. I have a hard time because I have two. 'The Lathe of Heaven' and 'The Left Hand of Darkness'.
roughly 29 minutes ago [-]
I think “The word for world is forest” is criminally underrated.
PretzelPirate 5 hours ago [-]
I have a signed copy of 'The Left Hand of Darkness' and I will never let it go.
I do wish my copy of 'The Dispossessed' was signed. That book is a masterpiece!
dtgriscom 4 hours ago [-]
Although I love most of her fantasy works, I found 'The Dispossessed' to be too difficult for me. However, that's probably because her interests were broader than mine.
jacquesm 4 hours ago [-]
Lucky you! Make sure your heirs realize the significance...
Phelinofist 3 hours ago [-]
> ... 'The Left Hand of Darkness'
I read it last year. I found it to be quit boring and it also felt kinda "dated" in the sense that more recent SF is more space-y. However, the social constructs were well thought out.
opto 1 hours ago [-]
Replying for anyone reading this comment: Le Guin was a Daoist, but also, and concurrently, an anarchist. So much of her writing, especially The Word for World is Forest, parts of Earthsea, The Dispossessed, is informed by her anarchism. Very often you find Le Guin exploring ideas of an anarchist response to colonialism, or just enjoying setting out an anarchist society and imagining how it might work, how it would unfold, the challenges it would face, and the solutions people might try.
mbb70 19 minutes ago [-]
In the foreward, she calls out to her, great SF is descriptive, not predictive. TLHOD is about sex, gender, friendships and culture in our world.
Also a huge number of spacey contemporary works like A Mote in God's Eye, Rendezvous with Rama, Dune, Ringworld...
jackyinger 1 hours ago [-]
The social constructs were the entire point. The spacey stuff was just a vehicle to get a more relatable protagonist into the story.
jibal 56 minutes ago [-]
The Lathe of Heaven was the first I read and had a big impression on me. Much later, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas did.
pfdietz 2 hours ago [-]
What a nice link. Thank you.
jibal 60 minutes ago [-]
Lovely.
nubg 5 hours ago [-]
[flagged]
Telemakhos 5 hours ago [-]
“Ineffable” means “too great to be spoken in words,” so I’m wondering what you found sexualized about that.
bryanrasmussen 5 hours ago [-]
A coworker made a sort of cartoon, pompous jerk says "Who dares disturb the ineffable blah blah blah"
Cleaning lady: "Sorry I had no idea you wasn't effable, I'll come back later"
that is to say since effable as a slang term for some someone that one might like to have sex with exists, it is a reasonable pun to make with ineffable as being, well, not effable. However one should probably be able to realize the ineffable in question is not a pun on the slang term and figure things out. Somewhat embarrassing really.
on edit: added in disturb, must have missed it because very tired.
magnusmundus 5 hours ago [-]
Another meaning the word "effable" acquired in the last couple decades is a spelled out form of "f-able", as in fuckable. OP must've been unaware of the word's prior existence.
jacquesm 4 hours ago [-]
You'd have to deliberately misunderstand it, clearly if that's the first thing that pops up into your head when you read about someone putting together a memorial show for their mom that isn't the appropriate reading.
nubg 3 hours ago [-]
To clarify, I did deliberately misunderstand it.
jacquesm 3 hours ago [-]
Don't.
codeduck 5 hours ago [-]
I think you perhaps misunderstood the meaning of some of the words used.
kakacik 5 hours ago [-]
When in doubt, google. I had to google that word myself as a non-native speaker, nothing sexual there.
Bowing down to one's mother ain't something to scorn on. As Jim Jefferies and many others said, show them some proper respect since there won't be another person in your life that will ever love you more, or even equally... at least under normal circumstances
abracos 1 hours ago [-]
Why do people rate "The Left Hand of Darkness" so much? Is it because it was good at the time of writing? All concepts there are very shallow and mainstream now
edit: honest question, don't want to flame
dexwiz 59 minutes ago [-]
I think a lot of Asimov stories fall into the same category. When you shape a genre, looking back it all seems so obvious. I do think Le Guin wrote much better characters than Asimov.
abracos 50 minutes ago [-]
Agree on "I, robot", but foundation series is still very good (probably because it's not really character-focused)
croes 54 minutes ago [-]
The keyword is now.
The first telephone is also pretty bad compared to nowadays phones.
abracos 51 minutes ago [-]
Yes, but now it doesn't make sense to read it anymore right? It reads outdated and there are better books nowadays
ducttapecrown 2 minutes ago [-]
Can you list some better books for those of us who liked Le Guin and are interested in what could be better?
Rendered at 18:08:10 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
Some might consider this raises the stature of Ursula Le Guin. I consider it rather as raising the stature of Harold Bloom. He recognized how she transcended genre and belongs alongside (or perhaps, above) writers of highbrow literary fiction.
Of all my time at uni, I wish I had a recording of this event.
I understood from students who had attended a writing workshop with her earlier in the day, that she was gifted teacher.
I do wish my copy of 'The Dispossessed' was signed. That book is a masterpiece!
I read it last year. I found it to be quit boring and it also felt kinda "dated" in the sense that more recent SF is more space-y. However, the social constructs were well thought out.
Also a huge number of spacey contemporary works like A Mote in God's Eye, Rendezvous with Rama, Dune, Ringworld...
Cleaning lady: "Sorry I had no idea you wasn't effable, I'll come back later"
that is to say since effable as a slang term for some someone that one might like to have sex with exists, it is a reasonable pun to make with ineffable as being, well, not effable. However one should probably be able to realize the ineffable in question is not a pun on the slang term and figure things out. Somewhat embarrassing really.
on edit: added in disturb, must have missed it because very tired.
Bowing down to one's mother ain't something to scorn on. As Jim Jefferies and many others said, show them some proper respect since there won't be another person in your life that will ever love you more, or even equally... at least under normal circumstances
edit: honest question, don't want to flame
The first telephone is also pretty bad compared to nowadays phones.