#Ursula K. Le Guin

[mobilefruit-gundam]

Picked up a lil 1974 paperback of Ursula’s The Left Hand of Darkness because you can never have too many copies of a good book. Found a greyhound ticket, Sacramento to Oakland, April 11th 1975, between pages 64-65. A great read for a long bus ride, one i’ve personally taken with me on many trips. I hope they had a fun time in Oakland. I hope they finished the book.

[thistlequest]

earthsea sketches

[digitalmiilk]

When Ursula K. Le Guin wrote:

"For I had forgotten how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me."

[justscreamingallthetime]

Thinking about how Ged's name used to be Duny. Like,, thats the name of a fuckup. Prophetic.

[ofruinsandmyth]

True myth may serve for thousands of years as an inexhaustible source of intellectual speculation, religious joy, ethical inquiry, and artistic renewal. The real mystery is not destroyed by reason. The fake one is. You look at it and it vanishes. You look at the Blond Hero—really look—and he turns into a gerbil. But you look at Apollo, and he looks back at you. The poet Rilke looked at a statue of Apollo about fifty years ago, and Apollo spoke to him. “You must change your life,” he said. When true myth rises into consciousness, that is always its message. You must change your life.

— Ursula K. Le Guin

[saritaadam]

Another entry on @batmanisagatewaydrug bingo

Sequel : the second book of Earthsea, The tomb of Atuan

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Fiction Free-for-All Book Bracket Tournament: Round 1B

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

Endorsement from submitter: "That book was written in 1969 and yes, not everything hold up today, but for the time is very progressive"

A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.

Science fiction, classics, speculative fiction, anthropological science fiction, distant future, adult

The Ghost Network by Catie Disabato

Has the world’s hottest pop star been kidnapped, joined a secret sect, or simply gone into hiding? The answer lies in the abandoned subway stations of Chicago . . .

One minute insanely famous pop singer Molly Metropolis is on her way to a major performance in Chicago, and the next, she’s gone.

A journalist who’s been covering Molly joins the singer's personal assistant in an increasingly desperate search to find her, guided by a journal left behind in her hotel room, and possible clues hidden in her songs—all of which seem to point to an abandoned line in the Chicago subway system.

It leads them to a map of half-completed train lines underneath Chicago, which in turn leads them to the secret, subterranean headquarters of an obscure intellectual sect—and the realization that they’ve gone too far to turn back. And if a superstar can disappear without a trace . . . what can happen to these young women?

Mystery, literary fiction, metanarrative, experimental, contemporary, adult

[godzilla-reads]

We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.

—Ursula K. LeGuin

[kirk40ayak]

me and my shadow

[thisworldisablackhole]

The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1971) - 3/5

I love Ursula K. Le Guin so much. The Dispossessed is possibly my favourte book of all time, and The Left Hand of Darkness isn't too much further down the list. Unfortunately, The Lathe of Heaven didn't quite live up to my expectations set by those two novels, but it's okay; I don't think it was trying to achieve the same goal. The Lathe of Heaven is much shorter than those two (only 184 pages in this print) and seems to be more of a simple exercise in ideas than a grand story. Le Guin is brainstorming here, and in the case of our main character George Orr, that could be interpreted quite literally. Orr has the power to change reality through his dreams, which terrifies him and leads him down a path of abusing dream-suppressing drugs, which lands him in "voluntary" therapy sessions with dream specialist William Haber, who quickly realizes the power of his patient and begins to use Orr's dreams for his own morally ambiguous means.

I found the representation of the characters and the meaning between the lines of the story to be much more satisfying than the story itself. The then-future world of Portland, Oregon, despite the fact that it changes drastically every time George falls asleep, just isn't that interesting compared to a world like Annares or Winter. I found myself glossing over a lot of the descriptions of things, and the fact that Le Guin also took a much more straightforward approach to her prose here didn't exactly help to spruce things up. But her writing is just so charming regardless. The story did absolutely take some turns I didn't expect, but the problem is that I kind of knew how it would all play out from the jump, which made it hard to feel truly engaged.

The ideas expressed here were much more subtle in their expression than in some of Le Guin's bigger works, but no less of value. Throughout the story, you can glean Le Guin's insights on the meaning of life, human nature, ego, social identity, free will, coercion, the ambiguity of evil, property of self, the power of love. The fact that Haber essentially declares himself the owner of Orr's literal dreams is an obvious metaphor that is both humorous in its stark representation and also deeply relatable. The story of The Lathe of Heaven caters directly to Le Guin's philosophy, where the real meat is, but that doesn't mean the story isn't a damn entertaining ride. It just didn't feel like there was any real sense of danger or consequence. The last couple pages did make me tear up, though. I could see this maybe being intended for a younger audience, which is why it didn't fully land with me, but god bless Le Guin for trying to instill some real values in her writing.

[rustingroots]

Finally picked up the earthsea trilogy from the library!!! Been wanting to pick it up for agessss

[digitalmiilk]

Currently reading:

The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin

[devotedcyborg]

crocheting bags for my friends made me think about ursula k. le guin's essay in which she expanded on the idea that the first thing human invented was not a weapon to kill but a recipient bag to carry. she insisted on the importance of the story we tell of ourselves, and refused to be a part of the history of mankind that put emphasis on what we hunt and kill to get where we are. instead she wanted us to highlight the part of us that take care, that safe guard, that weave carrier bags for our friends so they can have things that keep them safe with them when they are out. it's the story i want to be a part of, it's the story i want to continue writing.

excerpt from the carrier bag theory of fiction by ursula k. le guin