#the author of the acacia seeds

[morhath]

author

Traditional ant names

Traditional ant names are based on one ant virtue as the first name and one ant “intimidating quality” as the last name.

For example:

Temperance the Absconder

Proportionality the Relentless

Synchronicity the Amputator

Alacrity the Calculating

Efficiency the Eternal Witness

[bookwyrminspiration]

this ant's got penis envy <- a real sentence I just said out loud to other people

[greenwitchcrafts]

August 2024 Witch Guide

New Moon: August 4th

First Quarter: August 12th

Full moon: August 19th

Last Quarter: August 26th

Sabbats: Lughnasadh/Lammas- August 1st

August Sturgeon Moon

Also known as: Barely Moon, Black Cherries Moon, Corn moon, Dispute Moon, Harvest moon, Herb Moon, grain moon, Mountain Shadows Moon, Red moon, Ricing Moon, Weodmonath & Wyrt moon

Element: Fire

Zodiac: Leo & Virgo

Animal spirts: Dryads

Deities: Diana, Ganesha, Hathor, Hecate, Mars, Nemesis, Thot & Vulcan

Animals: Dragon, lion, phoenix & sphinx

Birds: Crane, eagle & falcon

Trees: Alder, cedar & hazel

Herbs: Basil, bay, fennel, orange, rosemary, rue & St.John's wort

Flowers: Angelica, chamomile, marigold & sunflower

Scents: Frankincense & heliotrope

Stones: Carnelian, cats/tiger's eye, emerald, fire agate, garnet, jade, moonstone, peridot, red jasper, red agate, sardonyx, topaz & tourmaline

Colors: Dark green, gold, orange, red & yellow

Energy: Abundance, appreciation, authority, courage, entertainment, finding your voice, friendship, gathering, harvesting energy, health, love, pleasures, power, prophecy, prosperity, vitality & wisdom

The name Sturgeon Moon comes from the giant lake sturgeon of the Great Lakes & Lake Champlain; this native freshwater fish was readily caught during this part of summer & an important food staple for Native Americans who lived in the region. At one time the lake sturgeon was quite abundant in late summer, though they are rarer today.

• August's full moon is the first Supermoon of the year, which means that it will appear bigger & brighter than the full Moons we have seen so far!

Lughnasadh

Known as: Lammas, August Eve  & Feast of Bread

Season: Summer

Element: Fire

Symbols: corn, grain dollies & shafts of grain

Colors: Gold, golden yellow, green, light brown, orange, purple, red & yellow

Oils/Incense: Aloe, apple, corn, eucalyptus, safflower, rose & sandalwood

Animals: Cattle (bull & calf)

Birds: Chicken/Rooster

Stones: Aventurine, carnelian, citrine, peridot, sardonyx & yellow diamond

Food: Apples, barely cakes, berries, berry pies, breads, colcannon, cider, corn, grains, honey, lamb, nuts, potatoes, rice, sun-shaped cookies & wild berries

Herbs/Plants: Alfalfa, aloe, blackberry, bramble, corn, cornsilk, corn stalk, crab apple, fenugreek, frankincense, ginseng, goldenseal, gorse, grape, medowsweet, oak leaves, pear, rye, sloe & wheat

Flowers:  Clyclamen, heather hollyhock & sunflower

Trees: Acacia, apple, myrtle,oak & rowan

Goddesses: Aine, Alphito, Bracacia, Carmen, Ceres, Damina, Danu, Demeter, Ereshkigal, Freya, Frigga, Gaia, Inanna Ishtar, Kait, Persephone, Sul, Taillte, Tea & Zaramama

Gods: Athar, Bes, Bran, Dagon, Dumuzi, Ebisu, Ghanan, Howtu, Liber, Lono, Lugh, Neper, Odin & Xochipilli

Issues, Intentions & Powers: Accomplishment, agriculture, challenges, darkness, death, endings, release & transformation

Spellwork: Abundance, bounty, fire magick, rituals of thanks & sun magick

Activities:

• Bake fresh bread

• Weave wheat

• Take walks in nature or along bodies of water

• Craft a corn doll

• Learn a new skill

• Watch the sunrise/sunset

• Leave grains and seeds in a place where birds, squirrels and other small animals can appreciate them

• Eat outside with family/friends/coven members

• Donate to your local foodbank

• Prepare a feast with your garden harvest

• Give thanks & offerings to the Earth

• Trade crafts of make deals

• Gather and/or dry herbs to use for the upcoming year

• Celebrate/honor the god Lugh by hosting a competition of games

• Participate in matchmaking or handfasting ceremonies

• Decorate your altar with symbols of the season

• Clean up a space in nature

• Plant saved seeds or save seeds to use in the future

Lughnasadh or Lammas is a Gaelic festival marking the beginning of the harvest season. Historically it was widely observed throughout Ireland, Scotland & the Isle of Man. Traditionally it is held on 1 August, or about halfway between the summer solstice & autumn equinox. In recent centuries some of the celebrations have shifted to the Sunday nearest this date.

Lughnasadh is mentioned in early Irish literature & has pagan origins. The festival is named after Lugh the god of craftsmanship. It was also founded by the god Lugh as a funeral feast & athletic competition/funeral games in memory of his foster-mother Tailtiu. She was said to have died of exhaustion after clearing the plains of Ireland for agriculture.

• Tailtiu may have been an earth goddess who represented the dying vegetation that fed mankind.

• Another tale says that Lugh founded the festival in memory of his two wives, the sisters Nás & Bói. 

In the Middle Ages it involved great gatherings that included ceremonies, athletic contests (most notably the Tailteann Games which were extremely dangerous), horse racing, feasting, matchmaking & trading.

• With the coming of Christianity to the Celtic lands, the old festival of Lughnasadh took on Christian symbolism. Loaves of bread were baked from the first of the harvested grain & placed on the church altar on the first Sunday of August. The Christianized name for the feast of Lughnasadh is Lammas which means “loaf mass”.

Some believe this is the time where the God has weakened & is losing his strength as seen in the waning of the day's light. The Goddess is pregnant with the young God who will be born on Yule.

Sources:

Farmersalmanac .com

Llewellyn's Complete Book of Correspondences by Sandra Kines

Wikipedia

A Witch's Book of Correspondences by Viktorija Briggs

Encyclopedia britannica

Llewellyn 2024 magical almanac Practical magic for everyday living

[otherworlds-inside-my-mind]

Xenofiction (& similar) Media Masterpost

Editable Google Doc Link here

PS. This list is for keeping track only. This is not a recommendation list and I won't be advocating for any Work, Author or Company listed. There will be footnotes about a work/author for undesirable behaviour or themes if necessary.

This is a WIP and will be updated whenever I have the time to. Feel free to recommend works or inform me about an author so I can update the post. Be Aware works on this list might have been cancelled or on indifinitive Hiatus and not all works are available on English.

Sections:

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Indie Written Works

Webcomics

Manga

Animated Series

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Webseries

Short Films

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Live Action & CGI Assisted Movies

Documentary

Theather

Videogames

Online Browser Games

Table Top Games

Music

Other Online Projects

Youtubers

Gen. Videos

Worlds

Franchises

To search is Ctrl + F (Windows) or Command-F (MacOS), on phone browser you have "Find in page" (Drop menu at top right)

Literature

A

Age of Fire - E. E. Knight

Adventure Lit their Star - Kenneth Allsop

Alien in a Small Town - Jim Cleaveland

Alien Chronicles (Literature) - Deborah Chester

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Animorphs - K. A. Applegate

Am an Owl - Martin Hocke

At Winters End - Robert Silverberg

Avonoa - H.R.B. Collotzi

Astrid and Cerulean: A Parrot Fantasy - Parasol Marshall-Crowley

A Wolf for a Spell - Karah Sutton

The African Painted Wolf Novels - Alexander Kendziorski

The Alchemist's Cat - Robin Jarvis

The Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents - Terry Pratchet

The Amity Incident - C. M. Weller

The Ancient Solitary Reign - Martin Hocke

The Animals of Farthing Wood series - Colin Dann

The Art of Racing in the Rain - Garth Stein

The Author of Acacia Seeds and Other Extracts from the Journal of Therolinguistics - Ursula K. Le Guin

A Magical Cat Named Kayla: Whiskers of Enchantment -Carlos Juárez [AI Cover]*

The Animal Story Book - Various Authors [Editor: Andrew Lang]

Abenteuer im Korallenriff - Antonia Michaelis [DE]

B

Bambi: A life in the forest & Bambi Children - Felix Salten

Bamboo Kingdom series - Erin Hunter

Bazil Broketail - Christopher Rowley

Beak of the Moon & Dark of the Moon - Philip Temple

Bears of the Ice series - Kathryn Lasky

Beasts of New York - Jon Evans

Beautiful Joe - Margaret Marshall Saunders

Beyond Acacia Ridge - Amy Clare Fontaine

Birddom - Clive Woodall

Bird Brain - Guy Kennaway

Black Beauty - Anna Sewell

Blitzcat - Robert Westall

Blizzard Winds - Paul Koch

Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells

Braver: A Wombat's Tale - Suzanne Selfors & Walker Ranson

Bravelands series- Erin Hunter

Broken Fang - Rutherford Montgomery

Bunnicula series - Deborah Howe & James Howe

Burning Stars - Rurik Redwolf

A Black Fox Running - Brian Carter

A Blue So Loud - Tuesday

The Ballard of The Belstone Fox - David Rook

The Bear - James Curwood

The Bees - Laline Paull

The Biography of a Silver Fox - Ernest Thompson Seton

The Blue Cat of Castle Town - Catherine Cate Coblentz

The Book Of Chameleons - José Eduardo Agualusa

The Book of the Dun Cow - Walter Wangerin Jr.

The Book of Night with Moon - Diane Duane

The Books of the Named series - Clare Bell

The Bug Wars - Robert Asprin

The Builders - Daniel Polansky

C

Call of the wild - Jack London

Callanish - William Horwood

Catwings - Ursula K. Le Guin

Cat Diaries: Secret Writings of the MEOW Society - Betsy Byars, Betsy Duffey & Laurie Myers

Cat House - Michael Peak

Cat Pack - Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Cats in the city of Plague - A.L Marlow

Celestial Heir series - Chester Young

Charlotte's Web - E. B. White

Chet and Bernie mysteries - Spencer Quinn

Chia The Wildcat - Joyce stranger

Child of the Wolves - Elizabeth Hall

Clarice the Brave - Lisa McMann

Cry of the Wild - Charles Foster

Coyote's Wild Home - Barbara Kingsolver; Lily Kingsolver & Paul Mirocha

Coyote Series - Michael Bergey

Crocuta - Katelyn Rushe

Coorinna: A Novel of the Tasmanian Uplands - Erle Wilson

Cujo - Steven King

The Calatians Series - Tim Susman

The Cats of Roxville station - Jean Craighead Georde

The Chanur Novels - C. J. Cherryh

The Cold Moons - Aeron Clement

The Color of Distance || Through Alien Eyes - Amy Thomson

The Conquerors - Timothy Zahn

The Council of Cats - R. J. F.

The Cricket in Times Square - George Selden

The Crimson Torch - Angela Holder

The Crossbreed - Allan Eckert

The Crucible of Time - John Brunner

D

Darkeye series - Lydia West

Deadlands: The Hunted - Skye Melki-Wegner

Demon of Undoing - Andrea I. Alton

Desert Dog - Jim Kjelgaard

Dinotopia - James Gurney, Alan Dean Foster

Doglands - Tim Willocks

Dimwood Forest series - Avi

A Dog's Life: The Autobiography of a Stray - Ann M. Martin

A Dog's Porpoise Duology - M. C. Ross

Dogs of the Drowned City - Dayna Lorentz

A Dog's Purpose series - W. Bruce Cameron

Dolphin Way: Rise of the Guardians - Mark Caney

Domino - Kia Heavey

Douglas' Diary - Andrew John

DragonFire series - Lewis Jones Davies

Dragon Fires Rising - Marc Secchia

Dragon Hoard and Other Tales of Faerie - Cathleen Townsend

Dragons and Skylines series - Rowan Silver

Dragon Prayers - M.J. McPike

Dragons of Mother Stone series - Melissa McShane

Dragon Girls Series - Maddy Mara

The Deptford Mice series - Robin Jarvis

The Dogs of the Spires series - Ethan Summers

The Dragons of Solunas series - H. Leighton Dickson

The Duncton Chronicles - William Horwood

The Destiny of Dragons - J.F.R. Coates

The Diary Of A House Cat - Ileana Dorobantu

Dogtown - Katherine Applegate & Gennifer Choldenko

Die schwarze Tigerin - Peer Martin [DE]

Die weiße Wölfin - Vanessa Walder [DE]

Die Wilden Hunde Von Pompeii - Helmut Krausser [DE]

Das wilde Mäh - Vanessa Walder [DE]

E

The Eyes and the Impossible - Dave Eggers

Eclosión - Arturo Balseiro [ES]

Ein Seehund findet nach Hause - Antonia Michaelis [DE]

F

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Roald Dahl

Faithful Ruslan - Georgi Vladimov

Feather and Bone: The Crow Chronicles - Clem Martini

Feathers & Flames series - John Bailey

Felidae series (1) - Akif Pirinçci

Fifteen Rabbits - Felix Salten

Fire, Bed & Bone - Henrietta Branford

Fire of the Phoenix - Azariah Jade

Fluke - James Herbert

Firefall series - Peter Watts

Firebringer - David Clement-Davies

Flush: A Biography Book - Virginia Woolf

Fox - Glyn Frewer

Foxcraft series - Inbali Iserles

Frightful’s Mountain - Jeanie Craighead George

Frost dancers: A story of hares - Garry Kilworth

The Familiars series - Adam Jay Epstein

The Fifth - Saylor Ferguson

The Firebringer series - Meredith Ann Pierce

The Fox and The Hound - Daniel P. Mannix

The Forges of Dawn - E. Kinsey

Freundschaft im Regenwald - Peer Martin [DE]

(1) Felidae's Author - Akif Pirinçci - is known to be a Xenophobic, Anti-muslim, Anti-Lgbt and Extreme Right-Wing guy (A N4zi by his on words). Won't be going onto details just know he has a non-fiction work called "Germany Gone Mad: The Crazy Cult around Women, Homosexuals and Immigrants." His works has been out of print ever since.

G

Guardian Cats and the lost books of Alexandria - Rahma Krambo

Guardians of Ga'Hoole series - Kathryn Lasky

Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

Griffin Quest - Sophie Torro

Gryphon Insurrection series - K. Vale Nagle

The Ghost and It's Shadow - Shaun Hick

The Golden Eagle - Robert Murphy

The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker

The Good Dog - Newbery Medalist

The Guardian Herd series - Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

The Goodbye Cat - Hiro Arikawa

The Great Timbers - James A. Kane

H

Haunt Fox - Jim Kjelgaard

Haven: A Small Cat's Big Adventure - Megan Wagner Lloyd

Heavenly Horse series - Mary Stanton

Hive - Ischade Bradean

Horses of Dawn series - Kathryn Lasky

House of Tribes - Garry Kilworth

Hunter's Moon/Foxes of First dark - Garry Kilworth

Hunters Universe series - Abigail Hilton

A Hare at Dark Hollow - Joyce Stranger

The Hundred and One Dalmatians & The Starlight Barking - Dodie Smith

The Hunt for Elsewhere - Beatrice Vine

Hollow Kingdom Duology - Kira Jane Buxton

I

I am a Cat - Natsume Sōseki

I, Scheherezade: Memoirs of a Siamese Cat - Douglass Parhirst

In the Long Dark - Brian Carter

The Incredible Journey - Sheila Burnford

Im Reich der Geparde - Kira Gembri [DE]

J

Joe Grey series - Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Richard Bach & Russell Munson

Julie of the Wolves - Jeanie Craighead George

The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling

Journey to the West - Wu Cheng'en

K

Kävik the Wolf Dog - Walt Morey

Kazan duology - James Curwood

Kine Saga - Alan Lloyd

Kona's Song - Louise Searl

The Killers - Daniel P. Mannix

Kindred of the Wild - Charles G.D Roberts

König der Bären - Vanessa Walder [DE]

L

Lassie Come-Home - Eric Knight

Last of the Curlews - Fred Bodsworth

Lazy Scales - D.M. Gilmore

Legends of Blood series - Ethan Summers

A Legend of Wolf Song - George Stone

Luna the Lone Wolf - Forest Wells

Lupus Rex - John Carter Cash

Lutapolii: White Dragon of the South - Deryn Pittar

The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle

The Labrador Pact & The Last Family in England - Matt Haig

The Last Dogs - Christopher Holt

The Last Eagle - Daniel P. Mannix

The Last Great Auk - Allan Eckert

The Last Monster on Earth - L.J. Davies

The Life Story of a Fox - J. C. Tregarthen

The Lost Rainforest series - Eliot Schrefer & Emilia Dziubak

The Lost Domain - Martin Hocke

The Last Whales: A Novel - Lloyd Abbey

M

Mammoth Trilogy - Stephen Baxter

Manxmouse: The Mouse Who Knew No Fear - Paul Gallico

Marney the Fox - Scott Goodall & John Stokes

Mattie: The story of a hedgehog - Norman Adams, & G.D. Griffiths

Matriarch: Elephant vs. T-Rex - Roz Gibson

Midnight's Sun - Garry Kilworth

Migon - P.C. Keeler

Minado The Devil - Dog - Erle Wilson

Monkey Wars - Richard Kurti

Mouseheart Series - Lisa Fiedler

The Mistmantle chronicles - M.I. McAllister

The Mountain Lion - Robert Murphy

The Mouse Butcher - Dick King-Smith

The Mouse Protectors Series - Olly Barrett

Maru - Die Reise der Elefanten - Kira Gembri [DE]

N

New Springtime series - Robert Silverberg

Nightshade Chronicles - Hilary Wagner

Nugly - M. C. Ross

Nuru und Lela - Das Wunder der Wildnis - Kira Gembri [DE]

O

Old One-Toe - Michel-Aimé Baudouy

Of Birds and Branches - Frances Pauli

Outlaw Red - Jim Kjelgaard

The Old Stag - Henry Williamson

The One and Only Ivan - Katherine Applegate

P

Painted Flowers - Caitlin Grizzle

Pax & Pax: Journey Home - Sara Pennypacker

Petrichor - C.E. Wright

The Plague Dogs - Richard Adams

The Pit - Elaine Ramsay

Pride Wars Series - Matt Laney

A Pup Called Trouble - Bobbie Pyron

The Peregryne Falcon - Robert Murphy

Pork and Others - Cris Freddi

Q

Queen in the Mud - Maari

Quill and Claw series - Kathryn Brown

R

Rak: The story of an Urban Fox - Jonathon Guy

Ramblefoot by Ken Kaufman

Rats of Nimh series - Robert C. O'Brien

Raven Quest - Sharon Stewart

Ravenspell Series - David Farland

Raptor Red - Robert T. Bakker

Red Fox - Charles G. D. Roberts

Redwall series - Brian Jacques

Rose in a Storm - Jon Katz

Rufus - Rutherford Montgomery

Run With the Wind series - Tom McCaughren

Runt - Marion Dane Baeur

Rustle in the Grass - Robin Hawdon

Rusty - Joyce Stranger

The Remembered War series - Robert Vane

The Rescuers series - Margery Sharp

The Red Stranger - David Stephen

The River Singers & The Rising - Tom Moorhouse

The Road Not Taken - Harry Turtledove,

The Running Foxes - Joyce Stranger

Revier der Raben - Vanessa Walder [DE]

S

Salar the Salmon - Henry Williamson

Scary Stories for Young Foxes Duology - Christian McKay Heidicker

Scaleshifter series - Shelby Hailstone Law

Shadow Walkers - Russ Chenoweth

Scream of the White Bears - David Clement-Davies

Seekers saga - Erin Hunter

Serpentia Series - Frances Pauli

Shadows in the Sky - Pete Cross

Shark Wars Series - EJ Altbacker

Silverwing series - Kenneth Oppel

Silver Brumby series - Elyne Mitchell

Sirius - Olaf Stapledon

SkyTalons Series - Sophie Torro

Solo's Journey - Joy Aiken Smith

Sky Hawk - Gill Lewis

Snow Dog - Jim Kjelgaard

Song of the River - Soinbhe Lally

Spirit of the West series - Kathleen Duey

Survivors series - Erin Hunter

Stray - A.N Wilson

String Lug the Fox - David Stephen

Swashbuckling Cats: Nine Lives on the Seven Seas - Rhonda Parrish & Co.

Swordbird series - Nancy Yi Fan

The Sheep-Pig - Dick King-Smith

The Sight & Fell - David Clement-Davies

The Silent Sky - Allan Eckert

The Silver Claw - Garry Kilworth

The Stoner Eagles - William Horwood

The Stink Files - Jennifer L. Holm & Jonathan Hamel

The Snowcat Prince - Dina Norlund

The Story Of A Seagull And The Cat Who Taught Her To Fly - Luis Sepúlveda

The Story of a Snail Who Discovered the Importance of Being Slow - Luis Sepúlveda

The Story of a dog called Leal - Luis Sepúlveda

The Story of a Red Deer - John Fortescue

The Summer King Chronicles - Jess E. Owen

Schogul, Rächer der Tiere - Birgit Laqua [DE]

Stadt der Füchse - Vanessa Walder [DE]

T

Tailchaser's Song - Tad Williams

Tarka the Otter - Henry Williamson

Three Bags Full - Leonnie Swann

Thy Servant a Dog - Rudyard Kipling

Tomorrow's Sphinx - Clare Bell

Torn Ear - Geoffrey Malone

Thor - Wayne Smith

Trickster -  Tom Moorhouse

Two Dogs and a Horse - Jim Kjelgaard

The Tale of Despereaux - Kate DiCamillo

The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Arikawa

The Trilogy of the Ants - Bernard Werber

The Trumpet of the Swan - E. B. White

The Tusk That Did the Damage - Tania James

The Tygrine cat - Inbali Iserles

U

Ultimate Dragon Saga - Graham Edwards

Under the Skin - Michel Faber

V

Varjak Paw duology - S.F Said

Vainqueur the Dragon series - Maxime J. Durand

W

War Bunny series - Christopher St. Jhon

War Horse - Michael Morpurgo

War Queen - Illthylian

Warrior Cats series - Erin Hunter

Watership Down/Tales of Watership Down - Richard Adams

Ways of Wood Folk - William J. Long

Welkin Weasels series - Garry Kilworth

West of Eden - Harry Harrison

Whalesong Trilogy - Robert Siegel

Whale - Jeremy Lucas

Whispers in the Forest - Barbara Coultry

White Wolf - Henrietta Branford

White Fang - Jack London

White Fox Series - Jiatong Chen

Wings trilogy - Don Conroy

Wild Lone - Denys Watkins-Pitchford

Wild Animals I Have Known - Ernest Thompson Seton

Willow Tree Wood Series - J. S. Betts

Wings of Fire series - Tui T. Sutherland

Winterset Hollow - Jonathan Edward Durham

Wolf: The Journey Home | Hungry for Home: A Wolf Odyssey - Asta Bowen

Wolf Brother series - Michelle Paver

Wolf Chronicles - Dorothy Hearst

Wolves of the Beyond Series - Kathryn Lasky

Woodstock Saga - Michael Tod

A Whale of the Wild - Rosanne Parry

A Wolf Called Wander - Rosanne Parry

The Waters of Nyra - Kelly Michelle Baker

The Wolves of Elementa series - Sophie Torro

The Wolves of Time - William Horwood

The Wolf Chronicles Series - Teng Rong

The Way of Kings - Louise Searl

The White Bone - Barbara Gowdy

The White Fox/Singing Tree - Brian Parvin

The White Puma - Ronald Lawrence

The Wild Road & The Golden Cat - Gabriel King

The Wildings & The Thousand names of darkness - Nilanjana Roy

The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

The Wind Protect You - Pat Murphy

The Wolves of Paris - Daniel P. Mannix

Y

Yellow eyes - Rutherford Montgomery

The Year Of The Dinosaur - Edwin H. Colbert

Z

Zones of Thought series - Vernor Vinge

Z-Verse series by R.H

Comic Books/Graphic Novels

Animosity - Marguerite Bennett

Age of Reptiles - Ricardo Delgado

Legend - Samuel Sattin Koehler

Mouse Guard - David Petersen

Pride of Baghdad - Brian K. Vaughan & Niko Henrichon

Rover Red Charlie - Garth Ennis & Michael Dipascale

Stray Dogs - Tony Fleecs & Trish Forstner

We3 - Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely

Beasts of Burden - Evan Dorkin & Jill Thompson

LOBO: Canine Crusader of the Metal Wasteland - Macs-World-Ent

The Sandman: Dream of a Thousand Cats - Neil Gaiman

Animal Castle - Xavier Dorison & Felix Delep

Blacksad Series - Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido

Scurry - Mac Smith

The Snowcat Prince - Dina Norlund

Rankless - Maggie Lightheart

Animal Pound - Tom King & Peter Gross

Animal Castle - Xavier Dorison & Felix Delep

BlackSad - Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido

Picture Books

Steve the Dung Beetle: On a Roll - Susan R. Stoltz & Melissa Bailey

Hot Dog - Doug Salati

The Rock from the Sky - Jon Klassen

Whoever Heard of a Flying Bird? - David Cunliffe & Ivan Barrera

A Cat Named Whiskers - Shana Gorian

Ocean Tales Children's Books Series - Sarah Cullen & Zuzana Sbodová

Jake the Growling Dog - Samantha Shannon

Indie Written Works

Fins Above Series - MIROYMON

Journey of Atlas - Journey of Atlas

Webcomics

A

Africa - Arven92

After Honour - genstaelens

Awka - Nothofagus-obliqua

Arax - Azany

Amarith - Eredhys

The Apple's Echo - Helianthanas

Alone - Magpeyes

B

The Blackblood Alliance - KayFedewa

The Betrothed - Kibisca

Black Tyrant - Zapp-BEAST

Blue - HunterBeingHunted

Beast Tags - TheRoomPet

Spy - Utahraptor93

Be Reflected in my Eyes - Aquene-lupetta

C

Carry your voice - TacoBella

Caelum Sky - ALRadeck

Crescent Wing - Mikaley

Crescent Moonlight - AnimalCrispy

City of Trees - SanjanaIndica

Corpse - doeprince/ratt

D

Darbi - Sherard Jackson

The Devils Demons - Therbis

Doe of Deadwood - Songdogx

Dyten - Therbis

Desperation - PracticelImagination

E

Equus Siderae - Dalgeor

Empyrean - Leonine-Skies

Enchantment - FeralWolf1234

F

Fox Fires - Pipilia

Forget me Not - Nitteh

Fjeld - Dachiia

Felinia - Rainy-bleu

G

Golden Shrike - doeprince/ratt

Ghost of the Gulag - David Derrick Jr.

H

Horse Age - BUGHS-22

Hiraeth - AFlameThatNeverDies

Half-Blood - majkaria

Horns of Light - ThatMoonySky

I

I Hope So - Detective Calico

The Ivory Walk - TacoBella

I'm not Ready - Wolfkingdom372

J

Jet and Harley - doeprince

K

Kestrel Island - Silverphoenix

Kin - Fienduredraws

KuroMonody - IrisBdz

Krystal - Nitteh

The King of Eyes - CloverTailedFox09

L

Legend of Murk - Azany

LouptaOmbra - Loupta Ombra (OngakuK, MlleNugget & joeypony)

Leopards bring rain - Kyriuar

M

Mazes of Filth - petitecanine

Minimal All You Are - mike-princeofstars

N

Nine Riders - SpiriMuse

No Man's Land - TacoBella

Never seen the Day - R3dk3y

Norra - shadowmirku

O

Obsidian Fire - SolinaBright

Oren's Forge - teagangavet

Off-White - Akreon

Out Of Time - IndiWolf

R

Rabbit on the Moon - Songdogx & Nitteh

The Rabbit Hole - Detrah

RunningWolf Mirari - Mirella Menciassi

Raptor - ElenPanter

Redriver - FireTheWolf777

Repeat - Songdogx

The Rabbit's Foot - riri_arts

S

Scurry - Mac Smith

Simbol - Zoba22

Spirit Lock - Animal Crispy

The Sylcoe - Denece-the-sylcoe

Sunder - Aurosoul

T

Tainted Hearts - Therbis

Taxicat - owlburrow

That's Freedom Guyra - Nothofagus-obliqua

Three Corners: A Kitten's Story - Lara Frizzell

Tofauti Sawa - TheCynicalHound

Two of a Kind - ProjectNao

To Catch a Star - SleepySundae

U

Under the Ash Tree - ChevreLune

Uninvited - Nothofagus-obliqua

W

Water Wolves - LuckyStarhun

What Lurks Beneath - ArualMeow

Water Wolves - LuckyStarhun

Wild Wolves - Lombarsi

White Tail - SleepySundae

What's your damage? - FrostedCanid

The Wolves of Chena - Yamis-Art

Waves Always Crash - Hellhunde

The Whale's Heart - Possumteeeth [Warriors Fancomic]

Manga

A Centaur's Life - Murayama Kei

Beastars - Paru Itagaki

Chi's Sweet Home - Kanata Konami

Ginga Series [Silverfang] - Yoshihiro Takahashi

Gon - Masashi Tanaka

Houseki no Kuni | Land of the Lustrous - Haruko Ichikawa

Inugami-Kai - Masaya Hokazono

The Jungle Emperor - Osamu Tezuka

My roommate is a cat - Minatsuki & Asu Futatsuya

Crimsons – The Scarlet Navigators of the Ocean - Kanno Takanori

Rooster Fighter - Shū Sakuratani

Simoun - Shō Aikawa

The Fox & Little Tanuki - Mi Tagawa

Yuria 100 Shiki - Nobuto Hagio

Massugu ni Ikou - Kira

Cat Soup

The Amazing 3

Cat + Gamer - Wataru Nadatani

Animated Series

#

101 Dalmatians: The series & 101 Dalmatian Street

A

A Polar Bear in Love

B

Baja no Studio

Bagi: Monster of Mighty Nature

Bannertail: The Story of Gray Squirrel

Bluey

C

Centaurworld (2021)

Chirin's Bell

Chironup no Kitsune

D

Dokkun Dokkun

E

F

G

Gamba no Bouken

H

Hazbin Hotel

I

Invader ZIM

Inu to Neko Docchi mo Katteru to Mainichi Tanoshii

J

K

King Fang

Koisuru Shirokuma

Kemushi no Boro

Kewang Lantian

Konglong Baobei: Shiluo De Wenming

L

Little Polar Bear

M

Manxmouse's Great Activity

Mitsubachi Maya no Bouken

Mikan Enikki

Massugu ni Ikou -

My Life as a Teenage Robot

Mikan Enikki

N

O

Ore, Tsushima

Okashi na Sabaku no Suna to Manu

P

Primal

Polar Bear Cafe

Q

R

Robotboy (2005)

S

Seton Doubutsuki: Risu no Banner

Simoun

T

The Amazing 3

Tottoko Hamtarou

The Adventure of Qiqi and Keke

Tama & Friends: Third Street Story

U

V

W

Watership Down (2018) & Watership Down (1999)

What's Michael?

Wolf's Rain

Wonder Pets

X

Y

Live-Action/Hybrid show

Fantasy High

A Crown of Candy 

Burrow's End

Good Omens

Webseries

Dinosauria - Dead Sound

My Pride - tribbleofdoom

Whitefall - Chylk

The Stolen Hope - Galemtido

Dragon's Blood - FluffyGinger

Helluva Boss -

Murder Drones -

Short Films

A

Alone a wolf's winter

B

Baja's Studio

Beautiful Name

Burrow

C

Cat Piano

Cat Soup

Chicken Little

D

E

F

Far From the Tree

Ferdinand the Bull

Frypan Jiisan

G

Genji Fantasy: The Cat Fell in Love With Hikaru Genji

Gaitou to Neko

H

Hao Mao Mimi

Houzi Dian Bianpao

I

J

Je T'aime

K

Kitbull

L

Lava

Lambert the sheepish lion

Laoshu Jia Nu

M

Mahoutsukai no Melody

Monmon the Water Spider

Mushroom - Nakagawa Sawako

N

O

Of Mice and Clockworks

Osaru no Tairyou

P

Piper

Q

R

Robin Robin

Rusuban

S

Sauria - Dead Sound

Smash and Grab

Street of Crocodiles

She and Her Cat

Space Neko Theater

Shiroi Zou | White Elephant

Shi | Food

Sugar, With a Story

Straw-saurus NEO

T

The Chair

The Blue Umbrella

The Shell Shocked Egg

The Dog Door

The Dog In The Alley

That's Why They Were Made

U

Ushigaeru

V

W

With a Dog AND a Cat, Every Day is Fun

X

Y

Z

Zhui Shu

Animated Films

#

101 Dalmatians duology

A

A Monkey's Tale (1999)

All Dogs go to Heaven

The Adventures of Lolo the Penguin

Alpha and Omega saga

An American Tail

The Aristocats

Antz

Animals United

Annabelle's Wish (1997)

Alakazam the great (1960)

B

Back Outback

Balto

Bambi / Bambi II

Bolt

Brother Bear / Brother Bear II

A Bug's Life

The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales

Bee Movie

The Brave Little Toaster

Birds of a Feather

Back to the Forest

C

Cars

Chance

Chicken Run

D

Dinosaur

Speckles: The Tarbosaurus || Dino King: Journey to Fire Mountain

Dumbo

DC League of Super-Pets

E

Elemental

F

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Planet

Felidae

The Fox and the Hound

Finding Nemo/Finding Dory

Free Birds

The Fearless Four

G

The Good Dinosaur

Ghost in the Shell

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

H

Happy Feet/Happy Feet Two

Help! I'm a Fish

Home on the Range

Hoero! Bun Bun Movie

Hokkyoku no Muushika Miishika

I

Ice Age Franchise

Isle of Dogs

I Am T-Rex

J

Jungledyret Hugo

K

Koati

The King of Tibetan Antelope

Kuma no Gakkou trilogy

L

Lady and the Tramp

The Land Before time Franchise

The Last Unicorn

Leafy, A Hen in the wild

Little Big Panda

The Lion King Franchise

Lucky and Zorba

Lilo & Stitch

Luca

Last Day of the Dinosaurs

M

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Marona's Fantastic Tale

Millionaire Dogs

My Friend Tyranno

Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants || Minuscule - Mandibles from Far Away

Mouse and His Child

N

Nezumi Monogatari: George to Gerald no Bouken

O

Oliver & Company

One Stormy Night

Over the Edge

P

Padak

The Plague Dogs

Pompoko

Pinocchio by Guillermo del Toro

Pipi Tobenai Hotaru

R

Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure

Rango

Ratatouille

Raven the Little Rascal

Reynard the Fox (1989)

Rio

Robots

Rock a Doodle

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1998)

The Rabbi’s Cat

S

Samson and Sally

Sahara

The Secret of Nihm

The Secret Life of Pets/The Secret Life of Pets II

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

Sheep & Wolves

The Seventh Brother

A Stork's Journey

Stowaways on the Ark

T

A Turtle's Tale

The One and Only Ivan

Toy Story

Twilight of the Cockroaches (1987)

The Trumpet of the Swan

The Enchanted Journey

U

Unico

Underdog

V

Vuk the Little Fox

W

WALL·E

Watership Down (1978)

White Fang

Wizards

The Wild

Wolf Children

Wolfwalkers

X

Y

You Are Umasou

Z

Zootopia

Live Action/CGI Assisted Movies

Au Hasard Balthazar

Beverly Hills Chihuahua franchise

Cats & Dogs franchise

Charlotte's Web

EO

Fluke (1995) - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Homeward Bound duology (1963 & 1996) - Disney

The Legend of Lobo (1962) - Disney

Strays (2023) - Universal Pictures

Pride (2024) - BBC

101 Dalmatians duology (1996 & 2000)

Documentary

March of the Penguins

Meerkat Manor

Lemur Street

Gangs of Lemur Island

Orangutan Island

Prairie Dog Dynasty

Chimp Empire

Monkey Thieves

Monkey Kingdom

Theather

Cats

Videogames

Animalia Survival - High Brazil Studio

Cattails - Falcon Development

Endling: Extinction is Forever

Gibbon: Beyond the trees - Broken Rules

The Lonesome Fog - Might and Delight

Meadow - Might and Delight

Niche - Stray Fawn Studio

Shelter / Shelter 2/ Shelter 3 - Might and Delight

Paws - Might and Delight

Stray - BlueTwelve Studio

The WILDS - Gluten Free Games

Wolf Quest - eduweb

Golden Treasure: The Great Green - Dreaming Door Studios

Spirit of the North - Infuse Studio

Ōkami - Clover Studio

Rain World - Videocult

Feather - Samurai Punk

Eagle Flight - Ubisoft Montreal Studio

Copoka - Inaccurate Interactive

Untitled Goose Game - House House

PaRappa - NanaOn-Sha

Night in the Woods - Infinite Fall & Secret Lab

Monster Prom - Beautiful Glitch

Them's Fightin' Herds - Mane6

Toontown

E.V.O.: Search for Eden - Givro Corporation

(Pretty much most of Might and Delight games)

Online Browser Games

Lioden

Wolvden

Flight Rising

Lorwolf

Table Top Games

Bunnies & Burrows

Chronicles of Darkness

Wanderhome

Mage: The Awakening

Werewolf: The Apocalypse

Pugmire

Three Raccoons in a Trench Coat

World Tree (RPG)

Pawpocalypse

Heckin' Good Doggos

Humblewood

Dungeons & Dragons (Depends on the GM)

Music

In My Eyes You're a Giant - Sonata Arctica

It Won't Fade - Unia

The Cage - Winterheart's Guild

Other Online Projects

Youtubers

Cardinal West

Xenofiction Reviews

Gen. Videos

Trope Talk: Small Mammal on a Big Adventure by Overly Sarcastic Productions

Worlds

Mirolapye - Varverine

Franchises

Sonic the Hedgehog

My little pony

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Hamtaro

Pokemon

Digimon

Kirby

Monter High

Tom & Jerry

Baldur’s Gate

Maya the Bee

The Little Polar Bear

[jessaerys]

ursula le guin has a HEART RENDING / really short piece about semiotics & a hypothetical future where academics navigate the challenges of communicating with ants/whales/dolphins. it’s called “the author of the acacia seeds” and it’s exactly what you were posting about

OOOOHHHHHHHHHH

[coldcanyon]

The Author of the Acacia Seeds. And Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics Ursula K. Le Guin

[the-hype-dragon]

Books I Read in September

The Compass Rose by Ursula K. Le Guin - 5/5

Collection of short stories, some dystopian sci-fi, some speculative fiction, a couple of fantasy, and some of them are really funny; I really enjoyed most of them. Probably my favorites were "The Pathways of Desire," "The Wife's Story," "The Author of the Acacia Seeds," "The White Donkey," "The Diary of the Rose," "Gwilan's Harp," and "Sur." Le Guin has become one of my favorite authors this year. I recommend picking this book up or at least reading of some of the stories online if you're able, they were all pretty solid.

Deerskin by Robin McKinley - 5/5, reread

One of my all-time favorite books and my favorite McKinley book. Not an easy read but very cathartic. The ending makes me cry every time.

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree, Jr. aka Alice Sheldon - 4/5

All I can say is, I'm amazed anyone thought she was a man, especially after dropping "The Women Men Don't See." Kind of a weird pick but the story that stuck with me the most was "The Man Who Walked Home," about a man trapped between times, pretty eerie. "The Girl Who was Plugged In" kind of predicts influencer culture funnily enough, while presenting the sort of nightmare scenario that would probably realistically arise in a trans-humanist cyberpunk future. Overall I liked this collection and I came away from it with another new favorite writer. However Sheldon was very frank about things such as sex, assault, misogyny, death, etc. so definitely not for everyone.

I also attempted to read Patricia Bray's Devlin's Luck but got less than 50 pages into it before calling it quits. didn't like the writing style, everything and everyone felt very lifeless

anyway. on to October

[mothfishing]

you can't recommend me fiction about ants because i'm so picky about it. tried to read "the author of the acacia seeds and other extracts, from the journal of therolinguistics", and it was like "this is an ant expressing sacrilegious desires through 'eat the eggs, down with the queen!'". and the only thing i can think is it's actually very common in many ant species for workers to lay trophic eggs, which are non-viable and serve only as food for the queen and larvae

[quatregats]

*emerges covered in scratches and grinning maniacally* I have now read "The Author of the Acacia Seeds"

[magicicapra]

i need to read actual long form le guin stuff soon because author of the acacia seeds did Something Permanent to my brain and now i'm realizing that "all we have is means" and "free your mind of the idea of deserving" are going spread some sort of psychic mold along my brainfolds if i just keep thinking and thinking and thinking about them instead of reading the material they came from

[a-mayan-pilot]

ok, this makes me think of "Author of the Acacia Seeds" - Ursula K Le Guin (short story, in The Compass Rose, and The Real and Unreal)

Are Humans Self-Aware?

Ants have often tested humans for self awareness. They placed objects in our homes and were shocked we didn't cover them in sand.

"Although humans build interesting nests & show signs of cooperation, can they really have rich inner lives like ants? Unlikely."

They laid pheromone trails & we ignored them.

"Even a newly eclosed callow or a termite could have followed these trails! Human intelligence is perhaps similar to that of a lichen... or perhaps an aphid at best."

[estraven]

this is one of my favorite paragraphs written by Ursula. i know its lacking in context when presented this way so i recommend for anyone to give it a read (The author of the acacia seeds)

[terramythos]

TerraMythos 2022 Reading Challenge - Book 7 of 26

Title: The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories, Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands (2012)

Author: Ursula K. Le Guin

Genre/Tags: Short Story Collection, Literary Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Adventure, Dystopia, Historical Fiction, Satire, First Person, Third Person, Unreliable Narrator (and how!), Female Protagonist, LGBT Protagonist

Rating: 8/10 (note: this is an average)

Date Began: 03/20/2022

Date Finished: 04/01/2022

Here’s the second and final volume of Le Guin’s collected short stories, published in 2012. Theoretically, this part focuses on her speculative fiction stories, which she was most well-known for. As Le Guin states in her introduction, though, genre is in and of itself a marketing tool. Le Guin tends to blend and meld the fantastical and the real all throughout her writing. There were plenty of things I’d call “fantasy” in the last volume, and several stories here that feel more like “literary fiction”. So it’s pretty ironic I’m labeling genre at all after she roasts the concept for several pages. Oh well.

I ended up loving this collection. I’m especially fond of “Nine Lives”, “The Matter of Seggri”, and “The Jar of Water”. Predictably, this volume scores a smidge higher than the previous one, but they both rounded to the same overall score, 8/10. This seems appropriate, considering. Of the 21 stories in this volume, my favorites (8/10 and higher) are as follows:

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas - 9/10

Nine Lives - 10/10

Mazes - 8/10

The Shobies’ Story - 10/10

Betrayals - 8/10

The Matter of Seggri - 10/10

The Wild Girls - 9/10

The Fliers of Gy - 10/10

The Author of the Acacia Seeds - 8/10

The Wife’s Story - 10/10

The Rule of Names - 8/10

Small Change - 10/10

The Poacher - 8/10

The Jar of Water - 10/10

Huh, every other story on the list is a 10/10? I swear that wasn’t intentional…  

Individual ratings/summaries, content warnings, and some spoilers below the cut. Warning: it’s long.

#1 - The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (9/10)

Content warnings:

Depicted-- Death, animal death, child death/infanticide, mass death, violence, child abuse, domestic abuse, racism & racial slurs, homophobia, ageism, sexism, colonialism, nonconsensual drugging, graphic sexual content, selfcest, suicide, dehumanization, police brutality, graphic torture, r*pe, slavery, inc*st, grooming, p*dophilia, cultural genocide.

Mentioned--  Recreational drug use. 

The city of Omelas seems to be a true utopia. The people are happy, every child is loved, and poverty no longer exists. But every citizen of Omelas knows the price of their bliss — the suffering of one small child, forced to live in abject misery for its entire life.

Yet I repeat these were not simple folk, not dulcet shepherds, noble savages, bland utopians. They were not less complex than us. The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.

This is probably Le Guin’s most famous short story, and it’s one of two I’ve previously read in the collection. The obvious philosophical question at its center is whether the horrific, eternal misery of one person is morally acceptable if it leads to the happiness of countless others. Le Guin frames this lone sufferer as one of humanity’s most powerless people— a child forced to wallow in deplorable living conditions and subject to constant abuse. The titular ones who walk away don’t come into play until close to the end of the story. These people, knowing full well the cost of their happiness, choose to leave Omelas and never return.

“Omelas” is incredibly well written. Le Guin lulls the reader into a false sense of security describing this beautiful city in exquisite, yet somehow generic, detail. After all, a utopia would be different for everyone. She leans into the reader’s suspension of disbelief, constantly alluding to how unbelievable the concept of utopia is. But then the transition to the child’s prison and its reprehensible treatment is a jarring tonal shift that haunts the rest of the piece. Every citizen of Omelas knows of its existence, and also knows the child’s sacrifice is necessary to keep the city as it is. The people are happy, but as Le Guin says, it’s not a naive happiness.

On this reread I got the Brave New World reference for the first time. It’s certainly an apt parallel; both stories feature so-called utopias that prioritize maximum happiness at terrible moral cost. There’s a clear Marxist reading as well, because in some ways “Omelas” is a true story. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Just about anything you buy is the result of someone’s suffering, somewhere. Considering Le Guin was openly anti-capitalist, this interpretation isn’t a stretch.

As for the philosophy, I can’t help but recall the Jemisin response story, “The Ones Who Stay And Fight”, which argues that the only way to repair an immoral society is to fight against it and annihilate the history/context that created it. While I don’t 100% agree with that stance, I do agree with the premise that the ones who walk away don’t have the moral high ground. Yes, they refuse to participate in Omelas’ atrocity. But the ones who walk away from Omelas leave the tortured child to its fate, making them no different from the people who remain.

#2 - Semley’s Necklace (7/10)

Semley is a member of her planet’s aristocratic caste. Exploited by human colonizers, their once vast wealth is all but depleted. Determined to pay her husband a real dowry, Semley embarks on a quest to find the Eye of the Sea, an ancient necklace once owned by her family. Finding the heirloom, however, will cost her more than she expects. 

“What I feel sometimes is that I… meeting these people from worlds we know so little of, you know, sometimes… that I have as it were blundered through a corner of a legend, or a tragic myth, maybe, which I do not understand…”  

“Semley’s Necklace” is one of several stories in this collection set in Le Guin’s Hainish canon. While I have little to no experience with the series, each entry is easy to step into without prior knowledge. I admit I didn’t get this one at first. After some research, I discovered it’s a loose retelling of Freya’s Necklace/Brisingamen from Norse mythology. But there’s a distinct scifi twist to the whole thing. Semley’s planet was colonized by humans, leading to the poverty of the former ruling caste. So her quest to find the valuable necklace comes from personal desire (like Freya), but the context of social class adds nuance. 

The colonialism spin shapes many elements of the story. The Clayfolk are a stand-in for the dwarves of the original myth, but their culture has been inextricably altered (one could say tainted) by human inventions and influence. As a vague spoiler, the necklace’s rediscovery is tied to the idea of repatriation. For something written in 1964 and reworked in 1975, I’m impressed at how relevant it feels. Returning artifacts stolen by colonizers to their original country/culture, while by no means a new idea, is something that’s picked up a lot of steam in recent years. But Le Guin was nothing if not ahead of her time, especially regarding social justice topics. 

I dig stories that describe scientific concepts through a fantasy lens, and “Semley’s Necklace” has that in spades. I also like the recurring idea of truth becoming myth, and how that ties into the ending. I probably would have liked this story more if I was familiar with the original tale, but alas. 

#3 - Nine Lives (10/10)  

Pugh and Martin are the only two workers at a uranium mine on the desolate planet Libra. One day, their company sends over a clone to assist with the extraction. The “clone”, however, is really ten genetically identical people, all of whom function as a single unit. Despite their overt friendliness, Pugh finds the clone uncanny. But everything changes when a freak earthquake strikes the mine, leaving only one of the ten alive. 

“We’re each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?” 

Man, this is a good story. I’m not sure where to start. I feel a little bad going into that much detail in the summary, but this one would be really hard to talk about if I didn’t. 

I love how “Nine Lives” examines the concept of individuality, especially via a plural lifeform. It’s similar in some ways to the Teixcalaan books I just read; the idea of multiple people really being one and the same. Losing 90% of oneself is an unimaginable trauma to most, but Le Guin writes Kaph’s struggles in a way that’s easy to sympathize with. While he looks like a single person, he lacks the mental tools to live that way, and much of the latter half focuses on whether recovery is even possible. Touchingly, it’s Pugh who chooses to believe in Kaph and help him, despite his earlier misgivings about the clone. 

Ultimately, the story defines individuality through our relationship with others. There’s a heavy focus on Pugh and Martin’s relationship through its many ups and downs. Kaph struggles to conceptualize Pugh and Martin as individual people. It’s not malicious; they’re simply beyond his idea of “person” after his previous existence. Only when Kaph faces the possibility of complete solitude does he try to understand Pugh as an individual… by discussing Pugh’s relationship with Martin (and Jesus Fucking Christ how am I supposed to read that confession as anything other than romantic. Pugh/Martin forever, don’t look at me). For such a dark story, the ending is surprisingly optimistic, and it’s mainly due to human connection and compassion— emphasized by the final line. 

Some details I liked... There’s a sound/music motif throughout that’s subtle at first and becomes overt further into the story. My favorite example was describing the earthquake a Totentantz— a dance of death. Also, pay attention to the silences. Honestly I could write a whole analysis about this aspect of the story, but I’ll refrain since this review is already pretty long. Similar to Earthsea, Le Guin specifically describes several characters as nonwhite. While that wouldn’t be a shock today, keep in mind this was published in 1969 in fucking Playboy, of all things. Finally, the prose itself is just wonderful. Never a surprise with Le Guin, but still much appreciated. 

#4 - Mazes (8/10)  

“Mazes” follows an imprisoned narrator, forced by a cruel alien to navigate a maze every day. They try to communicate with the alien through ritual dances, with little success.

It is intelligent, highly intelligent, that is clear from a thousand evidences. We are both intelligent creatures, we are both maze-builders: surely it would be quite easy to learn to talk together! If that were what the alien wanted. But it is not. I do not know what kind of mazes it builds for itself. The ones it made for me were instruments of torture.

“Mazes” is both short and defined by a particular perspective twist. I figured it out right away, and I think you’re supposed to, but to be safe I won’t outright spoil it. Le Guin seems to like this type of story; “Horse Camp” and “The Direction of the Road” from the last volume are similar, as is “The Wife’s Story” later on in this volume.

Anyway, I found Le Guin’s characterization effective. The primary struggle with these stories is making the narrator relatable to the reader yet still believable once you figure out what’s going on. I particularly liked how the narrator describes the different dances and their cultural meanings.

#5 - The First Contact with the Gorgonids (6/10)  

Jerry and his wife go on a trip to Australia. While Jerry complains about the Corroboree they just witnessed, some locals give him secret directions to a better experience out in the desert. Instead of aboriginals, Jerry and his wife encounter something out of this world. 

“Jerry, come back. I think—“ 

“Shut up!” he yelled so savagely that she stopped short for a moment. But she could see the hair better now, and she could see that it did have eyes, and mouths too, with little red tongues darting out. 

This is a pulpy wish-fulfillment story, and honestly, that’s fine. Le Guin writes so much serious and/or thought-provoking shit that it’s fun to read something silly. The racist, abusive husband gets his just desserts. The Gorgonids are exactly what you expect them to be. And after tolerating way too much bullshit, the protagonist finally gets to live her best life at the end. One nice detail is her name; she’s just “Mrs. Jerry Debree”, an accessory of her husband, for most of the story. Thus learning her first name at the end represents her newfound freedom. Good for her. 

#6 - The Shobies’ Story (10/10)  

The Shobies are a newly formed, ragtag family aboard an experimental spaceship. Outfitted with a miraculous new technology called a “churten”, the Shoby can supposedly travel from one area of space to another instantaneously. Such a device could revolutionize space travel— and every member of the crew agrees to test it out, knowing the risks. But the moment the Shobies use the churten, reality itself seems to unravel around them.

They were nowhere, but they were nowhere together; the ship was dead, but they were in the ship. A dead ship cools off fairly quickly, but not immediately. Close the doors, come in by the fire; keep the cold night out, before we go to bed.

This is another story in the Hainish canon. Originally I gave “The Shobies’ Story” a 9 but have bumped it to a 10 after some consideration. While it’s good in and of itself, many story elements appeal to me personally. 

Most prominent of these is unreliable narration. I can’t imagine how difficult this story was to write, because every single character has an unreliable POV. The churten breaks reality, so each of the Shobies see and experience different things, often at the same time. The only way they can return to a consistent reality is by trusting one another and, ultimately, gathering to tell their story and define themselves. 

This links into storytelling, a running motif. Before shit goes down, the Shobies tell bedtime stories to the younger members of the family, many of which are recognizable adaptations of existing fables. The story of the desert wolf is Orpheus and Eurydice. The empty, disappearing spaceship is clearly inspired by the Mary Celeste. The boy who sprouts feathers whenever he lies is Pinocchio. And so on. Each of these stories becomes thematically relevant to the main plot, but I won’t spoil it all. 

I appreciated several other details. The concept of a space crew becoming family isn’t exactly new, but I like how it’s explored. I get the sense it’s a whole cultural thing and considered a necessary part of space travel as a profession. Each of the crew members, some of whom are blood family, some of whom are total strangers to one another, spend a full month together to socially bond before they embark. This turns out to be important to the churten and how it functions. Scientists seem to believe the churten will affect sapient people differently than animals, and we learn by the end that the best way to resist this is through human bonds. It’s found family but integrated into both the setting and core story. 

Also, I LOVE that the Standard Heterosexual Couple (TM), Oreth and Karth, are both genderfluid. I believe they’re from the same race of humans as in The Left Hand of Darkness, who change their gender/sex regularly. Oreth and Karth start the story as male and female respectively, but switch before the Shoby departs. Their youngest child, Asten, is referred to in gender-neutral terms, including they/them pronouns. None of this is treated as unusual. Like, this story was written in 1990! Three years before I was born! It’s such a pleasant surprise. 

#7 - Betrayals (8/10)  

On Yeowe, elders are expected to retreat into silence and solitude until they day they die. While Yoss tries her best to live in religious contemplation, she feels a sadness and disconnect from the world around her. Near her isolated home lives a man named Abberkam, once a prominent political leader, now a disgraced hermit after a history of betrayal. One day she finds him terribly ill and decides to take care of him. Despite her vow of solitude and distrust of Abberkam, she starts to enjoy his company.

Were they not both here to leave all that behind them, all their mistakes and failures as well as their loves and victories?

This is a nice story. It reminds me strongly of two of Le Guin’s Earthsea stories— Tehanu and “On The High Marsh”. All three stories take place in an epic or otherwise fraught setting, yet focus on ordinary, rural lives. There’s a middle aged to elderly female protagonist who forms a close relationship with a broken or traumatized man. Like Tenar thanklessly nursing Ged back to health in Tehanu, Yoss does the same thing for Abberkam. Abberkam himself is quite similar to Irioth from “On The High Marsh”. Both were objectively awful people in their previous life, and now live in simplicity to atone for their misdeeds. Redemption/rebirth at a later stage in one’s life is a prominent theme in all three stories.

While this is another Hainish story, the setting is clearly inspired by Haiti. There’s a troubled history of plantation slavery, uprisings, and the eventual overthrow and banishment of colonizers. Even post-revolution, the planet is burdened by political corruption and unrest. Abberkam is one such instigator; once a revolutionary hero, now forcibly removed from power after various scandals including infidelity, embezzlement, and betraying a close friend for his own gain. There’s certainly dark elements to the setting and its bloody history, but the plot itself is quite optimistic— with a focus on overcoming loneliness through unexpected relationships. And of course, the idea of redefining oneself and finding happiness, no matter how old one is.

I like how “Betrayals” plays on the reader’s expectations. Despite nursing him back to health and happily visiting him, Yoss implicitly mistrusts Abberkam. She constantly assumes the worst of him, and that everything he does is an attempt to manipulate her. When he asks her name, she’s angry he didn’t know it already… even though it’s a perfectly reasonable thing to ask a stranger you want to connect with. Usually in Le Guin stories, if a man seems sketchy at first, it’s because he IS sketchy. But here it’s purely Yoss’ bias. We learn by the end that Abberkam genuinely cares about her and wants to pursue a romantic relationship. He even (vague spoiler) saves her fucking cat, bro! That shit made me tear up.

#8 - The Matter of Seggri (10/10)  

The planet Seggri has an unusual gender ratio— for every sixteen women, only one man is born. The result is a society in which women enjoy great freedom and power. But men are forcibly segregated from the population, valued only for their ability to sire children and perform in violent, deadly sports. “The Matter of Seggri” explores five anthropological accounts about life on Seggri throughout its history, and how brutally enforced gender roles ruin lives. 

She went back into the room and mechanically put on her clothes. She looked at the bed where they had lain. She stood at the window where Toddra had stood. She remembered how she had seen him dance long ago in the contest where he had first been made champion. She thought, “My life is wrong.” But she did not know how to make it right. 

This is a very dark story. While it starts harmlessly enough, it gets more and more fucked up as it progresses. “The Matter of Seggri” covered by my content warning at the beginning, but I feel it warrants a specific advisory for r*pe, p*dophilia, and sexual slavery. 

There are so many ways Le Guin could have done “The Matter of Seggri” wrong. Men are horribly mistreated and dehumanized throughout the piece, with several intentional parallels to how women have been treated throughout history on Earth. Like the whole bit about how men can’t be trusted with political power, since their hormones would render them irrational (an argument applied to women to this day). But this is never a mean-spirited jab at men as a whole. What they go through is obviously reprehensible and treated as such throughout the story. And it’s not a 1:1 parallel of misogyny, as men experience extreme and unique forms of abuse. Every single man on Seggri is destined for a life of slavery. Every single man on Seggri experiences r*pe and sexual abuse, often on a daily basis. Every single man on Seggri is barred from even basic education. Those who cannot or will not conform to strict gender performance invariably suffer death, torture, and worse. And most damning, the political and cultural climate not only normalizes this setup, but views it as good and necessary. 

“The Matter of Seggri” explores why rigid gender roles are bad for everyone involved. Women may have higher social power and status, but anyone who forms an emotional attachment to a man is destined for tragedy. One story follows a woman named Po remembering the close bond she had with her younger brother Ittu in childhood. Going in we know it can’t end well. Boys are removed from their families when they turn eleven and forced to cut all ties to their previous life. Once Ittu undergoes this ceremony, the two will never speak or see each other again. Leading up to this, their family tries to separate the two and break their bond— all under the familiar adage that girls should play with girls and boys should play with boys. When they disobey, Po gets locked in a cellar for ten days as punishment. Worse, this treatment works; she’s afraid to interact with Ittu until it’s too late. She never sees him again. The emotional damage to both children is indescribable, haunting Po for the rest of her life. 

Shame is a recurring theme. The second story follows an off-planet anthropologist who goes undercover to see what life on Seggri is like. She speculates whether women on Seggri can even experience shame, as the ones she meets are brazenly comfortable with their role in society. But shame does emerge in later stories. Po is ashamed that she doesn’t try to run away with Ittu before he gets taken away. Azak in the fourth story feels shame when she fails to help Toddra— and her inaction dooms him. In the fifth story Ardar, a man describing his traumatic experiences in the all-male “castles”, feels shame at the r*pe and sexual abuse he and his peers faced every night. Shame exists whenever someone chafes against Seggri’s culture— when they realize something is terribly wrong with their lives. 

This story’s treatment of homosexuality is surprisingly positive. Keep in mind this was written in 1994 in an intensely homophobic climate. A recurring idea in the story is that heterosexual romance is not only perverse, but impossible. The fourth story is a work of fiction about a man and woman who fall in love, and all the horrible things that happen to them as a result of that. While this is a clear role reversal compared to real life, Le Guin isn’t mean-spirited or critical of the gay relationships she depicts. Marriage between women is the cultural norm. Gay men are the most heroic characters in the story. Male homosexuality (outside of literal p*dophilia) is strictly forbidden and horrifically punished. Despite this, we learn it’s the gay men who sponsor forbidden underground education programs. In Ardar’s story, it’s the gay men who protect him from sexual assault, putting themselves at great personal risk.  

“The Matter of Seggri” is a haunting, harrowing read, but it’s one of my favorite in this collection. It shows just how harmful gender roles and expectations are for humanity as a whole. While it’s the darkest story I’ve read by Le Guin, it has a cautiously optimistic ending. Ardar leaves Seggri to pursue an education, but he wishes to return as an envoy. By the time he gets there, hundreds of years will have passed due to the limits of space travel (this is a Hainish story, after all). Despite decades of trauma, he still wishes to live among his people and see who they’ve become in his absence. 

#9 - Solitude (6/10)  

Eleven-soro was once home to the largest, most successful human civilization in the galaxy. Following environmental and then societal collapse, the remnants now live in loose tribal societies. Individuality is so prized that human groups are “persons”, not “people”. Serenity’s mother volunteers to live on Eleven-soro to study its social systems in detail, bringing her children with her. While her family feels at odds with Eleven-soro’s introverted culture, Serenity feels a strong connection to it that sparks inevitable conflict between them. 

Our daily life in the auntring was repetitive. On the ship, later, I learned that people who live in artificially complicated situations call such a life “simple”. I never knew anybody, anywhere I have been, who found life simple. I think a life or a time looks simple when you leave out the details, the way a planet looks smooth, from orbit. 

I felt pretty neutral about this one. It’s well-written, as one can generally expect from Le Guin. But as an introvert myself, the premise of “a planet of introverts” didn’t feel especially relatable. 

I do like how “Solitude” explores a recurring idea in the Hainish stories— that space travel is so slow that when people go their separate ways, they’re effectively dead to each other, as hundreds of years might pass traveling to one’s next destination. Serenity has to confront this problem, because while she loves her family, they don’t feel the connection to Eleven-soro’s way of life that she does. When they decide to leave, she has the option to follow them when she’s ready, but her mother and brother acknowledge that they might never see her again should she choose to remain. 

Also, I know I keep noting the year something is written when discussing representation in these stories. And I don’t praise representation for the sake of it (like, IMO it’s bare minimum, at least in recent years). But I’m always impressed by how well Le Guin’s stories age due to their inherent inclusiveness. In this story Serenity befriends Arrem, a character who’s straight up agender/nonbinary. Like, explicitly described as neither male nor female. There’s even neopronoun usage, in this case “heshe”. We learn heshe is part of the same race of humans from The Left Hand of Darkness, who already have A Whole Thing with gender, but Arrem is the first nonbinary example I’ve seen. This was written in 1994! Totally blew my mind. 

#10 - The Wild Girls (9/10)  

During a raid upon a nomadic village, a group of men enslave several young girls to train them as wives. On the journey back to the city, one infant grows deathly ill, and the men leave her to die in the swamp. Siblings Modh and Mal settle into their new life in the city’s hanan, a home for adolescent girls until they’re suitable for marriage. Modh learns to be content; despite her enslavement, all her needs are met and adults treat her with kindness. But both sisters are haunted by the spirit of the dead infant, whose wails only they can hear at night. 

Groda would follow them. Modh had heard the thin cry in the night. It came from the hollow place. What could fill that hollow? What could be enough? 

Oh boy, another fucked up one. Though not as extreme as “The Matter of Seggri”, there’s obvious elements of slavery, cultural genocide, grooming, and so on. So approach this one with caution. 

This is absolutely a horror story, and I’ll die on that hill. What happens to Modh and her sister is clearly despicable and depicted as such in the first act. They’re taken from the life they know and cut off from their culture, instead forced into a specific caste— so-called “Dirt People”— in a foreign society. So there’s a sense of wrongness in the second act when Modh readily accepts and feels at ease in her new home. She even marries one of her kidnappers, and we learn it’s a happy marriage based on friendship. What the fuck! Something’s not right. And indeed something IS amiss— the persistence of the dead infant Groda’s spirit as it haunts the two sisters. The more Modh adapts, the less she hears it, but the worse it grows for Mal.

All of this comes to a head in the third act. One of the kidnappers— specifically the one who abandoned Groda— expresses interest in buying Mal. Despite having the social status of a powerful husband, Modh realizes how powerless she and her sister are to prevent the unwanted marriage. And Groda’s wailing grows louder and louder. It’s reminiscent of Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” — guilt manifesting as a sound few can hear. There’s even a point near the end where other characters suddenly hear it, and one becomes convinced it’s under the floor. Pulses and heartbeats are a recurring motif, by the way. 

I won’t spoil the rest, but there’s a clear theme of powerlessness and injustice, and it’s interesting to contemplate how the ending reflects these ideas. 

#11 - The Fliers of Gy (10/10)  

On Gy, people are almost identical to those on Earth, except they grow feathers in the place of body hair. Due to a rare mutation, however, a small percentage develop functional wings shortly before adulthood. “The Fliers of Gy” explores these individuals, particularly ways they have been ostracized through history, and how modern fliers cope in a world and society that forever treats them as outsiders. 

I went outside. The air was wonderful. I felt like I hadn’t had any air for a year. Actually, I felt like I’d never known what air was in my whole life. Even in that narrow little street, with the houses hanging over it, there was wind, there was sky, not a ceiling. The sky overhead. The air. I started walking. I hadn’t planned anything. I wanted to get out of the lanes and alleys, to somewhere open, a big plaza or square or park, anything open to the sky. I saw people staring at me but I didn’t care. I’d stared at people with wings, when I didn’t have them. Not meaning anything, just curious. Wings aren’t all that common. I used to wonder a little about what it felt like to have them, you know. Just ignorance. So I didn’t care if people looked at me now. 

OK, so this story is an allegory/satire about being queer. It seems stupidly obvious to me, which makes the confused reaction I’ve seen all the more funny. It’s not a 1:1 comparison, but there’s plenty of evidence.

The quote above hit me especially hard; the narrator had no idea he’d become one of the fliers, but remembers his curiosity about what it would be like. Many queer kids go through this before discovering their identity— I sure did. Then his pure joy as he sees the world in a new way. We learn that fliers have an elevated death rate due to “spontaneous wing failure”, but most accept the risk and continue to fly. It’s such an integral part of their identity that to stay grounded isn’t an option most consider. No comment. 

But the third and final narrator solidified this interpretation for me. He’s one of the few who choose to stay grounded; he goes on about how he wants to live a “normal life” with a wife and kids. He sees the wings as a tragedy to overcome rather than part of himself. There’s even a whole bit about wing binding; his wings are described as especially beautiful, but bound and hidden away. But his (and the story’s) final line implies that’s he’s dissatisfied with his life, despite earlier assurances. Many queer people remain closeted, or in denial, for this exact reason. The desire to seem “normal” and blend in, even if that version of you is a lie. Oof. 

I just liked this one. Winged humanoids have a special place in my heart. Add a narrative that speaks to me on a personal level and it’s no surprise I’m a fan. 

#12 - The Silence of the Asonu (6/10)  

The Asonu are almost entirely mute. Although children converse, adults rarely communicate in either audible speech or sign. Because they talk so infrequently, some people assume their few words conceal deep spiritual insight.

Older children shout wordlessly in the excitement of a game or tag or hide-and-seek, and sometimes scold an errant toddler with a “Stop!” or “No!”— just as the Elder of Isu murmured “Hot!” as a child approached an invisible fire; though of course the Elder may have used that circumstance as a parable, in order to make a statement of profound spiritual meaning, as appears in the Ohio Reading.

Another one I feel pretty neutral about. It’s similar to “Texts” from the previous volume; both stories focus on people who try to find deep meaning where there isn’t any. This one has subtext about racist assumptions in anthropology.

I like the part where one devotee writes a huge religious manifesto based on the eleven phrases one Asonu speaks over a period of four years. It’s intentionally absurd and over the top, especially once we learn the context behind her words. But the ending feels too dark compared to the humorous tone of everything else. 

#13 - The Ascent of the North Face (4/10)  

“The Ascent of the North Face” is the last journal of one Simon Interthwaite, detailing his expedition to scale the roof of 2647 Lovejoy Street. 

2/24. Reached Verandah Camp easily in one day’s climb. Tricky bit where the lattice and tongue and groove join, but Advance Party had left rope in place and we negotiated the overhang without real difficulty. 

This story is a tongue-in-cheek parody of adventure journals, equating climbing onto the roof of a suburban home to ascending Mt. Everest. Like “Half Past Four” in the previous volume, it screams writing exercise to me. It’s not horrible, and I genuinely laughed at the whole Ovaltine bit. But I found the premise confusing. Obviously a suburban home wouldn’t be on the same physical scale as Everest, so I assumed the narrator was like, an insect or something? But no, pretty sure everyone mentioned is human. A weird story, but not in a good way. 

#14 - The Author of the Acacia Seeds (8/10)  

Therolinguistics, the study of animal literature, is a budding yet distinguished academic field. “The Author of the Acacia Seeds” examines several notable essays on therolinguistics, including one that speculates on the possibility of interpreting botanical and geological languages.

In all the thousands of literatures of the Fish stock, only a few show any humor at all, and that usually of a rather simple, primitive sort; and the superb gracefulness of Shark or Tarpon is utterly different from the joyous vigor of all Cetacean scripts. The joy, the vigor, and the humor are all shared by Penguin authors; and, indeed, by many of the finer Seal auteurs. The temperature of the blood is a bond. But the construction of the brain, and of the womb, makes a barrier! Dolphins do not lay eggs. A world of difference lies in that simple fact.

“The Author of the Acacia Seeds” is a better work of parody than the previous one. I went down a rabbit hole last year researching animal language experiments funded by the US government in the 20th century. This story takes that (frankly idiotic) concept to an extreme, exploring an entire field dedicated to the literary interpretation of animal writing.

It’s all quite absurd, and I love it. My favorite part is when one therolinguist bullshits a manifesto out of an ant’s placement of acacia seeds, acknowledges their interpretation may be “ethnocentric”, then immediately argues that the final line as a revolutionary call for the death of the Queen. Just amazing.

#15 - The Wife’s Story (10/10)  

A bereaved wife talks about her husband’s moon-cursed transformation into a horrific beast.

It’s something runs in the blood, they say, and it may never come out, but if it does, it’s the change of the moon that does it. Always it happens in the dark of the moon.

“The Wife’s Story” seemed strangely familiar until my dear sister confirmed we’d read it together at some point years ago. I’d forgotten Le Guin wrote it! No wonder I saw that ending coming. This one is short, but it’s a creative, well-executed take on traditional werewolf stories. I shan’t elaborate. 

#16 - The Rule of Names (8/10)  

On Sattins Island, local wizard Mr. Underhill is an unassuming middle-aged man with no clear aptitude for magic. Even his simplest spells seem to go wrong, one way or another. As a result, the people of the village treat Mr. Underhill with a mix of fondness and disdain. But when a charming young wizard named Blackbeard visits the island looking for him, life changes forever in the village. 

“Because the name is the thing,” he said in his shy, soft, husky voice, “and the truename is the true thing. To speak the name is to control the thing. Am I right, Schoolmistress?” 

“The Rule of Names” is the only Earthsea story in this collection, which is honestly a little surprising. I guess most of them showed up in Tales from Earthsea? Maybe there were copyright issues between publishers? Hell if I know. 

This is a preliminary concept of Earthsea; some of the pieces are there, but not everything. As implied by the title, the story explores the name-based magic system and its pitfalls (though there’s an alternate meaning that becomes apparent later). Dragons and wizards exist. The world is an archipelago. Roke isn’t a thing yet, though. The prose is unrefined compared to later works, but by no means bad. And the ending is predictable yet satisfying; just paging through, I’m grinning at all the foreshadowing. 

I LOVE that “The Rule of Names” establishes a clear link between dragons and humans. Particularly that (vague spoiler) some people can be both. This idea is all but absent in the original trilogy, but is a huge deal in the last three books. I always thought Le Guin came up with it while writing Tehanu, though there’s a vague as hell hint in The Tombs of Atuan. But this story shows the idea predates A Wizard of Earthsea! Whether she simply revisited the concept or pulled a 26-year long con, it’s cool info to learn. 

#17 - Small Change (10/10)  

When her aunt dies, an unnamed narrator begins to see the dead. Left without any living family, she struggles to navigate the world on her own.

My mother came out of that new room in the form of a lacewing fly and saw me crying. Tears taste salt to the living, but sweet to the dead, and they have a taste for sweets, at first. I did not know all that, then. I was just glad to have my mother with me even as a tiny fly. It was a gladness the size of a fly.

Boy, what a surreal tale about life, death, and processing grief. I loved the prose and the otherworldly feeling to everything. Especially the part about the aunt going through a door in the house that wasn’t there before, leading to a confusing labyrinth of rooms and corridors. It feels like I’ve had not-quite-nightmares about that exact scenario.

Initially the rules of “Small Change” are a little confusing, with an omniscient yet limited narrator. But there’s a little twist addressing why she views the world the way she does. There are multiple interpretations on whether the events depicted take place or not, a la Pan’s Labyrinth. But I’d say the ending leans toward the fantastical explanation.

#18 - The Poacher (8/10)  

A young man, trapped by poverty, lives a miserable life. To avoid his abusive father’s wrath, he’s forced to spend his days foraging in the woods or starve. Such actions label him as a poacher in the eyes of the law. One day in the dead of winter, he discovers a giant, tangled hedgerow full of edible plants. He keeps the hedgerow a closely guarded secret, but one day his curiosity gets the better of him. Stealing tools from travelers and local craftsmen, he attempts to cut through the hedge to see what’s on the other side.

I knew no tales then, except the terribly simple one of my father, my stepmother, and myself, and so my daydreams had no shape or story to them. But all the time I walked, I had half an eye for any kind of gap or opening that might be a way through the hedge. If I had a story to tell myself, that was it: There is a way through the great hedge, and I discover it.

Ooooooh this story tricked me right up until the poacher cuts through the hedge and makes a few observations. Then it hit me like a truck. I’m not going to spoil the reveal, but if you catch allusions to a particular fable while reading this, it’s no coincidence.

I like how this story challenges the idea of destiny. In the context of the fable, the narrator seems primed to play a well-known character. But he intentionally avoids fulfilling this role, prioritizing his own happiness instead. Once I finished I wondered whether the narrator is selfish for doing so, or if his choice is justified by the need to escape his harsh life. 

My main criticism of the piece is that the narrator does something truly horrible during the story, but it’s never addressed. Just an uncomfortable elephant in the room.

#19 - Sur (6/10)  

Framed as a document found hidden in an attic, “Sur” describes a group of South American housewives who travel to Antarctica in 1909. The memoir reveals that these women reached the South Pole in 1910; two years before Roald Amnudsen. 

We sang. It is strange now to remember how thin our voices sounded in that great silence. It was overcast, white weather, without shadows and without visible horizon or any feature to break the level; there was nothing to see at all. We had come to that white place on the map, that void, and there we flew and sang like sparrows. 

This story is fine! I think I expected something weird to happen to the narrator and her expedition, but “Sur” is not that kind of story. It’s more of a “what if” scenario. It’s cool to think about a group of South American housewives being the first to reach the South Pole, being total badasses the entire time. 

My main point of confusion is the idea of “leaving no trace”. These women intentionally obscure their presence at the Pole so that the male explorers who think they’re the first don’t feel bad. I understand this part; it says something that these women are not doing it for glory and acclaim, but for themselves. 

But right before this, there’s a heavy emphasis on how traces of other expeditions remain indefinitely. For example, the women find a footprint from a previous attempt preserved in the snow— because it was packed down, the powder snow around it eroded with the wind, but the print itself remained behind. We even hear about various markers the women leave for each other. So you mean to tell me these women, sledging hundreds of miles on foot, battling malnutrition, hallucinations, and frostbite the entire way… somehow managed to hide every trace of their presence? Something the story states is difficult if not impossible to do? For some reason THIS is what broke my suspension of disbelief. The ending message is nice, though. 

#20 - She Unnames Them (7/10)  

Eve reverses the naming of the animals, and then herself. 

None were left now to unname, and yet how close I felt to them when I saw one of them swim or fly or trot or crawl across my way or over my skin, or stalk me in the night, or go along beside me for a while in the day. They seemed far closer than when their names had stood between myself and them like a clear barrier: so close that my fear of them and their fear of me became one same fear. 

So have you ever read or watched something that references a VERY well-known work? So well-known that the writer expects you to know it? And you STILL DON’T? Yeah. This story reminded me how Bible illiterate I am. Apparently it’s a whole thing that Adam named the animals. Fuck if I knew that.

With that context, “She Unnames Them” makes way more sense. It’s got some food for thought to be sure. Is Eve rejecting that name, since Adam named her (yes, I had to look that up too)? Hence the nonspecific ‘She’ in the title? Or is she, like the animals, rejecting the group names of human and/or woman? There’s a whole bit in the story about how animals can keep their specific, personal names, especially pets. Does she not consider Eve to be her real name anymore? The line stating it “doesn’t seem to fit very well lately” indicates this. If so, big (though probably unintentional) trans energy. 

No matter the interpretation or obvious shit I’m missing, the story is beautifully written. The general idea I got is the value of self-identification and determination. The narrator realizes she needs to define herself, and the labels others assigned her no longer fit. So she leaves to find her own way, unsure of what struggles lie ahead.

#21 - The Jar of Water (10/10)  

Kas is a servant working under a wealthy merchant. One day his master charges him with an unusual task: take a sealed jar of water, carry it across the desert during the hottest season of the year, and bring it to a saint in a neighboring city. Once the water is blessed, he is to return home the same way. Given few supplies for his journey, Kas nevertheless embraces his errand. 

It lived here, this place was its world, and there was no water in it. 

“The Jar of Water” is the most blatant parable I’ve seen in Le Guin’s work. It’s one of the last short stories she ever published, and it’s just fantastic. There’s a strong Arabian Nights vibe. Gorgeous prose, a profoundly human core, and a clear yet touching moral message at its center. Kas is such a genuinely good guy that it’s a joy to see the world through his eyes. The ending, and how it links to the central themes of honesty and compassion, is perfect. It’s a deceptively simple tale, but executed so well it serves as testament to Le Guin’s mastery of the craft. 

Closing Thoughts

Boy, Ursula K. Le Guin sure could write! The world is a sadder place for her absence.

Both volumes of The Unreal and the Real were a pleasure to read. After such a deep dive (so to speak) into Earthsea last year, it’s enlightening to read about her other worlds and ideas. I loved seeing the common themes and ideas across her works, some of which I didn’t even mention, like “making one’s soul”. While I have a lot more Le Guin waiting on my shelf and wishlist, I’ll step away from her for a while. But it’s always a joy to come back.

[the-clever-cupboard]

Correspondence: July

Number of Days: 31

Latin Name: Julius

Anglo-Saxon Name: Aefteralida, "After Litha"

Frankish Name: Hewimanoth, "Hay Month"

Word Origin: July is the seventh month in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The ancient Romans called the month Quintilius and it was the 5th month of their calendar until the formation of the Julian calendar. The name was changed to July in honor of Julius Ceasar who was born on the 12th day of the month.

Traditions and Folklore: The Dog Days of Summer begin July 3rd. July is considered an unlucky month for a wedding. If the ant hills are high in July, it means a hard winter is coming.. It’s not hard to miss the fact that there are so many “Independence Days” in July. This can lead one to suppose that it’s a good month for work relating not only to independence and overcoming oppression but also to the formation of groups or organizations (and nations) for the benefit of its members. The Adonia festivals, a sixteen-day festival, spanning the full moon, is celebrated in July by women grieving over the death of Adonis, mortal lover of Aphrodite. Women climbed upon the rooftops of Athens, where they sang and danced in honor of Adonis, they also planted ‘Gardens of Adonis’, consisting of lettuce and fennel seeds, planted in potsherds, which sprouted, flourished, and quickly died, symbolizing the short life of this handsome Greek youth. The Gardens of Adonis’, once they had withered and given up the ghost, were buried at sea, along with images of Adonis.

Moon: Buck, Thunder, Hay, Blessing, Herb

Zodiac: Cancer, Leo

Incense/Herbs: Orris, Frankincense, Honeysuckle, Lemon Balm, Hyssop, Agrimony, Gardenia, Myrrh, Sandalwood, Calamus

Element: Water, Fire

Color: Blue, Grey, Silver

Stone: Ruby, Carnelian, Green Calcite, Peacock Ore

Flowers: Larkspur, Delphinium, Water Lily, White Larkspur

Spirits: Crop Fairies

Animals: Crab, Turtle, Dolphin, Whale

Bird: Starling, Swallow

Tree: Oak, Acacia, Ash

Energy: Authority, Self Regulation, Divination, Dreamscaping, Leadership, Long Term Goals, Green Witchcraft

Deities: Hel, Athena, Venus, Khephri, Juno, Lugh, Cerridwen

Holidays: Tammuz, 4th of July, Poplifugia, Ludi Apollinaris, Day of Unn the Wise Person, Caprotinia, The Day of Bad Omens, Lucaria, Neptunalia, Furinalia, Stikklestad Day, Nonae Caprotinae Juno

[dirhwangdaseul-archived]

@theunstablejester i disagree i think the issue is like the whole sequence of events and a desire to remain ambiguous in many fronts like that helping to enhance the horror as choices the writers have made to tell the story, leaves a lot of hollow space i think? the unknown... and it still feels disconnected, like trapped in single perspective of the whole it means for each of them, and how that is what invites the conflict, but also. i am bored with the ambiguity and the girls being okay with leaving it all to lottie like shauna's diaries gave me a thought on perspectives and i thought of k le guin's the author of the acacia seeds' and just getting taxidermic about the ritual, the blood, the bodies and it building or maybe bringing back to life a forgotten home and this is horror it should all be twisted...

and it could be heightened like who taissa was gonna be broken to pieces, who she becomes too finding new footings away from the things she held on so long to, lottie's dreams, where are they, or she dreams is of wellness and friends their humanity, their hopes, that connection to community in the form of a knife in each other's guts because the world itself would bend around us even if it meant ignoring how much skin we give each other to cover the wounds over making that union in a cruel world like the potential for them to be the children of the predictability of other fhe violence of isolation and society a way like, that is not there, like the supernatural is not being used to heighten our. characters and it could itself manifest the supernatural like they can use one story to tell the other, the story of the wilderness against reality and building that actually with others because of being cornered to still find community while bargaining with fhe cruelty of it, and also as memory pales the need to build community either gets more broken in what story is communicated and what gets eaten away as useless for the sake of survival like im thinking a bit the approach of... i. know. that space where the supernatural can be the reality because life is just weird so it's a plus and not a minus and maybe reality does get bent idfk and so the mind can still be our own and broken apart by magic by reality because sometimes you just deal with it because it's real even tho it's not natural, and so maybe the nature of time becomes cyclical, not only because of qhe or trauma because there's no other way nature could understand life and so im talking about needing for more people to read cien años de soledad

i wrote an entire yellowjackets season in my head just as an ode to lottie and mythology and storytelling and eldritch psychological gore bullshit i love so much and maybe ursula k le guin too and im so sad rn, like idk how fans and these writers couldn't see the potential in a story that truly looked at how lottie took jackie's place, and how that exists within the mythologization and the materiality of survival, and how the landscape bows to her but how much that isolates her both before and after wnd how how that could be both a story of herself as the limit allowed for her but she's trying to break humanity itself so that she can be, and with her madness added, in the space of the bleeding and the mind breaking apart because of life? im sorry but this story had the potential of eeaao, while fully leaning on the horror side, if the writers weren't so white🖕🏽😭

[catadromously]

I am absolutely fascinated by your tags for posts; they make me want to go back to doing fun tags. Were your tags inspired by anything, or are they just phrases you like? (Also, I absolutely adore your science comics, they are so, so lovely, especially the salmon one)

yes. yesssssss - my time has come.

most of them i got out of writing and music i like a whole bunch. here:

i’m just gonna go through the Official List as it appears in my about

while it passes your purpose remains (architecture and interiors) - from Monument Valley II, a video game about responsibility, creativity, legacy, and buildings

making music of decline (autumn) - from November for Beginners by Rita Dove

delicate cages (bodies and hands) from Taking the Hands by Robert Bly

end organs (cool flesh forms) - end organs are the structures on nerve endings that allow us to sense touch

here’s anyhow one decent thing (dog tag) - from Man and Dog by Siegfried Sassoon

long as amber of ember glows (fire) -  from the song Would That I by Hozier

it was filled with water sounds & pebbles (freshwater) - from luam/asa-luam by Aracelis Girmay

city of apples (fruit) - from I Watch Her Eat the Apple by Natalia Diaz

each one a word spoken (linguistics) - from the short story The Author of the Acacia Seeds by Ursula K. Le Guin

wakened into song (music) - from the Silmarillion (where the world is made out of music)

return home (ocean tag) - just me

on the seashore of worlds (spaaaaaaace!) - from On the Seashore by Rabindranath Tagore (which is not about space, but that phrase makes me feel things about space)

familiar; unbidden (forests) - from Song for the Rainy Season by Elizabeth Bishop

everything's growing in our garden (abundance) - from the song Garden Song by Phoebe Bridgers

tales of sol iii (people’s stories) - just me (sol iii = Earth :D )

canines for a reason (consumption & carnivores) - from that one comic by grendelmenz

dreams of drowning (consumption but it's water this time) - just me

but instead of sounds we use things (creation) - from the episode Beta in Steven Universe, where an alien accidentally invents art and describes it to a human thusly: 

“Oh no, this was all very intentional. You see, I have this idea: What if we made music, but instead of sounds, we use things?”

still spinning (cycles & spirals) - from the song Untitled God Song by Haley Heynderickx

inherit the earth (fungi, decay) - from Mushrooms by Sylvia Plath

the carpet on my cheek feels like a forest (domestic & mundane) - from the song Sloom by Of Monsters and Men

all my friends are funeral singers (death & funerary culture) - from the song Funeral Singers, by Califone but more famously covered by Sylvan Esso

every place i’ve ever lived is full of ghosts (haunted/connected across time things) - from the song Offering by Loone

love as a fresnel lens (nostos) - from the song Pando by Squalloscope

house theory (houses being bodies being houses) - just me

come into the water (swimming!! yay!!!) - from the eponymous song by Mitski

teapots can't talk (mechanical sympathy) - from What Did by Shel Silverstein

veil of great surprises (awe & wonder) from the song The Only Thing by Sufjan Stevens

running down the hills to you (love) - from the song Home With You by FKA Twigs

then praise the way they change (metamorphosis) - from the song This Too Shall Pass by Danny Schmidt

monstrous existence (monsters) - from the video game Night in the Woods (said by what is potentially god maybe)

do re microcosmos (people in their ordinary lives, archival photo) - just me. based on a poster i misread in middle school i think?

telepathic desert (long distance signalling) - from the eponymous song by Diane Cluck

texō (narrative) - etymology. root of text and textile!

five branches make the hand (trees being people being trees) - just me

oh maker tell me did you know (transhumanism, voidpunk) - from the song Oh Maker by Janelle Monae (which is about robots but i think it fits)

honeyed hearts (warmth) - from Daisy Time by Marjorie Pickthall

and there you have it! but be warned: this system shifts, expands, and mutates like the dreadful tentacular entity it is.