Just read my first ever @ursulakleguin.bsky.social book and it was *fantastic*. I am now going to have to read all of her books 😅
The themes of anarchism, politics, and academia were so so well done, and her writing was fabulous. Every paragraph was beautifully crafted and thought-provoking. 5/5 ⭐
The themes of anarchism, politics, and academia were so so well done, and her writing was fabulous. Every paragraph was beautifully crafted and thought-provoking. 5/5 ⭐
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You can see his influence in her work.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/23/david-mitchell-wizard-of-earthsea-tolkien-george-rr-martin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavinia_(novel)
Hard recommend for Left Hand if Darkness next😊
I still haven't read it...I must remedy that
I'm reading the Earthsea series to my son currently. Wonderful!
There's a paragraph towards to the end – might even be the penultimate par – about a butterfly or something… that's pure poetry. Wonderful wonderful writing.
She's written two totemic sci fi books (cont…)
The Dispossessed is so interesting in its experiment: what if anarchy worked? But fascinating that the academic side of it is accurate. And all written like a poem.
A thing I really liked about it is that anarchy on Anarres didn't work perfectly. I think it's so fitting that the most bureaucratic and authoritarian place there was the largest university 😅 it was a very relatable story because of that...
I read the first Earthsea book as a boy but then got stuck on the 2nd. However, I then re-read the trilogy 40 years later.
It was worth the wait. 😁
One of the observations that stuck was the importance of transport: they built roads before destinations – then society works. Feel UK could channel that!
LeGuin and I think about it often in our current society, and Left Hand of Darkness is next fave.
In college, we had a Women and Sci-Fi/Fantasy course that introduced me to her and I’m grateful.
Le Guin is great in general. Fun fact: She is the person who popularized Schrödinger’s Cat.
https://nautil.us/how-schrodingers-cat-got-famous-637677/
It's so cool that she popularized Schrödinger's cat, too! Also not so surprising actually, it was clear from The Dispossessed that she knew of a lot of physics stuff to be able to write about the main character's theory and how it relates to relativity in such a deep way.