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Ursula Le Guin has died

nytimes.com

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Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#41

Post by e40 »

danharaj wrote: post #30

Every time I've read an Ursula Le Guin book, it's changed the course of my life. Both fiction and non-fiction. Her writing always felt like it could weave between all the complications of life to get at the Truth of things.

Loved those books.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#43

Post by stcredzero »

newen wrote: post #22

RIP. The Dispossessed is one of my favorite books.

I enjoyed reading The Dispossessed, though I have also been known to characterize it as, "A Sci-Fi universe where communism actually works, hence the 'Fi' part." However, I've recently read Thomas Sowell's book about the original formulation of Marxian economics and philosophy, and I've come to the conclusion that the technology of the late 21st century might possibly enable a viable communal society through the replacement of the distributed optimization of the market with AI, as Ursula K. LeGuin presaged in The Dispossessed.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#44

Post by slartibardfast0 »

zokier wrote: post #36

This might not be the best time to put this comment, but quite some years ago I attempted reading Dispossessed, because it is such highly rated novel and Le Guin even more highly respected author. But I didn't get very far, the whole Communism vs Capitalism aspect felt so hamfisted and overbearing that I lost interest. That cold war did end, as such the context of modern reader is quite different. The political natur…

Why do this?

It's not like Ursula K. Le Guin's work was directly focused on allegory.

Feeling absent from two systems was a major point of The Dispossessed, not the content of either systems.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#46

Post by bolasanibk »

tunesmith wrote: post #16
icebraining wrote: post #7

The introduction to one of the versions of Left Hand of Darkness is one of my favorite texts about Science Fiction: http://theliterarylink.com/leguinintro.html

Anyone remember the source of the essay about the town where everyone was happy, and how it feels unbelievable until you find it has a horrible secret, which somehow makes it more believable? I think that is her writing.

That story always makes me question what decision I will make if in a similar situation.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#47

Post by Maultasche »

macrael wrote: post #9

I am not trying to say that I was happy, during those weeks of hauling a sledge across an ice-sheet in the dead of winter. I was hungry, overstrained, and often anxious, and it all got worse the longer it went on. I certainly wasn't happy. Happiness has to do with reason, and only reason earns it. What I was given was the thing you can't earn, and can't keep, and often don't even recognize at the time; I mean joy. —T…

I loved that book. I read it once and never forgot it. I immediately remembered what part of the book that quote was from even though it's been 20 years since I read it.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#49

Post by autarch »

stcredzero wrote: post #43
newen wrote: post #22

RIP. The Dispossessed is one of my favorite books.

I enjoyed reading The Dispossessed , though I have also been known to characterize it as, "A Sci-Fi universe where communism actually works, hence the 'Fi' part." However, I've recently read Thomas Sowell's book about the original formulation of Marxian economics and philosophy, and I've come to the conclusion that the technology of the late 21st century might possibly enable a viable communal society through the rep…

But the whole point of the novel is that neither system really works very well! I think you're doing it a disservice to characterize it in that way.

She did her best to imagine a communist system that was nearly ideally designed and it still fails in so many ways.

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