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Ursula Le Guin has died

nytimes.com

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Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#71

Post by stcredzero »

krapp wrote: post #56
stcredzero wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the case of Star Trek, there were many more items of Fi. Then you have Star Wars which really doesn't give a ####.

>Then you have Star Wars which really doesn't give a ####. Star Trek just pretends to, though. Most of its fictional conceits are barely thought out, including its post-scarcity communist utopia. Does the Force really make any less sense than Q? It's all space fantasy.

Does PsychoHistory and "The Mule" make any more sense than The Force? In the end, it is all space opry. Our far flung mind children are likely to be stranger than the mind of Homo sapiens is able to imagine.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#73

Post by schrectacular »

ilamont wrote: post #31

Coincidentally, I purchased the Earthsea series for my son a few days ago, who I think is the right age. I also read some of her work from the 1990s, a short story collection whose name I cannot recall, but was very powerful and thoughtful. I think in many respects she was able to take science fiction and fantasy in emotional and social realms where few authors were willing to tread.

My parents read them to me when I was seven. Etched in my memory. I've been back to read them a few times since and always found more to enjoy.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#74

Post by mercutio2 »

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…

We didn’t really learn much about the communists in the Dispossessed. Most of the novel is about the anarchists.

Anarchists generally get along with communists even worse than capitalists do, so I don’t think this distinction is just pedantry.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#75

Post by Sinidir »

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…

That book was awesome and mind expanding.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#76

Post by workingwriter »

sciurus wrote: post #8

See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16218391 That has more votes at the moment. This looks like a better source, though.

Locus promises a more extensive obit later. I'll guess they don't have writers on staff whose job is to write obits in advance and update periodically. ;-)

Similarly, the LeGuin site currently directs readers to the NYTimes obit: http://www.ursulakleguin.com/UKL_info.html

We shall miss her.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#77

Post by kiliantics »

viburnum wrote: post #69

"We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art."

Ursula Le Guin was an ardent socialist and it comes through in all her writing. I don't understand why the only comments and quotes about her politics are all downvoted in this thread. But I guess that's the average Hackernews reader for you...

EDIT: the quote is from a speech, which you can hear/see in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9Nf-rsALk

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#79

Post by kiliantics »

autarch wrote: post #49
stcredzero wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ursula Le Guin was a supporter of libertarian socialist ideals, which are opposed to both capitalist and centralised/authoritarian socialist ideologies. She was a big fan of Murray Bookchin, who came from an anarchist background and founded the ideas of "communalism" and libertarian municipalism.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#80

Post by nickbauman »

laretluval wrote: post #34
nickbauman wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are few books that have a single sentence or two that change you utterly. The Dispossessed has that for me.

What were the sentences? The book also had a big effect on me.

Took me a while to find one near the very end, where Ketho, a Hainishman, member of the oldest sentient race in the universe, decided to risk his life with Shevefc on his return to Anarres:

"[Ketho] looked at him gravely, as if he was not sure what happiness was, and yet recognized or perhaps remembered it from afar. He stood beside Shevefc as if there was something he wanted to ask him. But he did not ask it “It will be early morning at Anarres Port,” he said at last, and took his leave, to get his things and meet Shevek at the launch port."

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