Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ursula Le Guin has died

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 197 posts

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#141

Post by loudmax »

zumu wrote: post #85

I've always been interested in Le Guin, but never read much, outside of an Earthsea book or two as a child. From the contents of the thread I seem to be gathering The Dispossessed might be the best place to start. Is this correct? Are there any other must reads?

The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness are seminal works. As you've gathered from this thread, The Dispossessed can be understood as a critique of capitalism. It is not uncritical of the alternatives. Likewise, the Left Hand of Darkness can be understood as a feminist critique of patriarchy, but it isn't uncritical of feminist ideology. On a deeper level, both novels are nuanced ruminations on society and human nature.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#142

Post by hmhrex »

Filligree wrote: post #125

I read Earthsea as a ten-year-old, and I loved it. Then I re-read it as a thirty-year-old... and I loved it, though I understood it far better. Ursula Le Guin was one of the true greats, and the world will be worse off without her.

It was 12 and 27 for me. I can't wait to read these to my kids as they grow up. So many lessons within.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#143

Post by drderidder »

Filligree wrote: post #125

I read Earthsea as a ten-year-old, and I loved it. Then I re-read it as a thirty-year-old... and I loved it, though I understood it far better. Ursula Le Guin was one of the true greats, and the world will be worse off without her.

I read A Wizard of Earthsea around age 12... it opened the world of fantasy/sci-fi. Sad for her passing and reminded that I always wanted to read more of her books... RIP.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#144

Post by mercutio2 »

vidarh wrote: post #134
mercutio2 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I missed that in the article, thanks! Indeed the anarchism on display in the Dispossessed was very collectivist, I hadn’t realized how directly it was based on Kropotkin. My experience of anarchists is such that I happily group most anarchists together, and place them ideologically far, far away from Stalinists. Are you thinking Kropotkin’s ideals are close enough to communism that I shouldn’t belabor the distinction…

Plenty of communists are far closer to anarchists than to the Stalinists, and historically plenty of people have applied both labels to themselves. E.g. the founder of (left)-libertarianism was an anarcho-communist (Joseph Déjacque) [1], and among early libertarian socialists, you for example would fine some the earliest leading figures in the Socialist League, which counted Eleanor Marx and Friedrich Engels among th…

You’re right, of course. I didn’t mean collectivist, at 11pm I got my anarchist terms-of-art confused.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#145

Post by frostwhale »

nkoren wrote: post #106

My favourite living author is now my favourite dead author. It has been such a privilege to read her works. Ursula Le Guin conjured new worlds and and lay them out before my mind's eye -- but that's not what made her special. Many writers have done that. What she could do -- almost uniquely -- was to conjure a new mind's eye . She understood that the world exists at the point of perception, so she built her worlds ou…

Pretty big sci-fi reader and have never read her (to my shame), can you recommend where to start?

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#147

Post by notahacker »

MrHetzner wrote: post #137
baldfat wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of classics with that same issue. Asimov's Foundation Series even has computer readers are just one line of a book at a time. And he thought this would cause people to not see their progress in the book and cause them not to read as much. I just look past the details and for Foundation Series it is worth it. "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" to me wasn't worth it, but I really liked "Starship Troopers" a…

The only other Heinlein book I would recommend beside Starship Troopers (which everyone reads different than Heinlein intended I guess) is "Stranger in a Strange Land".

Don't think I've ever been as disappointed in the second half of a book as "Stranger in a Strange Land". Starts off with a very interesting high concept about the awkwardness of interacting with a human who has no idea of human values (as well as a solid stock plot about people trying to control him) and then rapidly turns said vulnerable, weird protagonist into a powerful free love cult-leader promoting all the very human preoccupations and social systems Heinlein happened to find intriguing at the time.

As for Starship Troopers, I think it's very clearly written and generally read as exactly the paean to military discipline Heinlein intended at the time (with Heinlein himself being the one who rowed back on the ideas in it having become more libertarian later in life)

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#148

Post by JoeDaDude »

sjclemmy wrote: post #92

I read “The Lathe of Heaven” when I was younger. I remember being fascinated by it, as only a young person can be. I hadn’t really thought to look at her other books since then (which is probably about 35 years). I’ll definintely be reading “The Left Hand of Darkness” and “The Dispossessed” due to the comments on here. Thanks HN! And thank you U.K. LeGuin for introducing me to a world of ideas and possibilities.

"The Lathe of Heaven" has been made into film - twice! Both were made-for-TV movies [1]. Most people (and I agree) believe the earlier version made by PBS to be the better one.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lathe_of_Heaven#Adaptation...

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#149

Post by WorldMaker »

MrHetzner wrote: post #137
baldfat wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of classics with that same issue. Asimov's Foundation Series even has computer readers are just one line of a book at a time. And he thought this would cause people to not see their progress in the book and cause them not to read as much. I just look past the details and for Foundation Series it is worth it. "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" to me wasn't worth it, but I really liked "Starship Troopers" a…

The only other Heinlein book I would recommend beside Starship Troopers (which everyone reads different than Heinlein intended I guess) is "Stranger in a Strange Land".

I always assumed Heinlein was more socialist than a lot of people give him credit for, so in my own impressions of his books Strange Land seems the more honest/hopeful than many of his works (and also why the actions in that book cynically fail in the longer timeline). In that I also saw the dystopian elements of Moon is a Harsh Mistress, just below the surface, intentional commentary, and the ending a relatively mechano-socialist outcome... I realize that my impressions of Heinlein's canon are a strange minority view, but I find it interesting there are such differing views of his works.

Re: Ursula Le Guin has died

#150

Post by stochastic_monk »

notahacker wrote: post #147
MrHetzner wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only other Heinlein book I would recommend beside Starship Troopers (which everyone reads different than Heinlein intended I guess) is "Stranger in a Strange Land".

Don't think I've ever been as disappointed in the second half of a book as "Stranger in a Strange Land". Starts off with a very interesting high concept about the awkwardness of interacting with a human who has no idea of human values (as well as a solid stock plot about people trying to control him) and then rapidly turns said vulnerable, weird protagonist into a powerful free love cult-leader promoting all the very…

He started out sharing profound insights into altruism and enlightenment... and proceeds to teleport everyone's clothes off for an orgy.

What a frightfully bizarre turn.

Post reply on HN