Ursula K. Le Guin at the National Book Awards
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Ursula K. Le Guin at the National Book Awards
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Re: Ursula K. Le Guin at the National Book Awards
#2Reminds me of Roald Dahl's short story "The Great Automatic Grammatizator."
I cannot recommend it enough. Amazing story about a future in which an engineer creates a machine that writes stories quick and cheap, thousands and thousands of them in no time at all.
http://bookophile.weebly.com/uploads/6/4/0/8/6408830/the_gre...
Re: Ursula K. Le Guin at the National Book Awards
#3Her comments seem somewhat related to her book "The Dispossessed" which contrasts a capitalist world with a plausible anarchist/communist world.
Re: Ursula K. Le Guin at the National Book Awards
#4> Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words.
I never really studied history in any depth. Do you think this is just hyperbole? By which I mean is she simply overstating or exaggerating the role of art in historic events? Am I taking it too literally - that art is the first step towards cultural upheaval? Can anyone give some examples of art effecting some kind of huge social change?
Re: Ursula K. Le Guin at the National Book Awards
#5> Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words. I never really studied history in any depth. Do you think this is just hyperbole? By which I mean is she simply overstating or exaggerating the role of art in historic events? Am I taking it too literally - that art is the first step towards cultural upheaval? Can anyone give some examples of art effecting some kind of huge social…
It's easy to point to examples when we construe art (as she does here) as including all forms of creative writing or storytelling. Just one example is work by many literary scholars on the 18th century novel as helping create a new sense of interiority and private life (i.e., reading a novel alone replaced gathering around a fire to hear a story). Or, going back much further, Alexander the Great's obsession with the Iliad would surely count as significant for world history.
Re: Ursula K. Le Guin at the National Book Awards
#6Her comments seem somewhat related to her book "The Dispossessed" which contrasts a capitalist world with a plausible anarchist/communist world.
While she may speak with the authority of having written "The Dispossessed" (which is wonderfully good), her words seem to mostly be about Amazon.
In that regard I think her comments miss the mark ("corporate fatwa" being the biggest silliness).
Re: Ursula K. Le Guin at the National Book Awards
#7> Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words. I never really studied history in any depth. Do you think this is just hyperbole? By which I mean is she simply overstating or exaggerating the role of art in historic events? Am I taking it too literally - that art is the first step towards cultural upheaval? Can anyone give some examples of art effecting some kind of huge social…
Perhaps the real root cause of upheaval such as pervasive discontent correlates with occurrences of revolutionary art. Perhaps the art then acts as an amplifier or accelerator of the discontent, creating a feedback loop. Clearly it helps when the "art" is easily distributed and widely understood (printing press, literacy).
Re: Ursula K. Le Guin at the National Book Awards
#8Her comments seem somewhat related to her book "The Dispossessed" which contrasts a capitalist world with a plausible anarchist/communist world.
While she may speak with the authority of having written "The Dispossessed" (which is wonderfully good), her words seem to mostly be about Amazon. In that regard I think her comments miss the mark ("corporate fatwa" being the biggest silliness).
In what way do they miss the mark? I have immense respect for both Ursula K. Le Guin's work and her ideology. Her comments seem pretty sensible to me.
Re: Ursula K. Le Guin at the National Book Awards
#9I heard her make remarks in a similar vein at the Washington State Book Awards in 2006: http://jakeseliger.com/2006/10/28/le-guin-at-the-seattle-pub... .
Incidentally, though, I think this no longer true: "Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximize corporate profit and advertising revenue is not quite the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship."
It's now easier than ever for writers to answer to no one but readers; the Internet in general and Amazon in particular are tremendous open platforms that let writers decide what to publish without the need for a conventional publisher.
See further http://www.vox.com/2014/10/22/7016827/amazon-hachette-monopo... .
Re: Ursula K. Le Guin at the National Book Awards
#10Video is up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et9Nf-rsALk