It&#39;s a full life, if a trifle banal

It's very distinguished, isn't it? I don't know if she's related; her biography doesn't say. She's well known for her work on feminist SF.

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steepholm.livejournal.com

Looks interesting! I've just ordered a copy for my uni library.

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Great! Thank you!

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I loved the piece you wrote, at least the draft I saw. That goes on the To Buy list!

(BTW, entirely unrelated to Le Guin but did you see me waving at you over here, pimping this? Coz I saw it and I thought of you...)

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That is completely brilliant!

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I knew you'd like it ;-) Blame

mrazalais who as usual was sending me things more interesting and diverting than what I was trying to concentrate on at work.

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She's a genius, and I go in constant awe of her imagination, world-building vision and writing skills.

Unfortunately, she also makes me incredibly depressed, every single time I read as much as a page written by her. I don't know why. I keep reading time and again, because, well, she *is* incredible, but I always end up heavily depressed. :(

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Aw, yes, I can sympathise with that, she doesn't pull any punches. Have you read Changing Planes? It's a kind of travelogue, every chapter is a sketch of an alien people and their cultures. It's one of her most playful books (tho' I'm sure I'm forgetting some grimmer bits).

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I read the whole Earthsea cycle, courtesy of

ithilwen, plus "The Left Hand of Darkness" (that one in Hungarian translation, back in the goode olde days when actual writers used to do those translations, unlike now), and "The Birthday of the World". That's basically it. And I ended up depressed every time.

It's not the actual events that make me depressed, although they can be hard enough most of the time. I feel some bone-deep hopelessnes every time I read her stuff, no matter how wonderful it is.

It's an interesting contrast to Tolkien, actually. When I read the Professor, even if it's about bloodshed and death and other unpleasant things, I can still feel the unshakable hope behind the whole thing. Perhaps I react to the stout believer in him, although I can't compare myself to him in that department... neither do I want to. Must be a Catholic thing. *g*

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A lot of The Birthday of the World is tremendously depressing! Although the last, long story in it, "Paradises Lost", is one of my favourite Le Guin stories: I think it's absolutely, stunningly brilliant.

For me, Le Guin's basic themes are injustice, and repairing injustice. Which are always going to be depressing to explore. I don't get that deep sense of hopelessness from her books that you get, although the characters often feel tremendously isolated, and what happiness they have often comes at a great cost. (Of course the success of the Quest comes at great cost for Frodo, but beside him is Sam, the heart of the book.) Tentatively, I'd say that there is more intrinsic warmth to Tolkien's books, and I think more joyfulness too.

This is such an interesting topic, thank you.

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All of her stuff is brilliant, which is why I have been trying to figure out why she depresses me so much for decades. I admire world-building before almost all other aspects of a story, and she does that in grand style.

Also, her language - as much as I, ignorant foreigner as I am, can appreciate it - is stunning beyond every other author, save for Tolkien. And yet I always lay aside her books with a certain feeling of emptiness. I don't know why. I think you might be right about there being more warmth and joyfulness in Tolkien's books.

The afterlife (or rather the lack thereof) in the Earthsea books was one of the most frightening concepts I've ever seen in literature. I remember having actual nightmares after I've read about Sparrowhawk's visit there. And I don't have those often, not cause by any books. "The Pendragon Legend" was the only other book that ever made me sleep with the lights on.

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The dry land is desperate. You've read the later Earthsea instalments in which this is revisited, haven't you? The Other Wind in particular.

The only book which has given me nightmares is The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

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Yes, I've read every single one of the Earthsea installments, but nothing could ever relieve me of the horrors of the dry land. I think part of the reason is that I have a very different mindset than "normal" people. On an unconscious level, monsters are real for me, even though my conscious mind knows that they are not.

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I often find I'm absolutely despairing in the middle of a Le Guin, but somehow I nearly always find I'm uplifted by the end.

The recent Annals of the Western Shore trilogy was an interesting case in point; I felt somehow mildly depressed by the ending of Gifts, because the Upland environment had been so dreary and empty and physically and spiritually threadbare, and the message at the end seemed to be that all that Gry and Orrec could do to make it better was leave. Voices I absolutely loved, found it brave and positive and uplifting all the way through and wanted to cheer numerous times. And then Powers... oh, gods. Cried, raged, threw the book across the room, couldn't sleep, really didn't know if I could make myself pick it up again [after Miv died and several more times]. But still, when I made it shaking to the end, felt that Gavir was being shown that there were other ways, better ways, and that the message was hopeful.

She's such a brilliant, powerful writer that she can really mess with your head, so I do very much sympathise with what

wiseheart is saying - if and when she depresses you, she really depresses you, in ways that are hard to shake off by going and having a cup of tea and watching TV fluff (my usual remedies!)

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And the end of Powers alters the end of Gifts. Because we know the full life that Gry and Orrec have lived. And because they have to be there to receive Gavir. Boy oh boy, I love Powers.

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wormwood-7.livejournal.com

That is a very distinguished list of writers :) I will definitely put this on my wish list.
Ursula K is one of the very few writers I started to read in my late teens that I still read with undiminished enjoyment. I have just finished "Lavinia", which I liked a lot.

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Yes, I read her with increased pleasure and awe as the years pass. I liked Lavinia a great deal, tho' my piece in the book is about her recent YA novel Powers, which blew me away. I thought I was too old and grumpy to be so moved by a book, but she got past all my defences.

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I remember being very moved by your piece for the festschrift before I'd even read Powers. I suspect reading it again will have me in shreds (your piece; I think it may be years before I feel robust enough to tackle Powers again! Either it will have the same effect on me again, and that's quite difficult to volunteer for, or it won't if the impact is lessened by knowing what's coming, and I'll feel that somehow either the writing or I have diminished in some way as a result...)

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I hope the piece stands up to rereading. I reread Powers to write it, and was just as deeply affected; of course, I knew I was reading to provide a response to it, and so my emotions were heightened.

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steve-mollmann.livejournal.com

This book had better be as rad as it looks, because I just ordered a copy.

(I hate Ursula K. Le Guin, because every time I read one of her novels, I am made far too conscious of my own inferiority.)

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Hope you enjoy it. I think it looks fantastic.

(I put off any hope of emulation when I read her. Just pay homage.)

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