80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin

[altariel]

80! Memories & Reflections on Ursula K. Le Guin is now available for pre-order from Aqueduct Press. This is a published version of a Festschrift volume presented to Ursula Le Guin on her eightieth birthday, and I'm very pleased to have a short piece included in it.

You can find out more about it here, and pre-order here. There is a pre-order special price of $15.

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

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. :(

[altariel.livejournal.com]

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).

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

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*

[altariel.livejournal.com]

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.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

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.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

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.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

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.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

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!)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

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.