i mean not really but in the moment i felt that
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 00:56 (six years ago) link
Two years ago my wife and I flew to PDX to surprise my wife's grandmother on her 80th birthday. We had some time to kill in the evening before the party, so we took our rental car and went wandering up along the Columbia. At some point we pulled over to a little park to watch the sunset. There were only two other people in the park: LeGuin and her assistant. They sat at a picnic table, LeGuin holding some manuscript pages and watching the sunset, and the assistant fussing with her phone. Always Coming Home is one of my favorite books, and I desperately wanted to tell UKL that this was the case, and to thank her for a billion pages of reading and ideas. But I didn't, and I think it was the right call. But we shared a sunset together, which is kind of ... like something she might write.
Because you are human beings you are going to meet failure. You are going to meet disappointment, injustice, betrayal, and irreparable loss. You will find you’re weak where you thought yourself strong. You’ll work for possessions and then find they possess you. You will find yourself — as I know you already have — in dark places, alone, and afraid.What I hope for you, for all my sisters and daughters, brothers and sons, is that you will be able to live there, in the dark place. To live in the place that our rationalizing culture of success denies, calling it a place of exile, uninhabitable, foreign.
http://www.ursulakleguin.com/LeftHandMillsCollege.html
― rb (soda), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 02:09 (six years ago) link
“Only in silence the word,Only in dark the light,Only in dying life:Bright the hawk's flightOn the empty sky.
—The Creation of Éa”
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 02:19 (six years ago) link
No words
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 03:32 (six years ago) link
chapter 1 of her Tao Te Ching translation:
The way you can goisn't the real way.The name you can sayisn't the real name.Heaven and earthbegin in the unnamed:name's the motherof the ten thousand things.So the unwanting soulsees what's hidden,and the ever-wanting soulsees only what it wants.Two things, one origin,but different in name,whose identity is a mystery.Mystery of all mysteries!The door to the hidden.
Heaven and earthbegin in the unnamed:name's the motherof the ten thousand things.
So the unwanting soulsees what's hidden,and the ever-wanting soulsees only what it wants.
Two things, one origin,but different in name,whose identity is a mystery.Mystery of all mysteries!The door to the hidden.
― direct to consumer online mattress brand (silby), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 04:44 (six years ago) link
Most idiotic hot take, which I had to rant about on twitter because it was so, so stupid:
Today, in 'The fact that I admit I don't know what I'm talking about, am almost diametrically wrong about what I'm saying, and am about to draw a ludicrous and specious comparison will not prevent me from tweeting something stupid': pic.twitter.com/gxrxHZAwHY— Caustic Cover Critic (@Unwise_Trousers) January 24, 2018
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 05:36 (six years ago) link
Wow what a take that is
― direct to consumer online mattress brand (silby), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 05:55 (six years ago) link
well, excretions can also be hot so
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 06:16 (six years ago) link
I AM MAD ABOUT MY THING SO I AM GOING TO SHIT ON YOUR THING twitter, forever and always
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 06:17 (six years ago) link
lol it so totally figures that the king of shitty hot takes, clickbait hack noah berlatsky, chimed in to support that horrible tweet
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 06:24 (six years ago) link
RIP. No-one i would rather re-read, and I still have a good few to discover for the first time.
― lana del boy (ledge), Wednesday, 24 January 2018 09:13 (six years ago) link
I've always found her a difficult read, but wanna persevere. Is the first Earthsea a place to start?
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 25 January 2018 13:11 (six years ago) link
Yes. Or "The Rule of Names."
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 25 January 2018 13:14 (six years ago) link
The trailer to the long in the works documentary is here:
https://vimeo.com/268831999
Per io9:
Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin is set to premiere at the Sheffield Doc/Fest on June 10, followed by a series of US festival visits and eventually a digital release online. Curry also revealed on Kickstarter that the documentary will be broadcast on PBS American Masters sometime in 2019.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 25 May 2018 15:50 (five years ago) link
Just finished Tehanu. Bleak, but perfect for me, and for right now. It's really quite a feat to go from epic to intimate and have it feel liberating rather than anticlimactic.
― lukas, Thursday, 20 August 2020 22:33 (three years ago) link
Ursula K Le Guin's house is for sale! If we club together we could probably afford it, right?
https://www.sacbee.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article245407450.html
― emil.y, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 16:16 (three years ago) link
lets do it
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 8 September 2020 17:01 (three years ago) link
I am good with this approach.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 8 September 2020 17:29 (three years ago) link
Holy wow that home is glorious.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 9 September 2020 09:54 (three years ago) link
wish i was always coming home to there.
― neith moon (ledge), Wednesday, 9 September 2020 10:15 (three years ago) link
omg yes please let’s do this
― brimstead, Wednesday, 9 September 2020 17:13 (three years ago) link
I don't think this will work out the way you hope, Laura.Oh social media. pic.twitter.com/49m1UWnVzl— Ursula K. Le Guin (@ursulakleguin) December 8, 2020
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 9 December 2020 21:14 (three years ago) link
Awesome.
We are delighted to announce that the 33rd stamp in the US Postal Service Literary Arts series honors Ursula. Stamp release will be later this year, date TBD. From then on, all our letters will be three ounces! Thank you @USPS for this distinction. https://t.co/jGboi8i5LU pic.twitter.com/8H3UOGafPv— Ursula K. Le Guin (@ursulakleguin) January 15, 2021
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 January 2021 20:38 (three years ago) link
Gorgeous
― Canon in Deez (silby), Friday, 15 January 2021 20:44 (three years ago) link
And as I've been muttering elsewhere -- while I'm not positive this is the first US stamp to feature a nonbinary figure, that background scene is obv Left Hand of Darkness and thus features Estraven, so.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 January 2021 20:45 (three years ago) link
Yes, I was just admiring that illustration of Ai and Estraven. Really nice work.
― Lily Dale, Friday, 15 January 2021 20:46 (three years ago) link
so cool
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 15 January 2021 21:38 (three years ago) link
I’m reading Tombs of Atuan with my son right now and that book is a god damn masterpiece.You spend almost half the book just living in Arha’s rhythms, feeling the texture of her world and understanding what structures it it: the boundaries of fear and ritual. You have the sensation of a society living on just the husk of an unremembered time. The living drama of humanity has moved on from this place yet we are centred on it. (It’s like the US Senate!) What scriptwriters call “the inciting incident” comes a good third of the book’s length too late, by today’s standards, but what you gain is a recognition of its gravity. Plus it’s goth as shit. It really is astounding. Once the motor of the story picks up its pace all the weight of that long opening gives an inertial force to events that is just awesome. Honestly - the first book - Wizard of Earthsea - is very good, but it follows a fairly traditional structure. And the elements are not very surprising. It’s told masterfully of course, but you know, you’ve got a wizard’s school and some dragons and a hot-headed protagonist. This though - this is really something else. The intensity of it is frankly almost overwhelming.
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 9 March 2021 22:43 (three years ago) link
There’s so much in there about freedom and breaking free of stultifying tradition and whether it’s possible to cast off beliefs you were inculcated with, and how morality intersects with these questions, and how you sometimes need to take the biggest risk you can take, and how an act of kindness - even made without really realising it - can open up your whole heart and change your whole life
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 9 March 2021 22:47 (three years ago) link
booming and otm
― Canon in Deez (silby), Tuesday, 9 March 2021 22:52 (three years ago) link
All very true. But also underscores why Tehanu is even MORE impressive.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 9 March 2021 23:04 (three years ago) link
Atuan has been my favourite of the Earthsea books for a long time. It was one of the first books I used inter-library loan for as a kid and it was so unlike anything else I'd ever read at that age.I think it's time for a re-read of the whole series.
― treefell, Tuesday, 9 March 2021 23:12 (three years ago) link
I haven’t read Tehanu yet Ned but why do you think it’s more impressive than Tombs of Atuan? Is it possible to explain without giving anything away?
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 9 March 2021 23:40 (three years ago) link
Yeah, as I said upthread, it's amazing that the series' turn from epic to intimate feels so liberating.
― lukas, Tuesday, 9 March 2021 23:43 (three years ago) link
I think it's time for a re-read of the whole series.
I did this in 2020 (actually was my first readthrough of books 4-6) and cannot recommend enough.
I'm curious about her translation of the Tao Te Ching as well, but I think I might want something more traditional there.
― lukas, Tuesday, 9 March 2021 23:45 (three years ago) link
literally bought this based on yr rec, th
― class project pat (m bison), Tuesday, 9 March 2021 23:48 (three years ago) link
Theres a short story in "Birthday of the world" called "Paradises Lost" that I found really evocative, the concept of multiple generations being in a spaceship heading for a goal (a new planet) and how that parallels with the concept of faith/life after death. Itd make a great TV series.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Tuesday, 9 March 2021 23:53 (three years ago) link
The UKL TTC is U&K.
― Canon in Deez (silby), Tuesday, 9 March 2021 23:56 (three years ago) link
Sean Guynes concluded his excellent Le Guin reread with a post on why Tehanu is Le Guin's best book:https://www.tor.com/2021/02/24/tehanu-le-guins-return-to-earthsea-and-her-best-novel
the 1st time i read it i did it with wrong expectations (and probably at a wrong age).it'll likely speak more to me now that i'm older, lol.
― scanner darkly, Wednesday, 10 March 2021 00:39 (three years ago) link
Psyched
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 00:45 (three years ago) link
I also found Tombs of Atuan much more immersive and approachable and generally meaningful than Wizard of Earthsea. Ged is very much a figure of legend, running around fighting monsters (even if they're of his own making), and there's something correspondingly chilly and distancing about the narration. With Tombs of Atuan, you're plunged into the emotional world of someone who can't go anywhere or have adventures or even have a name; she's just a kernel of humanity hidden away in the dark, being somehow herself in spite of everything. I guess it's the difference between a traditionally masculine story and a traditionally feminine story, but Le Guin has turned the contrast way, way up.
I'm in the minority, I guess, as I don't think Tehanu works as well as Tombs of Atuan. Tehanu feels to me like Le Guin very consciously trying to write a feminist Earthsea book, in a way that comes across as forced to me.
― Lily Dale, Wednesday, 10 March 2021 01:33 (three years ago) link
That post feels very incoherent, sorry. I think I meant "the difference between a traditionally male story and a traditionally female story" - the kind of story imposed from without by traditional gender roles, but exaggerated to the most extreme point, so that the man can literally go anywhere and do anything but has an emotional life/interiority that's almost entirely inaccessible to us, while the woman is literally stuck in a freaking cave and we are immersed so fully in her POV that it's dizzying. Like the difference between, idk, Tom Jones and Persuasion, but side by side in the same series, and the characters are able to sort of step outside of the lines that have been drawn for them and meet and communicate, and somehow both of them seem more human through each other's eyes - idk where I'm going with this but I think it's cool.
Anyway, great posts, Tracer.
― Lily Dale, Wednesday, 10 March 2021 04:13 (three years ago) link
See whereas I loved Tehanu because I felt like "oh finally, this stops being about male magic and male energy and turns the dial to matters more rooted and more intimate". It resonated.
I actually didnt like Tombs much because all the scenes down in said tombs felt weird and claustrophobic to me.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 04:17 (three years ago) link
Oh, that makes sense. Yeah, I liked what she was trying to do in Tehanu but I just felt like I could see her trying, and it distracted me. But I do like it, and I get why a lot of people love it.
― Lily Dale, Wednesday, 10 March 2021 04:21 (three years ago) link
Had the thought recently that the Jedi are basically orgasm denial wizards which is probably what makes them so fucked up as “good guys”
― Canon in Deez (silby), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 04:24 (three years ago) link
I keep thinking of that story these days because of QAnon, the way they watch this religion spring up from absolutely nothing and then take firm enough root to potentially derail everything, and then the oh-so-important vote where sanity just barely prevails, it all feels very familiar.
― Lily Dale, Wednesday, 10 March 2021 04:44 (three years ago) link
yes, nice parallel!
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 06:41 (three years ago) link
Tombs and Tehanu are tied for my favourite, I didn't read the latter till I was much older and found it incredibly powerful, like she was taking the traditional patriarchal structure of the first books and burning it with fire. Wizard/Tombs/Farthest Shore = thesis, Tehanu = antithesis; Tales & The Other Wind = synthesis!
― Non meat-eaters rejoice – our culture has completely lost its way (ledge), Wednesday, 10 March 2021 08:33 (three years ago) link
I reread The Farthest Shore recently and liked it much better than I remembered. I had it lumped together in my mind with A Wizard of Earthsea, but it's much darker and more adult - and more personal as well, even though you still don't get much of a sense of who Ged is. This central idea of a world where something has gone deeply, inexplicably wrong everywhere, all the joy and sense of purpose running out of everything, all these people walking around feeling like they've lost something, and they can't even remember what - it all felt, honestly, like a really disturbing reflection of the world as it is now. And I'm not usually a big fan of world-building for its own sake, but the imagery she invents for the land of the dead just feels so right: the wall of stones, the dry river with its dry source, the mountains of pain, all feel like they're part of some vast collective unconscious, like they've always been there.
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 13 March 2021 00:13 (three years ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/oct/21/realists-of-a-larger-reality-wanted-ursula-k-le-guin-prize-for-fiction-to-launch-in-2022
― namaste darkness my old friend (ledge), Thursday, 21 October 2021 08:42 (two years ago) link