Ursula Le Guin

[eighthobstruction]

Aye and still have change for a pie and a pint.....I was the same with CSE's (comes easy to some of us)

[Belgrove]

It was a good programme, not least through hearing her own voice.

A friend, whose literary tastes I trust, recommended the Earthsea quartet with the warning that they were written for adolescents (sic). I found them absorbing and of a literary quality. Magic is seen as some zero-sum-game, and exercising it takes enormous effort and is fraught with danger. The third in the series, The Farthest Shore, is terrifying in a very quiet but relentless way. Not part of the Earthsea series, The Left Hand of Darkness has a killer first line - ‘The King was pregnant’, that demands reading on. Science Fiction as a genre is great on ideas but too often is poorly written. Le Guin has the ideas in abundance and the literary style to make them come alive on the page.

[johncorrigan]

Thanks for posting this. I love the writing of Ursula Le Guin. Sometimes the books are gentle, sometimes dark, but always thought provoking; and she has always seemed thoughtful when I have seen film of her or listened to her. She was brave and honest and, it seems to me, very generous with her ideas. At the end of the programme she talked about stories that turned your head around. Such a thing happened to me when I went to the local library and saw a copy of her short novel, 'The Word For World is Forest', and decided to give it a read. In some ways it is science fiction pulp, but it was the first novel I remembered reading which celebrated the natural world, albeit on a planet light years from here; there was no doubting what she was talking about. I always think she had a great ability to tell a story.

I came away from 'Sunday Feature' the way I often do when I encounter her, that we could do with her still being around today.

[eighthobstruction]

Yes John and Belgrove....The Joni Mitchel of Science Fiction...

[johncorrigan]

It was a good programme, not least through hearing her own voice.

The Left Hand of Darkness has a killer first line - ‘The King was pregnant’, that demands reading on. Science Fiction as a genre is great on ideas but too often is poorly written. Le Guin has the ideas in abundance and the literary style to make them come alive on the page.

I remembered reading and enjoying this article by Harold Bloom in the New Yorker a while ago about Ursula and the Left Hand of Darkness.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-strange-friendships-of-ursula-k-le-guins-the-left-hand-of-darkness

[Forget It (U2079353)]

I found this recent Matthew Sweet led discussion quite listenable too

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gt67kf

[eighthobstruction]

....thanks Forget it didn't see that one....missed it

[Retune]

'Ursula Le Guin at 80'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b00j3xd5

'Writer China Mieville talks to American science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin.

Le Guin was a trailblazer - writing in the 1960s, her series of books about the adventures of a boy wizard, Ged, included characters of every race and colour. Her fiction has been acutely concerned with politics, portraying worlds destroyed by environmental catastrophe that prefigured modern concerns about global warming, and societies without gender just as modern-day feminism began to take off.

Featuring contributions and tributes from Iain Banks and Margaret Atwood.'

[eighthobstruction]

....a real shame the audio for Le Guin is not better, i had real problems with (in fact all the women contributers)....I am amazed that in these times that an interviewer - possibly on their own or just with producer does not have some gizmo that can tune/find universal frequencies, like a guitar tuner - that produces clear sound (possibly even use of 2 mics).....I regularly have problems and I do not think it is just my diminished hearing....
....but nothing stops us hearing how wonderful she is....how warm....

[johncorrigan]

I found this recent Matthew Sweet led discussion quite listenable too
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0gt67kf

Thanks for this - very interesting, F I. During the programme one of the contributor's mentioned N.K.Jemisin's story 'The Ones Who Stay and Fight' - I thought it was a very well written companion piece to Ursula's famed short story.

https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-ones-who-stay-and-fight/