Bookseller Chuck today continues his series on Science Fiction For Those Who Don't Read Science Fiction. Today, Ursula K Le Guin.
I recently posted a blog about sci-fi for people who don't read sci-fi in an attempt to get more people to read the genre. I feel that sci-fi gets over-looked a lot as being trash, when really there are some literary gems hiding on those shelfs. This time around I would like to talk about an author I mentioned last time but didn't discuss. Ursula K Le Guin is probably the author I have to push the least. She has been writing for a long time and her work has better exposure than most sci-fi authors. For me, that makes her a good gateway into the world of speculative fiction. What makes Le Guin so good is that she has wonderful character development and is amazing at creating worlds and universes.
With many sci-fi authors the worlds they create are just a back drop to the story they want to tell. For Le Guin they are an integral part of the story, it's what makes her novels so engrossing. She's not creating worlds for the fun of it, but as a way to see our world better.
Le Guin has three novels in what some call the Hainish Cycle that are wonderfully
readable, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, and The Telling.
In 'The Left Hand of Darkness' there is a world of single gender people not so she can explore the idea of mono-gender, but is really a way for her to discuss our own gender issues. In 'The Dispossessed', Le Guin shows us a world of anarchists in conflict with a entirely incorporated society in order to explore our conflicts with corporate culture. 'The Telling' examines the destruction of histories and mythologies in the name of progress and "truth", which means ignoring the deeper truths of these mythologies.
I would recommend all these books to book clubs. They cover so many ideas in a thoughtful way that discussion topics are easy to come by.
If you read Le Guin and like her work, I would recommend Changing Planes. This book is about people being able to move between planes of exsistence, and is basically a compilation of what she does best. A bunch of worlds that tell us something about ourselves, instead of telling us something about them.
--Chuck
1 comment:
Wow! You have hit the nail on the head about Le Guin! I've enjoyed every single one of her novels. I can only hope that my recently released novel, Long Journey to Rneadal, will one day be as widely read, enjoyed, and shared with others. Long Journey to Rneadal is a romantic action adventure in space.
Your site is great! And I hope to visit regularly!
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