{"id":27414,"date":"2014-12-01T06:30:54","date_gmt":"2014-11-30T17:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=27414"},"modified":"2014-11-30T21:12:19","modified_gmt":"2014-11-30T08:12:19","slug":"elegant-and-enduring-a-salute-to-the-great-ursula-le-guin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2014\/12\/01\/elegant-and-enduring-a-salute-to-the-great-ursula-le-guin\/","title":{"rendered":"Elegant And Enduring: A Salute To The Great Ursula Le Guin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Earthsea1\"<\/a>Recently, the (US) National Book Association<\/strong> awarded Ursula Le Guin<\/strong> its Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters<\/strong>, arguably one of the most distinguished awards in literature.<\/p>\n

The citation included the following:<\/p>\n

“For more than forty years, Le Guin has defied conventions of narrative, language, character, and genre, as well as transcended the boundaries between fantasy and realism to forge new paths for literary fiction…Among the nation’s most revered writers of science fiction and fantasy, Le Guin’s fully imagined worlds\u00a0 challenge readers to consider profound philosophical and existential questions about gender, race, the environment, and society. Her boldly experimental and critically acclaimed novels, short stories, and children’s books, written in elegant prose are popular with readers throughout the world.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Left<\/a>All entirely accurate, of course, although I would say it much more simply: loved<\/em>—and still love— A Wizard Of Earthsea<\/em><\/strong> and its two immediate sequels, The Tombs Of Atuan<\/em><\/strong> and The Farthest Shore<\/em><\/strong> as a kid. As an adult, I was blown away by The Left Hand Of Darkness<\/em><\/strong>—for all the reasons included in the citation: elegant writing, outstanding worldbuilding, and the challenge to consider alternate views of “gender, race, the environment, and society.”<\/em> Not to mention the real<\/em> science of her SFF novels, including the invention of the ansible, which epitomises the concept of faster-than-light communication in a universe of slower-than-light travel. Again, real science, not the “fantasy science” of films like Interstellar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In her eighties now, Le Guin still has succinct insights, both thoughtful and thought provoking, to offer, as in her Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters<\/strong> acceptance speech:<\/p>\n

“Hard times are coming, when we’ll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We’ll need writers who can remember freedom \u2013 poets, visionaries \u2013 realists of a larger reality.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Right now, we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximise corporate profit and advertising revenue is not the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship …<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Books aren’t just commodities; the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable \u2013 but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Word<\/a>To read an indepth interview, click on the following:<\/p>\n

“Wizardry Is Artistry”<\/a> in The Guardian<\/p>\n

To listen to Le Guin’s acceptance speech, click on:<\/p>\n

Books Aren’t Just Commodities<\/a><\/p>\n

Yea, I say: yea to that! But yea most of all to Ms Le Guin, a fine role model of artistic integrity, as well as what one may aspire to as a writer in today’s world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, the (US) National Book Association awarded Ursula Le Guin its Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, arguably one of the most distinguished awards in literature. The citation included the following: “For more than forty years, Le Guin has defied conventions of narrative, language, character, and genre, as well as transcended the boundaries between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-other-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27414"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27435,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27414\/revisions\/27435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}