The kindest analysis I've seen of her position is from Sarah Hoyt:
http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2014/11...rth-to-snakes/
Quote:
Since then, I’ve seen other people go that way. It is a combination, I think, of aging and losing touch with the world, and of being too respected for people to actually have a word with, quietly.
I read and enjoyed the Earth Sea Trilogy. (Fourth book? What fourth book? Let’s be charitable, okay?) and The Left Hand of Darkness was a beautiful if flawed work. I can’t say I’ve liked a lot more that Le Guin has done, but then most science fiction writers didn’t even write four books that I enjoyed.
So what is one to make of such statements as:
Ursula K. Le Guin gave a scorching speech at the National Book Awards on Wednesday, calling out Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and saying of capitalism “its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.”
Surely a woman praised for her learning knows the difference between a social construct like the divine right of kings and “capitalism” which is simply a name for the barter and trade humans do to survive and which, btw, is not unfettered ANYWHERE in the universe, being hemmed in by governments and regulations everywhere.
And why on Earth she’s calling out Bezos is beyond me. For allowing writers, at long last to make a buck? Who knows?
And what about this:
“We need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and production of art,” Le Guin said.
We do, of course. For instance “art” is a subjective term which applies or should apply only to works that enduringly touch the emotions of humanity across the times and changes in society. Shakespeare still touches us, for instance. That’s art.
OTOH, thinking that any government, any entity, any academic can define art is to labor under the same sort of illusion as people who believe tabloids announcing women giving birth to snakes.
Art is proven in enduring. And most art – Shakespeare, Austen – was pretty commercially successful, as well. Art is what you aim for, and hopefully it happens. But there’s no guarantees. Competent and selling is the best you can be sure of.
One could make a comment about her being out of touch and believing too much of what she’s told, but we’re not the side that derides our elders for being old. People as old and older than her have embraced the digital revolution without fear and understand that while capitalism is an awful system, it’s better than any attempts at controlling it.
Instead I choose to believe this is the equivalent of her having cabinets full of baby clothes. I’m sure she still has contributions to make in areas where she doesn’t have blind spots.
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Times change, the world moves on, often beyond people's comfort zones.
It can get dangerous for those that refuse to accept those changes.
(In this case, the danger is to her reputation.)