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Le Guin is simply another one in the very limited pool of "successful" traditionally published Big 5 authors who lament the demise of the system under which they lived their glory days. She joins the ranks of Scott Turow, Stephen King and some of the more prominent Authors United signatories, amongst others, as well as the less prominent Authors United Stockholm Syndrome sufferers. She seems to view the world of publishing through a very distorted prism, because her vision of it seems to have little to do with the reality. But she is entitled to her opinion. The fact that she is so wrong-headed, subjective and biased in this instance proves that she is human. Just because she possesses (or perhaps possessed) an outstanding talent does not make her a perfect person or even a better one, nor does it turn her into some sort of ideal role model who we all would do well to emulate and whose opinions should override our own. These are manifestations of the cult of personality in modern mass media, where actors bleat about subjects they know little of, models pine for world peace and 19 year old footballers are expected to stay home on Saturday night drinking tea and ignoring the many young groupies throwing themselves at them.
Le Guin wrote some great books. Those books should be read and enjoyed without regard to her personal opinions. You don't have to be a wonderful person or have unbiased well reasoned and well informed opinions to produce great art.
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