MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - New Leaf January 2019 Discussion • The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

gmw · 01-22-2019, 02:23 AM

I think zeitgeist is an appropriate description. In 1969 I think the time was ripe - possibly overdue - for a discussion of this nature, just as the time was ripe for there to be more women writing science fiction. I also think that only a woman author could have written a book that would inspire this particular discussion. Then along comes Ursula K. Le Guin: right gender, right skill-set, right upbringing and interests. She was lucky to be that right person at the right time, but it's arguable that we were lucky that someone of her character was the one that took up the challenge. Someone more extreme would likely have turned people away, someone less bold would have been pushed around.

Some sci-fi novels of around that time I find truly laborious to get through. (Arthur C. Clarke's Imperial Earth (1975) anyone?) I think that sci-fi was still growing out of the short-story home of its most recent past and wasn't always getting it right ... or maybe people were more patient then

. Certainly the expectations were different.

I also agree with Bookpossum's sentiments. Even in my younger days of sci-fi enthusiasm, I tended to gravitate to Asimov rather than Clarke (for example), because Asimov (appeared to have) placed a greater importance on (what I think of as) the human elements of the story. And I enjoyed Le Guin for similar reasons though I have not found the stories themselves to be as memorable. Which is to say that I don't find that human element to be a distinguishing feature of Le Guin's work, others had it too, but it was one of the reasons why I enjoyed her stories. The fact that Le Guin's work spanned both sci-fi and fantasy (amongst other things), as my own interests did, probably helped.

01-22-2019, 02:23 AM	#80
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,809 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	I think zeitgeist is an appropriate description. In 1969 I think the time was ripe - possibly overdue - for a discussion of this nature, just as the time was ripe for there to be more women writing science fiction. I also think that only a woman author could have written a book that would inspire this particular discussion. Then along comes Ursula K. Le Guin: right gender, right skill-set, right upbringing and interests. She was lucky to be that right person at the right time, but it's arguable that we were lucky that someone of her character was the one that took up the challenge. Someone more extreme would likely have turned people away, someone less bold would have been pushed around. Some sci-fi novels of around that time I find truly laborious to get through. (Arthur C. Clarke's Imperial Earth (1975) anyone?) I think that sci-fi was still growing out of the short-story home of its most recent past and wasn't always getting it right ... or maybe people were more patient then . Certainly the expectations were different. I also agree with Bookpossum's sentiments. Even in my younger days of sci-fi enthusiasm, I tended to gravitate to Asimov rather than Clarke (for example), because Asimov (appeared to have) placed a greater importance on (what I think of as) the human elements of the story. And I enjoyed Le Guin for similar reasons though I have not found the stories themselves to be as memorable. Which is to say that I don't find that human element to be a distinguishing feature of Le Guin's work, others had it too, but it was one of the reasons why I enjoyed her stories. The fact that Le Guin's work spanned both sci-fi and fantasy (amongst other things), as my own interests did, probably helped.