This is a compilation of many essays by Le Guin on writing and writing science fiction in particular. She deals with the pronouns used in sci-fi to describe characters, with special updated notes covering her newer thoughts on “he” as a gender neutral pronoun (she doesn’t believe it is in the 1980’s like she did in the 1970’s).
But Le Guin covers far more than writing science fiction. She touches on the emerging hustle culture she saw in the 1970’s where any “sensible” working person in America wouldn’t be caught reading fiction because it can’t be justified as self-improvement or for work.
She also has insightful things to say about how reading is active and accepting trash is akin to accepting the low performance of government, a slippery slope that will only yield the worst writing and the worst politicians.
Reading is not a passive reaction, but an action, involving the mind, the emotions, and the will. To accept trashy book because they are “bestsellers” is the same thing as accepting adulterated food, ill-made machines, corrupt government, and military and corporative tyranny, and praising them, and calling them the American Way of Life or the [[American Dream]]. It is a betrayal of reality. Every betrayal, every lie accepted, leads to the next betrayal and the next lie. Pg 240
There is certainly enough here for almost anyone to walk away wondering about the state of our world, and how we treat the art and artist inside our economic system.
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