pameladean (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pameladean) wrote2018-01-24 12:41 pm
pameladean) wrote2018-01-24 12:41 pm
Ursula Le Guin
I'm really going to miss Ursula Le Guin. In the past ten years or so I had come to cherish wholeheartedly her trenchant, take-no-prisoners comments on the state of everything, her calls to hope and action, and her sharp, nourishing sense of humor.
I read the Earthsea books as a teenager, and fell into them wholeheartedly and read them over and over and over, and still revisit both the original three and the additional ones. But for the bulk of Le Guin's career, her other work was something I admired deeply for its craft and feeling, but couldn't enter into for whatever reason. I always felt that it had much to tell me, but I was, I don't know, in the wrong class somehow and lacked the pre-requisite knowledge I needed to appreciate it. The exception was The Language of the Night. That, too, I read over and over and over, and was overjoyed when, many years later, Dancing at the Edge of the World joined it. Best of all, though, was Steering the Craft. When Le Guin talked about writing and reading, I understood her as deeply as if she were writing my favorite kind of fiction. She reminded me of the basics, gave me wild ideas about advanced areas of writing, buoyed me up when I lost hope, scolded me when I was whiny, described frankly her own struggles with the terrifying, entrancing, boring slog that is writing.
I figure someday I'll be able to viscerally appreciate more of her fiction. When I have more knowledge and have let go of more preconceptions. But her thoughts about writing will have been more than enough, if that never happens.
Pamela
I read the Earthsea books as a teenager, and fell into them wholeheartedly and read them over and over and over, and still revisit both the original three and the additional ones. But for the bulk of Le Guin's career, her other work was something I admired deeply for its craft and feeling, but couldn't enter into for whatever reason. I always felt that it had much to tell me, but I was, I don't know, in the wrong class somehow and lacked the pre-requisite knowledge I needed to appreciate it. The exception was The Language of the Night. That, too, I read over and over and over, and was overjoyed when, many years later, Dancing at the Edge of the World joined it. Best of all, though, was Steering the Craft. When Le Guin talked about writing and reading, I understood her as deeply as if she were writing my favorite kind of fiction. She reminded me of the basics, gave me wild ideas about advanced areas of writing, buoyed me up when I lost hope, scolded me when I was whiny, described frankly her own struggles with the terrifying, entrancing, boring slog that is writing.
I figure someday I'll be able to viscerally appreciate more of her fiction. When I have more knowledge and have let go of more preconceptions. But her thoughts about writing will have been more than enough, if that never happens.
Pamela
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I think a careful bow is probably the best response to your actual comment. 8-)
P.
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There's a viewpoint that you're a master when people come to your students and say "teach us!". In that respect, Le Guin was well into whatever grand-mastery is involved in being able to witness people saying so to the students of your student's students, and kept right on speaking as though it was important that everyone understand.
I'm going to call that a rare accomplishment, and I think you made an excellent go of expressing your experience of it.
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P.
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Amazing and terrifying. And yes, her book reviews were a marvel; sometimes very brief but so very unfoldable.
I turned down a chance to be introduced to her and I guess I'm sorry, but it's not as if she didn't have vast quantities of new writers stammering at her; not sure I could have said anything new.
P.
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That's a wonderful skill to be remembered by.
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Rare, too, I think. I've gotten to the point where I'm just flat allergic to writing advice and writing exercises, but never to hers.
P.
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P.
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P.
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I've only read a couple of her essays on writing and thoroughly enjoyed them, though, so now I think I must look up the books you mentioned.
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It looks like I missed a couple of her later books on writing myself.
Also, if her blog is still up, for a while she was taking questions about writing and answering one a week or so. Those posts were always fascinating too.
P.