The important themes will be there, embedded in some lovely language and complex thinking, yet stripped of the trappings of suspenseful plot arcs or villainous characters.Ī few years ago, it dawned on me that Le Guin was over 80 years old, and that if I didn’t at least dip that toe in quite soon, I might not have the vaguely transcendental honor of reading and appreciating her work while she is still alive. Perhaps it seems silly to start in on her essays or even her poems until one has at least dipped a toe into the fiction, but it’s actually quite sensible to start off getting to know her mind through the reality of the memoirs before setting foot in the alternative worlds she’s created.

Even if one has just cause to be suspicious of the possible enjoyments lurking in Le Guin’s novels, she has also released several non-fiction books. Authors of these novels have imaginative suggestions for ways to improve our current predicaments, as well as warnings about our modern ways with which high-minded readers might often agree. People who care about Blade Runner and Arrival, or Asimov or Dick or Le Guin, tend to be highly philosophical. But surely science fiction is for thinking people. A lot of readers who consider themselves to be thinking people don’t take the time to read any of these books, mainly because they “don’t read novels”. Everybody is local somewhere.There are so very many books written by Ursula K. Hey Portland: Le Guin is local in the sense that Ken Kesey is local. Critic Harold Bloom classifies it as her masterpiece. I have reserved Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness at the Phoenix public library. I loved this book of essays they are combative, amusing and stimulating. LeGuin’s answer? Where is the great American novel by anybody? Who cares? She adds: Tell you true, I’ve never heard a woman writer say the phrase “the great American novel” without a sort of snort. “Where is the great American novel by a woman?” her interlocutor asks. (TGAN standing for The Great American Novel, a designation Le Guin says is “coy” and “coercive.”) He is important.Īnd please read her essay written in November 2013, at which point she is 82 years old with more than 60 years of publishing behind her. No Time to Spare is subdivided into four parts, each of which is paused by considerations of Le Guin’s cat Pard.

Perhaps you could use a sample of her skill as an essayist. My copy of No Time to Spare came with a list of 23 selected books of fiction, 11 books of poetry and two translation, all composed by Le Guin. Ursula Le Guin is what the French would call an eminence grise: “a person who exercises power or influence in a certain sphere without holding an official position.” Particularly now, when the cultural uproar the world is undergoing requires us to rethinking what is Speculative Fiction and what is Reality. Yet this book of essays initiated me into taking Le Guin seriously.

No Time To Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin