Ursula K. Le Guin, author and activist, died yesterday. She was eighty-eight. Over the next week or two there will be many brilliant pieces written about Le Guin’s life, politics and writing. I want to write about she affected me, because I know that many other readers share my feeling that she was speaking to us and was a personal, vital part of our lives. I thought of her as a literary grandmother, even though we never met or spoke. That powerful sense of an emotional connection (even though of course it’s one-sided) is due to her incredible gift for imparting passion and empathy through the page.
When I was a child, I had several operations that caused me a great deal of pain and scarring and involved long periods of rehabilitation. While I was in the hospital, my mother read me the Earthsea books. In the trilogy (which was later expanded to reflect Le Guin’s growing feminism through the years), a wizard named Ged, is stricken unconscious after a magical battle. When he wakes up he is scarred and disabled. He went through his recovery as I went through mine. Ged and I held hands through terrible days and nights. Because Ged found purpose, joy, and acceptance of his scarred self, I believed that I would too (and I did).
I went on to read more of Le Guin’s work on my own, but I was ten so such challenging fare as The Left Hand of Darkness ( A | BN | K | AB ) and The Dispossessed ( A | BN | K | AB ) went completely over my head.
However, these early readings taught me that gender is a social construct, that all relationships based on love and genuine consent deserve respect, that the world of fantasy does not belong exclusively to white people (most of the characters in Earthsea have skin in shades of brown), that fighting against oppression comes with a terrible cost but is worthwhile, and that nature is important. Being young, I liked Eye of the Heron not because of its intense exploration of political philosophy but because it had animals in it. However, my ten-year-old self absorbed certain principles about peace and freedom as naturally as plants absorb sunlight. All of these lessons shaped who I am.
One of my favorite books in adolescence was Very Far Away From Anywhere Else. Alas, the book is populated by melodramatic, over-privileged, whiny teens. My adult self can’t stand the book, but when I actually was a melodramatic, over-privileged, whiny teen, it was a life line. The book promised me that it was fine to be creative, to be weird, to be different. It described the foggy state I often felt myself to be in and provided a way out.
As a college student, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” posed a quandary that continues to define how I think about the costs of privilege. As a romance reader, “April in Paris” made me smile and cry. As an adult reeling from the 2017 election, Le Guin’s essays and speeches gave me a sense of hope and motivation. When I have needed her, Le Guin has been there. She has been a strict and demanding, but always affectionate and caring, literary grandmother.
The fact that I feel so personally about Le Guin and her writing – as though she was speaking just to me, as though she were my grandmother – speaks to how effective she was in her writing and speaking at conveying ideas in an emotionally powerful, personal way. Le Guin never bullshitted in her writing. One felt, reading her words, that every word was deeply meant and deeply felt. Readers also knew that she wasn’t afraid to grow and to change, which may have been the most precious gift she left us.
Losing Le Guin now, when our nation is so divided and under such terrible threat, fills me with despair. However, Le Guin didn’t have much patience with despair. Compassion, yes; patience, no. So last night I cried, and today I will get up and do the thing that Le Guin taught me to do. Write. Sing. Read. Go for a walk. Take action. Rejoice. Solve the problem of Omelas.
…
I wrote more about my personal journey with Le Guin at Interfictions Online in an essay titled “Open Spine, Turn Page.”
And of course, here at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, I’ve written more about Le Guin. A little over a year ago, I wrote “Reading Le Guin,” a starter reading guide of sorts, and the comments there are full of recommendations. I also reviewed Words are My Matter, her 2017 collection of speeches and essays, which I very much recommend.
There is only one thing left to say: farewell, and thank you.
This is a lovely tribute and remembrance, Carrie. Thank you.
This was beautiful. Thank you.
This was beautiful, Carrie. Thanks for sharing your memories and journey.
She was remarkable. It’s a great loss.
I’ve had the first Earthsea book on my shelf for seven years now but never got around read it. I feel that I probably should soon.
Well said! I feel the same. Thank you for such a beautiful and fitting tribute to a literary giant. She left us a lot to remember her by but we’ll still be bereft at all that we’ll miss.
This was lovely. I knew of and respected Le Guin but I’ve never read her (sci fi/fantasy are typically my least favorite genre.) After reading this, there are a couple of her stories I’d like to try. Thank you for sharing how much she means to you.
I had no clue Le Guin passed away… This was a beautiful piece. I wasn’t a huge fan of her work, but writing did make me think about larger topics and bigger pictures in society. She was important. I hope her legacy lives on.
A beautiful tribute. I gave my son the Earthsea Trilogy when he was around 10/11 and like me, he loved it. Those books ignited in him a love of fantasy and speculative science fiction which has continued into his adult life. Le Guin’s economical, lucid prose, set a standard, that other authors he reads are judged by.
Ursula LeGuin was a powerful force for social justice and free speech. Even if you’re not a SFF fan, I urge you to listen to this speech:
Ursula K. Le Guin accepts the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the 65th National Book Awards on November 19, 2014.
Thank you for sharing this, Carrie. It was well said and a lovely tribute. I first read Earthsea at 13 and the trilogy (especially Tombs of Atuan)(and also the later books!) has remained so important to me. I have read many of her other books and never has one failed to give me something to think about as well as touching me deeply.
Thank you for this tribute, Carrie. Le Guin was a strong part of my formative years as well and had a great impact on my social consciousness. It is a tremendous blow to lose her strong, rational voice at a time when we need her most.
Literary grandmother; she was that for many of us. And despite feeling diminished, we should get on with living the lessons she taught.
Well said, Carrie. Thank you for this.
One short story about travelling through time going down a long chute and consequences left me forever changed. I will never forget her and her incredible impact on our world.
Thank you for sharing this with us.
Yes! I also felt like she was my literary grandmother, although I discovered her a little later in life – I believe I started reading her in college, which means I’ve had 30+ years of the pleasure of reading her words and living with the influence of her ideas and imagination. Not many authors have remained meaningful to me for 3 decades.
Different books came into my life at different moments – her early classics like Earthsea and Left Hand of Darknesss, her late masterpiece Four Ways to Forgiveness, her short stories, her books of essays and her version of the Tao Te Ching.
I’ve read her Earthsea books over and over again. The 2nd book, The Tombs of Atuan is the one that resonated the most and that I keep coming back to. It’s the story of a young woman who comes to realize that her childhood and upbringing was based on a lie and that she has to choose for herself what actions are right and wrong. I’m a survivor of CSA and oof, that’s me – although it took me decades to realize why that coming of age story in particular resonated with me.
I have 10 quotes by LeGuin written out in my quote book – far more quotes by her than any other single author. Here’s a particularly meaningful one for me:
Freedom is a heavy load., a great and strange burden for the soul to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one.
Ursula LeGuin, The Tombs of Atuan
Thank you Ursula LeGuin
Thank you for sharing Carrie. The Earthsea books were my gateway in to fantasy, and had a lasting impact. She will be missed
This is a lovely column, thank you Carrie. I haven’t read Earthsea in years, I think I will pick the series up again.
This is a very poignant tribute to her work. Thanks for sharing, Carrie. I now want to read all of her books.
The Left Hand of Darkness had a deeply positive impact on me coming to terms with being transgender. It made me cry, made me happy, and made me think that “yes, there are room for people like me in the world.”
I was privileged to live in the same city as Le Guin and thus to actually see her in person. (That had been one of my life goals!)
The two stories that have always stuck with me are “May’s Lion,” with its sensitive depiction of a woman, a mountain lion, and mortality, and “The Wife’s Story” which has a very clever twist on the usual werewolf tale.
@Varian – I was just wondering how a trans person might react to Left Hand of Darkness – thanks for sharing your story.
I’ve been trying to articulate to myself why I think of her work as queer friendly even though I’m having trouble thinking of specific Le Guin novels with overtly queer characters (All I’ve come up with is The Telling and LHoD). I think it’s because her books seem to leave room for so many different ways of being.
I know that the quote I posted above resonates with me on many levels including my experiences with coming out. Or maybe I just like her writings so much I want them to be queer friendly.
Thank you for this thoughful blog. I have never read this author. Can you reccomend one title to start with. I have romance and fantasy reading preferences. Thanks again.
What agreat loss!
The Earthsea trilogy is a book I read first as a teenager and return to every few years… I love it still and find new meanings & surprises with every read. I recommend it heartingly to all teenagers!!!
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@ Jessica – for fantasy, I recommend her Earthsea series – the first one is A Wizard of Earthsea. There’s no romance in the original trilogy but there is a some romance in the later books.
@cleo: Fisherman of the Inland Sea has bisexuality built into the marriage system, if that’s any help. I love your characterization of her work, “room for many different ways of being.”