books 2007: The Eye of the Heron, by Ursula K. LeGuin

[supercheesegirl]

I really love Ursula LeGuin's work. I found this book at the library and was just so excited because I'd never seen a copy of it before--her older stuff (besides Earthsea) isn't as easy to find.

I love her science fiction because she doesn't just write about spaceships; she explores societies and relationships and how people behave. This book is only technically science fiction because it takes place in the future on another planet that Earth people have colonized; otherwise, there's no overt futuristic technology or space travel at all. This particular planet was colonized by two groups: a prison colony from Brazil, and a group of pacifists who were sent to the planet fifty years later because there was nowhere for them to go on Earth. Our story is set fifty years after that; the prison group runs the city and treats the pacifists like peasants, which, being pacifists, they take. Until some of them get the idea to form a new town out in the wilderness where they can actually be free. It's a well-written, hopeful story. Not my favorite LeGuin novel ever, but a very good one.

I think maybe now that I've read a lot more of her space fiction, I should go back and read The Left Hand of Darkness again. I found that book to be very powerful when I read it in Greensboro, but I feel like I might get more out of it if I read it again now, having a better idea of how LeGuin's universe works. Hmm.

Comments

[sleepyworm.livejournal.com]

I just finished The Left Hand Of Darkness a few days ago, and while I get what she was going for and I thought it was well thought out and everything, I very often felt REALLY confused while reading it. For one thing, there's a tremendous amount of alien words that are never explained to my satisfaction, and I end up just going, "oh...it's the brafgithurn again." Plus having alternating narrators really took me a while to get used to; I always had to get a page or two into a chapter before I had any idea who was narrating.

But the other thing was that it felt really bleak and depressing. That's hard for me to deal with in a book.

I know you got a lot out of this book; what was it that you found to be so powerful?

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

It's odd, what I remember from that book. I read it a long time ago; I remember laying in my bed in my bedroom in Greensboro and finishing it before bed one night. I was really interesting in the gender(lessness) thing, and the concept of dropping this gendered person into the middle of that. I remember the long journey in the cold. And I think what I remember most is the ending, how this one gendered character is changed irrevocably by having lived on this planet, so much so that when a ship of his own species arrives, their genderedness seems harsh to him. I remember that being written really beautifully.

As to the confusion, well, I remember being really confused too. The political intrigues and such that happened in the first half of the book were largely just over my head. Which is partly why I want to read it again.

I think you might like The Dispossessed better. Anne C. Smith actually taught that in her Utopias/Dystopias class, there's a lot of neat philosophy in it. I loved that one as well, on a par with The Left Hand of Darkness.

If you're interested in how LeGuin's space universe works, I recommend Rocannon's World too - gets into how the travel works, things like that - it was one of her earlier ones so she does some more establishing of the rules.

[digital-e.livejournal.com]

I read The Dispossessed in college--I couldn't remember which one I read until I saw your comment about. I remember it being pretty cool, but that's the only LeGuin I've read.

[robotpistol.livejournal.com]

I have a special place in my heart for LeGuin's early short novel Very Far Away from Anywhere Else. It was out of print for a long time, but it's back in print now. I read it during my senior year of high school, so I was the exact age of the two characters. It was an amazing book.

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

I haven't read that one. I've made it a life goal to read every one of her books, so I will look into it! (I've read maybe 15 or so of them, so I think I still have a long way to go.)

[bulleteyes.livejournal.com]

I remember when she was one of the very few women who wrote science fiction. Back in the day . . . and I picked up The Lathe of Heaven and was astonished.

Glad to hear she has a new generation's interest!

[supercheesegirl.livejournal.com]

The Lathe of Heaven is another one I haven't read. I'm working my way through her work, but it's a long term project. I've probably read 15 or so of her books by now, though, so I'm making progress! I love her work.