Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (1929–2018) was an American novelist, poet, and author of science fiction, fantasy, and children’s tales. She published over 100 short stories, 20 novels, 11 children’s books, six volumes of poetry, and four volumes of translation.
Le Guin is renowned for her cheerful, Taoist vision of the future. Her writings revealed that even the most oppressive conditions could be reinstated to fullness through balance and assimilation of opposites. Her novel The Left Hand of Darkness (1969,) now taught commonly in high schools and colleges, is set on a planet whose humanlike natives are neither male nor female—these hermaphrodites experience gender only briefly in the course of procreation.
Le Guin created fantastic worlds in her novels and brought strong-willed, feminist protagonists in the limelight. Her assessment of male power and its social consequences (conflict, aggression, and authority) made her very influential in feminist circles. Her works of science fiction and fantasy include the Hainish trilogy (Rocannon’s World, 1966; Planet of Exile, 1966; and City of Illusions, 1967) and the best-selling Earthsea series (beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea, 1968.)
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Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.
—Ursula K. Le Guin
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
—Ursula K. Le Guin
Topics: Uncertainty, Doubt
Love doesn’t just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.
—Ursula K. Le Guin
Topics: Love and Life, Love
It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
—Ursula K. Le Guin
Writing makes no noise, except groans, and it can be done everywhere, and it is done alone.
—Ursula K. Le Guin
Topics: Writing
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