# RIP Ursula K. Le Guin **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death, books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [January 23, 2018, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330 "2018-01-23T22:37:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/21 "2018-01-24T05:23:42Z")
Wow…what a loss. I first read her original _Earthsea_ trilogy when I was 12 years old. It was one of my favorite series of books. Interestingly, I see that she wrote _A Wizard of Earthsea_ the year I was born. I’ve been meaning to read her other books for literally decades now… RIP, Ms. Le Guin… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/22 "2018-01-24T05:56:05Z")
It is good that her brilliance was recognized inside and outside the field while she was still alive. I read “The Left Hand of Darlness” when it came out as an Ace Science Fiction Special, and it got the critical acclaim it deserved. A great writer, and a great writer up to the end. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/23 "2018-01-24T06:03:43Z")
One of the three fan letters that I have ever written was to her, and she responded in an amazing and noble way. If I had to pick one author on earth, it would be her. Not only a great writer but a great person. Can’t think of anyone even remotely like her. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/24 "2018-01-24T08:00:55Z")
\*The Dispossessed \* is one of the reasons I’m an anarchist, as she dealt with its shortcomings as well as its positives. ---
**Author:** ![nachtmusick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nachtmusick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nachtmusick)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/25 "2018-01-24T10:26:32Z")
Shit. I am trying to clean up all the Nebula Awards I never got around to, so I’m right in the middle of reading Dispossessed for the first time. Shit. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/26 "2018-01-24T10:38:44Z")
“You will die. You will not live forever. Nor will any man nor any thing. Nothing is immortal. But only to us is it given to know that we must die. And that is a great gift: the gift of selfhood. For we have only what we know we must lose, what we are willing to lose… That selfhood which is our torment, and our treasure, and our humanity, does not endure. It changes it is gone, a wave on the sea. Would you have the sea grow still and the tides cease, to save one wave, to save yourself?”   — Ursula le Guin, _The Farthest Shore_ ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/27 "2018-01-24T11:17:24Z")
Damn. My mother read the Earthsea trilogy when she was young, and she gave them to me to read when I was a kid. When I was a teenager I discovered her sci-fi stuff, and I’ve been meaning to re-read _The Left Hand of Darkness_ and _The Dispossessed_ for some time now. I love how she remained politically active late in her life, up to and including [writing a letter to the editor about the Bundy takeover of Malheur](http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/01/headline_on_malheur_is_inaccur.html) in 2016. May none speak your True Name again, Ursula, and in walking away from Omelas may you find peace. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/28 "2018-01-24T12:27:31Z")
I was startled to see this on the Net this morning. _Left Hand of Darkness_ was one of my early SF reads, and I read much of her stuff afterwards (although I never did get into her _Earyhsea_ books). I was amazed to learn that the “K” in her name was for “Kroeber”, and that her anthropologist father was indeed the same man who was “Ishi’s” sponsor. You can’t get much closer to your work than that. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/29 "2018-01-24T14:54:41Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I was startled to see this on the Net this morning. _Left Hand of Darkness_ was one of my early SF reads, and I read much of her stuff afterwards (although I never did get into her _Earyhsea_ books). I was amazed to learn that the “K” in her name was for “Kroeber”, and that her anthropologist father was indeed the same man who was “Ishi’s” sponsor. You can’t get much closer to your work than that. Also, the author of **Ishi, Last of His Tribe** is Ursula’s mom. I remember the book well. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/30 "2018-01-24T15:39:43Z")
A great talent, and a great loss. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/31 "2018-01-24T15:56:11Z")
Today I am sad. > [@awldune](#): > > Also, the author of **Ishi, Last of His Tribe** is Ursula’s mom. I remember the book well. Holy smoke! I have never read the book but, being friends with an expert flintknapper, am familiar with it. I had no idea. > [@UKL](#): > > They married in the old way, by themselves over the spring where the stream began, and they came back and they told the household. > … > The two of them were gentle to one another, not that they lived together thirty years without some quarreling. Well, two rocks sitting side by side would get sick of each other in thirty years, and who knows what they say now and again when no one is listening. But if people trust each other they can grumble, and a good bit of grumbling takes the fuel from wrath. Their quarrels went up and burned out like bits of paper, leaving nothing but a feather of ash, a laugh in bed in the dark. > [_~~Gwilan’s Harp_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5erVgM-YurA&t=443s) I had only six years, not thirty, but when **DesertWife** died, this story read by LeGuin herself, sustained me. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/32 "2018-01-24T15:56:58Z")
In order of influence on myself, my favorite fantasy authors are J.R.R. Tolkien (Middle Earth), Ursula K. LeGuin (Earthsea), C.S. Lewis (Narnia), and Gene Wolfe (New Sun). Like the others, the world she describes therein deeply resonates with me. By reading her, she has greatly impacted my life. I don’t know what her goals for writing were, but I like to think that was one of them. I’ve read much of her other work, too, although it’s been years. I should go back to reread them all. I should revisit her Earthsea sequels. I eagerly read Tehanu when it came out, but it had no magic for me. Likely because both the author and reader had changed over the years. But given she felt strongly enough to publish, I’ll try again. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/33 "2018-01-24T16:50:50Z")
> [@The Dispossessed](#): > > “Shevek, you are denying brotherhood!” > > “No, I am not. I am saying where it begins. It begins in shared pain.” > > “And where does it end?” > > “I don’t know. I don’t know yet.” What a brilliant author she was, and what pain there is in losing her. Yours in brotherhood, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/34 "2018-01-24T18:40:47Z")
I can’t take credit for remembering this quote – read it somewhere else this morning – but it’s so perfect as an epitaph: > [@Ursula K. Le Guin](#): > > For a word to be spoken, there must be silence. Before, and after. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/35 "2018-01-24T19:58:30Z")
> [@](#): > > Go on and do your work. Do it well. It is all you can do. She did her work well. I’m always struck, when I read _Earthsea_, about how slim the books are, and yet how they seem so much bigger within: she made every word do its work, and she had the most beautifully spare, lean prose style. Plus I like [Richard Kadrey’s](https://twitter.com/Richard_Kadrey) assessment that Ursula le Guin was “the cure for Heinlein”. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/36 "2018-01-24T20:13:42Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > She did her work well. I’m always struck, when I read _Earthsea_, about how slim the books are, and yet how they seem so much bigger within: she made every word do its work, and she had the most beautifully spare, lean prose style. Plus I like [Richard Kadrey’s](https://twitter.com/Richard_Kadrey) assessment that Ursula le Guin was “the cure for Heinlein”. Agreed on all counts. I think I understand why folks like Heinlein, but he drives me up the goddamned wall, and for him but not Le Guin to be included in examples of the masters of SF is to my mind insane. She is in every respect a better writer and a wiser human. I told my class today about her death, and about how the Earthsea books were to my mind superior to Harry Potter (jaws dropped). Someone asked me whether they had more pages than HP, and I said no, but realized they think that means they’re an easier read. Her books made me first think of good literature like heavy bread: dense and chewy and a little bit at a time would fill you up far more than a mass of cotton candy. There’s room for both in the world and in my reading diet, but I treasure what Le Guin brings me. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/37 "2018-01-24T20:35:56Z")
In my mind, and from my experience, the most notable thing about Le Guin’s writing is this: the older (and presumably wiser) I grew, the more I appreciated it. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/38 "2018-01-25T02:19:44Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Agreed on all counts. I think I understand why folks like Heinlein, but he drives me up the goddamned wall, and for him but not Le Guin to be included in examples of the masters of SF is to my mind insane. She is in every respect a better writer and a wiser human. > [@](#): > > "Master,” said Ged, “I cannot take your name from you, not being strong enough, and I cannot trick your name from you, not being wise enough. So I am content to stay here, and learn or serve, whatever you will: unless by chance you will answer a question I have.” > > “Ask it.” > > “What is your name?” > > The doorkeeper smiled, and said his name; and Ged, repeating it, entered for the last time into that House.” I love this passage so much. There’s nothing in that that a nine year old couldn’t read, and yet it says everything it needs to so perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/39 "2018-01-25T05:46:45Z")
A little more of the magic has gone out of the world. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2018, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330/40 "2018-01-25T06:04:19Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I’ve read much of her other work, too, although it’s been years. I should go back to reread them all. Lucky are they that find Le Guin in their youth, that they may return to her in the fullness of life, and again when they are old. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-ursula-k-le-guin/807330.md?page=3)