Musings - on the editor's mind

Ursula Le Guin died last week, on Jan. 22. She was a rarity: a great writer and marvelous human being whose large heart and brilliant vision – along with her huge literary talent – transformed the genre of science fiction.

I read “The Dispossessed” for a class in 1978. It was written in 1974. To this day it is the best novel I have ever read. In a lyrical, beautifully written, philosophical saga it offers an Einstein-like genius walking away from his anarchist utopian society because it has stagnated and lost its way.

This humanist dystopian tale, in a small subplot, foretells the rise of sensationalist, celebrity driven media – in 1974. It provides a devastating critique of capitalism in 2018. I love this book.

Her “The Word for World is Forest” criticizes the Vietnam war from an environmental perspective, in 1972. “The Left Hand of Darkness” imagines an androgynous race, its beings defining their sex by the mating disposition of their partners. This in 1969.

And in her incredible The Earthsea cycle, her wizard hero Jed learns that only by learning the true name of something, whether a grain of sand, the ocean or an enemy, can it be changed. Nothing happens unless we know the essential nature of each specific thing.

Le Guin’s heart was as big as the worlds she imagined. Her beliefs, philosophies and values were her tools for navigating the complex societies she created. Her characters were collaborative, cooperating to work their way out of oppression. They needed to learn about themselves and have inner growth before they could conquer their enemies and gain an external victory. She understood the primary challenge each of us has to solve is within ourselves.

Almost the last line of "The Dispossessed" is “True journey is return.” And so it is, a lifelong journey, to selfhood, to knowledge of the self, a journey to our true selves, the hardest, longest quest of all.

Ursula Le Guin was ahead of her time, as she is ours. A person for all times, she was a woman out of time, beyond time, as seers, prophets and poets are. Thank you, Ursula, for writing in, and of, our time.