'A safe, sterile lab to try ideas'

 

 

“Iget a lot of moral guidance from reading novels, so I guess I expect my novelsto offer some moral guidance, but they're not blueprints for action, ever.”–Ursula K. Le Guin

 

Born in California on this date in1929, Le Guin has been called "A major voice in  American letters," but she said if asked to label herself, she would just say "American Novelist."  Among her most notable works are the Earthsea fantasy series, The Dispossessed, and The Left Hand of Darkness.

Le Guin authored 20 novels, more than 100 short stories and many children's books in a wide variety of  genres over a 60-year career.  She's been cited as a key influence onwriters like Salman Rushdie, David Mitchell, and Neil Gaiman.  Winner of Hugo, Nebula, Locus and World FantasyAwards – each more than once – she was  honored with the National BookFoundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2014.  She died in 2018.

 

“The task of science fiction is notto predict the future.  Rather, itcontemplates possible futures,” Le Guin said.  “Writers may find the future appealingprecisely because it can't be known, a black box where ‘anything at all can besaid to happen without fear of contradiction from a native. The future is asafe, sterile laboratory for trying out ideas in, a means of thinking about reality,a method.’”

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