/lit/ - Literature

Is LeGuin actually worth reading?

>>22360300
Ursula K LeGuin

>>22323982
This was my least favorite LeGuin. I don't like her fantasy at all. She's better at sci-fi.

>>22266072
>LeGuin also deliberately subverted the typical fantasy world settings in medieval European filled with white people
Without being typically liberal about it either. It's an archipelago, and who typically lives in an archipelago? The rest wrote itself.

>>22264251
Books 1 to 3 are classic works of fantasy and proto-YA, and well worth reading. It's a children's series, and the conflict is not the typical good versus evil but actually more about the self and dabbles in the philosophical and mythical. It's an extremely influential fantasy book series, has outstanding examples of "the map" and "the magic system" before they were commonplace, and once you read it you will probably see her influence in everything from Eragon and Name of the Wind to Harry Potter. LeGuin also deliberately subverted the typical fantasy world settings in medieval European filled with white people (and long before it was cliche and safe to do so).

The rest of the books beyond 3 are supposed to be completely different because LeGuin's writing was more heavily influenced by feminism and an almost deconstructive reflection on her previous work. It would be fine to stop after reading books 1, 2, or 3 of the series if that's not to your taste.

Ursula K. LeGuin and Octavia Butler are genius-tier. Highly recommend.

>>22242837
Read Art of Fiction by John Gardner
Steering the Craft by Ursula K Leguin
Write with intention every day
Read your models
Workshop aggresively.
After this it's all talent, sorry to say.

Dhalgren's prose is dogshit. You can tell how hard Delany is trying to sound poetic with his forced modifiers, clunky style, and purple prose but just compare him to other genre writers like Leguin, Wolfe, Gibson, Peake, or even Pynchon and you can see how bad his writing is.

>>22238804
Not in the slightest. Take BM and Dhalgren and read it out loud side by side, you'll notice how full and measured McCarthy sounds compared to Delany.

>>22223752
Name of The Rose - Umberto Eco
>>22223591
After Dark - Haruki Murakami
>>22223273
American Psycho - Brent Easton Ellis
>>22220162
Wizard of Earthsea (Series) - Ursula K LeGuin
>>22228432
The Magus - John Fowles

I will never read Ursula K LeGuin and there is literally nothing you can do about it.
>but it's le good because some out-of-touch lib said so
No thanks.

>>22166811
Tenar in Ursula LeGuin's Tombs of Atuan.

>>22166855
>Women can't write autistic sexless stories about effectively genderless intellectuals experiencing strange phenomena
Maybe women are somewhat less likely to be antisocial recluses who can't stand other people.

Even than - um, Ancillary Justice.

>>22120821
I can forgive LeGuin because she was at least doing this transgression years back when it was actually bold, transgressive, and different. On the other hand you can read the entire book without ever knowing about it so it's not like she made a real statement but at least she was not doing it in the attention seeking agitprop way so common today. The lack of a good, authentic Earthsea adaptation and the existence of shit like Rings of Power says a lot.

I decided to say fuck it and bought the library of america set of philip k dick
Am I missing anything besides short stories? What’s a good edition for short stories?
Where do I start when it finally
arrives?
How is the leguin set? I recognise the dispossessed and left hand of darkness otherwise nothing else

>>21987643
This is tricky. It’s where 4chan has the most potential and is therefore at its most frustrating. /wg/, respectfully, is dominated by low level amateurs which makes it very hard to improve as a regular. They aren’t any good, which isn’t a fault really, but they also aren’t well read or studied. So you don’t improve in a competitive and talented environment nor do the untalented critics know how to give you any worthwhile guidance.

That’s where the “hugbox” critique really applies, most people in that general should be told to stop sharing their writing for a year while they practice and study in silence, otherwise you chase off anyone further along in their journey for the same reason r/writing does.

So how do you consistently access better writers? On the internet? Well, I’ve seen about two worthwhile discords pop up, or you can go back to school(not feasible unless you’re in a stage of your life where living off of a GTA salary for 2-3 years to not have obvious job prospects sounds fun to you), or you can do the craft book grind. That’s what I’d reccomend to everyone who isn’t accustomed to studying the art. You say you read a lot, but do you read specifically? Do you read books in the realm of the books you write? Do you study them, take notes, specifically try to imitate your superiors? If not,( and this is why I’d say the talent discourse is worthless, it puts you in a mindset that isn’t conducive to proper study in the arts as any other artist would, or in the mindset to study any other kind of craft), then you should read craft books. Skip the obvious pulpy shit written by people who’ve created nothing good(you’d figure if their advice were worth something it’d show in their work).

I like Gardner, most people do, Francine Prose, LeGuin’s Steering the Craft. Those are the highly recommended craft books. I’d look at interviews with famous editors, Hemingway was guided by powerhouse editors(I forget the names sorry) who know the craft as well as an author and are probably better at articulating what good lit is.

>>21974893
Bearded guy in the top right of the left wing is Rothfuss, I'm pretty sure. Guy above HP Lovecraft is Heinlein. Fairly sure the woman is LeGuin.

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Ursula K. LeGuin

>>21951575
Ursula LeGuin sucks balls and is only pushed by the same old TRUFAN convention cliques.

Actually good women authors are:
Leigh Brackett who is a superb writer.
Kaoru Kurimoto whose Guin Saga is good.
Margaret St. Clair for the Sign of the Labrys.
C. L. Moore's Jirel of Joiry isn't bad.
Andre (Alice) Norton for her Witch World.

>>21940258
>>21940258
Isaac Asimov
Harlan Ellison
Robert Heinlein
Anne McCaffrey
Robert Silverberg
Ursula K. LeGuin
Vonda McIntyre
Octavia Butler

So what do you guys think of Ursula K. LeGuin?

Ursula K. LeGuin - I thought "The Lathe Of Heaven" was weird enough to be written by Philip K. Dick. I can think of no higher compliment.
Margaret Atwood - Known for "The Handmaid's Tale", but the MaddAddam trilogy was a worthy work of cyberpunk.
Octavia Butler - successfully mixes African tribal culture with sci-fi. Nothing else like it.

>>21884075
Gods. How can the right even compete. Bakker, China, Martin, Erikson, Abercrombie, Rothfuss and LeGuin.

The Nine Billion Names of God - Arthur C Clarke
Survivor Type - Stephen King
The Jaunt - Stephen King
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison
Those Who Walk Away From Omelas - Ursula K LeGuin

>>21836802
Like shitting on the street or beheading those who insult Allah. You cant think of any cultural traits possessed by brown people that distinguish them from generic white fantasy race humans? Leguin is white. She speaks English. Her characters are culturally white and speak English. The only thing that makes them brown is she says their skintone is brown. That isn't the only thing that makes brown people brown.

>>21832779
>Ursula LeGuin was some "Shout your Abortion" type of feminist
Are there non-insane female fantasy authors?
I re-read Charmed Life recently and enjoyed it quite a bit, please tell me Diana Wynne Jones was at the very least somewhat conservative.