The Language of the Night

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin. The Language of the Night. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, [1979]. First edition, first printing. Octavo. 270 pages.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Essays, Literary Criticism, Books About Books, Reference, Criticism

270 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1979

About the author

Ursula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.

She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.

Reviews

[Nataliya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have said before that I love Ursula K. LeGuin’s nonfiction as much, and sometimes even more, than her fiction works. People who have known this remarkable woman in real life must have been incredibly lucky since I think I would have given up a (non-vital, admittedly) organ to have a long conversation with her.

The Language of the Night is a reprint of a collection of essays (well, essays, speeches, book introductions) originally published in 1979 and then reissued in 1989, with the third reprint now with a new introduction by Ken Liu. It’s a younger LeGuin, with all essays dating from the 1970s, but all with the trademark LeGuin’s wit and erudition and strong emphasis on ethics and humanity in her distinctively deliberate serious narrative voice. (And she’s not afraid to comment on some of her changed opinions between 1979 and 1989 in a few footnotes.)

The themes here are science fiction and its transition from a niche genre to more recognized one (but still somehow snobbily viewed by some as inferior to “literature”), women writers and feminism, Tolkien, gender, ethics and writing integrity. And it’s quite fascinating how the things current in the 1970s remain current today.

4 stars.

“And then comes the final test, the infallible touchstone of the seventh-rate: Ichor. You know ichor. It oozes out of several tentacles, and beslimes tessellated pavements, and bespatters bejeweled courtiers, and bores the bejesus out of everybody.”

——————

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Magrat Ajostiernos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una lectura totalmente inspiradora sobre la literatura de fantasía y ciencia ficción, sobre el arte, la manera de escribir y sobre diferentes autores que impactaron a Le Guin.
No voy a negar que cada vez que mencionaba a Tolkien (y son muchas) o a Virginia Woolf yo chillaba.
Creo que es un libro indispensable para los fans de la autora y para quien quiera ver una perspectiva muy particular sobre la literatura de género en plenos años 70... hay cosas que se han quedado desfasadas y algunos pensamientos quizás evolucionaran con los años para la autora, pero resulta un testimonio fascinante.
Y bueno, con Ursula, siempre se aprende.

[Lena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read some of Le Guin most famous fiction works but I liked this nonfiction way better.
She wrote fantasy and sci-fi when it wasn't considered serous literature or even literature at all. And most of her essays from this book is at least 50 years old. But! Despite the rapid growth of genres popularity, hundreds new authors, new fandoms and new sub-genres, ideas represented in those essays are still quite relevant.
With detailed professional precision Le Guin talks and lectures on such topics as publishing, gender, authors and readers, popularity and so on. She also exposes her own work giving it critical overlook, so readers may learn something new about their favourite works.
Interesting and relevant work about genres in general and Le Guin novels in particular.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of essays, talks and introductions first published in 1979, and revised in 1989.

"From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" is an essay on style in fantasy. She focuses on three writers: JRR Tolkien, ER Eddison & Kenneth Morris. I don’t know much about the latter two; I had never heard of Morris before, and Eddison is an author I’ve attempted to read before, but I did not get very far in The Worm Ouroboros.

She also has this wonderful description of Lord Dunsany’s style:
"The King James Bible is indubitably one of the profoundest influences on Dunsany’s prose; another, I suspect, is Irish daily speech. Those two influences alone, not to mention his own gifts of a delicate ear for speech rhythms and a brilliantly exact imagination, remove him from the reach of any would-be peer or imitator who is not an Irish peer brought up from the cradle on the grand sonorities of Genesis and Ecclesiastes. Dunsany mined a narrow vein, but it was all pure ore, and all his own. I have never seen any imitation of Dunsany that consisted of anything beyond a lot of elaborate made-up names, some vague descriptions of gorgeous cities and unmentionable dooms, and a great many sentences beginning with ‘And.’ "

I’m a little skeptical about this part, though:

"The lords of Elfland are the true lords, the only true lords, the kind that do not exist on this earth: their lordship is the outward sign or symbol of real inward greatness. And greatness of soul shows when a man speaks. At least, it does in books. In life we expect lapses. In naturalistic fiction, too, we expect lapses, and laugh at an 'overheroic' hero. But in fantasy, which, instead of imitating the perceived confusion and complexity of existence, tries to hint at an order and clarity underlying existence–in fantasy, we need not compromise."

This essay was written in 1973, and I wonder if she would have qualified this assertion had The Silmarillion been published by then (it was published in 1977). The Silmarillion is told in a more remote, mythic register than LotR, but if anything it has a good deal *less* order and clarity -- certainly the "lords of Elfland" have more than a few lapses...

In "Do It Yourself Cosmology" she discusses the relationship between sf and fantasy:

"The original and instinctive movement of fantasy is, of course, inward. Fantasy is so introverted by nature that often some objective hook is necessary to bring it out in the open and turn it into literature. Classically, satire provided this hook, as in Ariosto or Swift. Or the reforming impulse shaped the dreamworld into an identification with Utopia. Or identification with nature enabled the Romantic fantasist to speak, at least briefly, out of the silence of the moors. Nowadays it is science that often gives fantasy a hand up from the interior depths, and we have science fiction, a modern, intellectualized, extroverted form of fantasy. Its limitations and strengths are those of extroversion: the power and intractability of the object.

The strength of fantasy is the strength of the Self; but its limitation or danger is that of extreme introversion: left to itself, the vision may go clear out of sight, remaining entirely private to the fantasist’s consciousness, or even remaining unconscious, exactly like a dream. The purer the fantasy, the more subjective the creation, the likelier this is to happen. It is a miracle, and pretty much a modern one, that we have any great non-satirical fantasies in print."

"American SF & the Other" is a short essay about elitism and the portrayal of aliens in sf. This one is available online, you can read it here:
https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues...

"Science Fiction & Mrs Brown" is an essay on character in science fiction. Le Guin uses Virginia Woolf’s essay "Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown," essay on the role of characterization in the novel, as a starting point to discuss character in fantasy and science fiction. I am not sure exactly what to say about this one; I'll have to come back to it some other time.

"A quite good simple test to detect the presence or absence of Mrs. Brown in a work of fiction is this: A month or so after reading the book, can you remember her name? It's silly, but it works pretty well."

"Is Gender Necessary, Redux" is an annotated essay about The Left Hand of Darkness. The essay was written in 1967, but the annotations are from a revision in 1988. It’s really interesting, but will make more sense in context, so if you haven’t read the novel you might not understand this one.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of essays and Le Guin’s introductions to her own works, where she talks about sci-fi and fantasy, what it means and what it means to her, being a woman in the field (like when Playboy published a story of hers under the name “U K Le Guin” to mask her gender), her wonderful introduction to a collection of James Tiptree Jr stories, her thoughts on her previous writing and how her opinions have shifted or not.

My only quibble is that she lightly spoils Dhalgren (which I happened to be reading at the same time), but I could never ever be mad at Ursula K Le Guin.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Language of the Night by Ursula K. Le Guin
Publication date 5/14/24

NetGalley ebook in exchange for honest review

I found this reprint of the original collection of essays first published in 1979 to be a wonderful introduction to the writings of Ursula Le Guin. These essays covered a primarily her thoughts on writing both her own and that of others in this genre and how she sees and understands this field of literature. The second section contain introductions by the author to several of her novels would be most helpful if a reader was looking for a place to start reading one of her works. The analysis of the writing process in general I found quite inspirational and might make one inclined to pick up a pen and write as Le Guin encourages and inspires so readily in these essays.

This is the reprint with some new additions of a book first published in 1979. I love the writing of Le Guin and read many of her books, including the original of this during the 1980’s. Le Guin has long had a reputation as one of the important female writers of science fiction and early fantasy. This book contains twenty-four of her essays about her writing of science fiction, both the content, ideas and introductions to various novels and addresses she gave at conferences of writers and fans.

“We like to think we live in daylight but half the world is always dark, and fantasy, like poetry, speaks to the language of the night”. Ursula K. Le Guin

This reprint begins with several introductions. First an introduction to this volume by Ken Liu, then an introduction by Le Guin to the reprint of the original from 1989 and then an introduction to original book done by Susan Wood in 1979. This is a lot of introductions and analysis of Le Guin’s writing by others and I found myself being a bit anxious to get on to Le Guin’s own words.
The first essays by Le Guin cover her early days of writing from 1973-1977. These I felt were some of the best about the early days of science fiction writing, the pulp magazines, the evolution and acceptance of the genre and some writers that were the early pioneers of taking these stories up a notch and giving them a literary legitimacy that had been absent. The second section of the book was a compilation of introductions to many of Le Guin’s novels including Rocannon’s World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions, The Word for World is Forest, and the Left Hand of Darkness. The fourth and fifth sections return to essays Le Guin wrote about her writing and the evolution of her own writing.
I felt this is a book for primarily for people who have a strong interest in science fiction and fantasy and maybe interested in exploring the idea of writing in the genre. There is a strong historical coverage of this genre by one of its greats and contains much interesting analysis of the genre. Le Guin talks of her interest in the social side of science fiction, she stays away from heavy machinery and looks more at how humans in a fantasy or future world might exist or adjust. Her worlds regardless of the planet or type of environment look at how humans might exist, adapt, and live. She places humans and occasional robots in imaginative worlds with rules all their own. A prime example of this would be her essay on the Left Hand of Darkness entitled “Is Gender Necessary” in which she discusses the genderless world, a type of thought experiment that she explored in the created world of this novel.
While much of this writing is over 50 years old I found it still most relevant and with the explosion in this genre in recent times says much about a field of writing that is certainly coming into its own.

[Emma Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought-provoking, rich, and passionate. Le Guin was a gift and so is her writing. I am skeptical of Jung, but Le Guin illuminates her writing process in fascinating ways through her description of Jungian archetypes.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC.

[Librukie · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

"Creo que madurar no es dejar atrás la infancia, sino crecer conservándola: que los adultos no son niños muertos, sino niños que han sobrevivido"

En este recopilatorio de ensayos de Úrsula conoceremos un poquito más a una autora que ya se deja vislumbrar bastante en su obra. Porque, como ella misma respondía cuando alguien le pedía que hablase de ella... ¡Ya está todo ahí, en mis libros!. Y es que yo al menos sí he sentido una cierta conexión con ella a través de su ficción. Esa sensación de que leyendo sus libros la conoces un poquito a ella como persona.

A través de las páginas de "El idioma de la noche" Úrsula nos habla del arte como alimento para el alma, de su proceso creativo y de su escritura, alejada de "normas" y de lo que significa para ella la fantasía y la ciencia ficción (los géneros en los que se sintió más cómoda durante su vida).
Ha sido muy especial para mi leer esa defensa férrea que hace Úrsula a estos dos géneros, considerados todavía a veces a día de hoy como literatura menor. Una defensa que sin embargo no le impide ser crítica, ya que no se corta en decir aquello que es mejorable. Ya que si queremos que estos géneros compartan estantería con los autores clásicos más aclamados, debemos juzgarlos y exigirles el nivel que merecen. Cuando una persona tan culta e inteligente como Le Guin ha elegido dedicar su obra a estas vertientes, está claro que hay muchas obras en ellas que merecen la pena.
Úrsula también habla de como se ha sentido como mujer escritora de un género dominado por hombres, de la censura, del lado más oscuro del ser humano y de la madurez, entre otras cosas.

Es una lectura que todo amante de la autora debe tener en cuenta, y una que yo personalmente disfruté muchísimo, ya que admiro a Úrsula como escritora y como persona.

[Mangrii · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,75 / 5

Han tenido que pasar exactamente cuarenta y dos desde la publicación original de El idioma de la noche, el primer libro de ensayos sobre fantasía y ciencia ficción de Le Guin, llegue en castellano. Aún visto en la distancia, dado que los escritos datan en torno a los años 70, Le Guin invita a pensar y reflexionar hasta donde ha avanzado el estado de la literatura fantástica y de ciencia ficción. Con su peculiar voz cercana, mordaz y repleta de humor, el lector de El idioma de la noche puede descubrir un poco más a una mujer como Le Guin. A lo que representa una escritora de tal magnitud, que cambio y subvirtió el mundo de la literatura fantástica. La antropología cultural, el taoísmo, el anarquismo, el feminismo, la ecología o los escritos de Carl Jung, temas que siempre rondaron su ficción especulativa, se encuentran aquí vertidos y deglutidos en forma de ensayos, reflexiones, discursos, conferencias e introducciones.

Domina en los escritos un tono contundente remarcado por pequeñas dosis de humor. No llega a ser aleccionador, pero si incisivo. Texto tras texto vamos descubriendo la figura de Le Guin, sus influencias y autores más queridos (Dick, Triptree, Tolkien, Woolf o Zamiatin), así como su permanente combate feminista, ecologista, antimilitarista y anticapitalista. Escritos entre 1972 y 1978, a sus 43 y 49 años, entre los que se encuentran algunos de sus textos más reconocidos: El niño y la sombra, donde reflexiona a través de un cuento de Anderson sobre las novelas, el reconocido ¿Por qué los americanos temen a los dragones?, el simpático A propósito de la escritura donde invita a escribir mucho para si uno quiere ser escritor, o el tema de la censura, tocado en Stalin en el alma. También mi favorito: La ciencia ficción y la señora Bown, donde Le Guin parte de un ensayo de Virginia Woolf titulado Mr. Bennet and Mrs. Brown para indagar en los elementos que debe contener toda narración.

El mayor valor de El idioma de la noche, a parte de su sencillez y claridad, es como muestra a una de las grandes figuras de la ciencia ficción contemplando y valorando los cambios que surgían en una época convulsa para el género. Proponiendo cosas nuevas, exponiendo reflexiones sobre el proceso de escribir y hasta criticando su propia obra. Sin embargo, una vez leídos todos los textos, uno puede tener la sensación de haber rondado sobre los mismos temas una y otra vez: indagando sobre que es la ciencia ficción y la fantasía, que objetivos debe perseguir y como el autor debe hacerlo lo mejor posible. También, en cómo Le Guin es una exploradora, que aspira a algo más profundo y sustancioso en cada una de sus historias, aunque no siempre lo consiga.

El idioma de la noche es un libro de no ficción que logra mantenerse en un plano bastante atemporal, situando la mayor parte de sus cuestiones como validas hoy en día. Quizá algunas ideas están desactualizadas, como el psicoanálisis Jungiano o la situación de la ciencia ficción actual. O que dada la heterogeneidad de los textos, no todos sean de tanta calidad ni profundidad. Sin embargo, su acérrima defensa de la literatura fantástica y su visión tan personal de la situación hacen del libro una obra indispensable tanto para aquel lector seguidor de la autora, que verá enriquecida su comprensión sobre cada una de sus obras, como para cualquier lector que tenga interés por el arte de escribir historias.

Reseña en el blog: https://boywithletters.blogspot.com/2...

[Kara Babcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ursula K. Le Guin is the GOAT. I think the only one who rivals her in my esteem of science fiction and fantasy authors is Octavia Butler. I say this not to claim to be an expert on either author or even that I like their work beyond any other SFF author … but those two gals just … have something. So naturally, when I heard that The Language of the Night had been revised and reissued with a new introduction, etc., I jumped on it.

This is a collection of essays by Le Guin from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Some first appeared in print form; others are transcripts, edited by Le Guin or another, of talks she has given at various events. A couple even have annotations or updates presented as footnotes or even side-by-side! Professor Susan Wood has organized the essays thematically and provided a brief introduction to each theme: “Le Guin Introduces Le Guin” (cute), “On Fantasy and Science Fiction,” “The Book Is What Is Real,” “Telling the Truth,” and “Pushing at the Limits.” It is a book packed with introductions. This new edition has an introduction by Ken Liu, followed by a preface written by Le Guin in 1989 for the ten-year-anniversary edition, followed by the original introduction by Wood. Then you have Wood’s mini intros before each theme. Plus, several of the essays are themselves introductions Le Guin wrote to some of her novels! As a result, The Language of the Night takes on a fun, nesting-doll-esque atmosphere.

I love the title to this collection, and I think it’s very appropriate. One thing that shines above all else? Le Guin’s love for, passion about, the SFF genres. Like, this should come as no surprise to anyone remotely familiar with her—but it is one thing to read her books versus hearing her talk about the art and craft of writing SFF. She travels through the genre with such purpose and poise, acknowledging the tension between commercial and artistic endeavours. SFF has historically been a genre of pulp, and writing it a craft rather than an art. Le Guin has no time for this, however; indeed, it is notable how deliberately she avoids engaging with literary fiction as an appreciable genre. To her, SFF is art, should be seen as art, and indeed, SFF authors have a responsibility to take their genre seriously as art. There’s a trace of restrained anger in some of her essays, the tone of a woman very much aware she is one of the few in her field, so used to having to talk to (and be talked at in return) men, yet schooling all of us all the same with her elegant and erudite arguments.

This is why Le Guin is the GOAT. She doesn’t let anyone off the hook. Not the readers, not the writers, not the publishers. Certainly not herself. Her constant allusions to Soviet Russia and its science-fiction authors feel almost prescient reading this now in the censorship-heightened atmosphere of 2024/2025. Living through the Cold War, Le Guin understands the stakes for creative freedom and self-expression and the unique way SFF is positioned to deal with these issues. She is happy to critique Tolkien and his contemporaries for their sexism, racism, jingoism, etc., while at the same time hold them up as truly fascinating storytellers.

In short, The Language of the Night demonstrates the dexterity I think is typical of Le Guin’s writing. She knows language, and she knows story, and I think it’s the mastery of these two skills in harmony that makes someone stand out as a writer. You might have one or the other and be good, but you need both to be great. And you need a third thing—a kind of ruthless intuition, a sensitivity to the politics of personhood, that Le Guin and Butler both embody in their works in a way that makes them GOATs.

I took my time reading this collection, starting it at the end of August 2024 and picking it up and putting it down all throughout the last half year. I have lingered on Le Guin’s language and deliberated on her declarations. I’m not sure I agree with everything she has to say, but I loved hearing her say it. I loved her discussion of how she might have approached gender in The Left Hand of Darkness differently had she written it ten years later—I think when we put certain books from previous eras on a pedestal, we freeze their author in amber and have trouble acknowledging that the author’s views might have changed or their language might have evolved in the years since the book became a classic, and this novel is a fantastic example. To see this cross-section of Le Guin’s thoughts through three decades, hear her acknowledge where her views have changed or which ones have stayed the same, is truly fascinating.

Though billed as “essays on writing, science fiction, and fantasy,” one might also call it “essays on writing science fiction and fantasy.” But to be clear, this is not a book that teaches you writing. Nor is it a definitive examination of SFF as a genre or even a particularly opinionated tour of how to write good SFF. (Though, as always, I will forever stan Le Guin for criticizing the more masculine or macho strains of SFF without forever pigeonholing the genre and cynically distancing herself from it like, say, Margaret Atwood, boo.) So if you are coming here hoping for Le Guin’s secrets, I don’t think you’ll find any. Lots of discussion of Frodo and Mrs. Dalloway and Tolkien and Woolf and Solzhenitsyn though!

The Language of the Night is the perfect kind of book for a millennial like me. I was born in the year Le Guin wrote her introduction to the ten-year edition. I grew up on flashy nineties science fiction on TV and reading everything from pulpy classics to the more cerebral parts of the genre. I have followed SFF through its modern ups and downs, the trends towards literary fiction and the swing of the pendulum back to doorstopper fantasy now reified into big-budget TV shows by Amazon and the like. What a time to be alive. And a time that never would have come to pass, were it not for Le Guin and her contemporaries. This window is a valuable portal into an era of which I was not a part, and one that I think modern readers would do well to learn about and understand.

Originally posted on Kara.Reviews.

[Spencer Orey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish she was still around to ask for some clarifications! It’s brilliant and provocative and wow do I not know anything about Jung or how to respond to Jungian things. I got very fixed on the essay about myths in sff and had to read it a few times. Hm.

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

UPDATE: Last night I was reluctant to follow Frodo and Sam on their last leg through Mordor, so I dug this out for a reread instead. Was struck by something lovely and amazing and true and important. Let me quote. "In this labyrinth (of the strange morality of fairy tales) where it seems one must trust to blind instinct, there is, Von Franz points out, one -- only one -- consistent rule or 'ethic': 'Anyone who earns the gratitude of animals, or whom they help for any reason, invariably wins out. This is the only unfailing rule that I have been able to find.'" Von Franz is Marie Louise Von Franz, in The Problem of Evil in Fairy Tales. What does this mean for us today?

****
I love UKL, so I'm interested in every word she ever wrote. This collection of essays, introductions, talks, etc. is great and I'm really glad I read it. I think UKL fans would agree, but those who aren't already big fans of hers might not care that much. In general, I prefer reading books to reading books-about-books, and this book is no exception to that rule. I'd far rather read a new novel by her than essays and opinions, however astute and well-written. But, alas, I've read them all so I have to fill in the blank time before her next novel comes out some way or other, and this was as interesting and pleasing a way as any. I loved to read her ideas about writing, how writers should write and readers should demand only their very best work, not simply what's easy or what sells. I hope as a reader and nascent writer I always do that. Aim for perfection, even though we always fall short, is my philosophy as well.

Based on these essays I'm definitely going to read some Phillip K. Dick, a writer I've never read up to now, though I've heard many good things about him. Her opinion of what is possibly the greatest SF novel of all time, "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin, sounds really bad to me, though. It must be great but perhaps it's great in a way I generally dislike. I generally don't like dystopias and that one sounds a whole lot like 1984, a book I think is dreadful, though many would call it great. I'll have to read some GR review of it to see what more people think.

But the others on her various lists I'll definitely have to check out. I do think SF is the most important literature of the 20th c. and will probably be of the 21st c. as well. It just lets one say more. I feel bad for my mom and others who don't read it. They're missing out.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Her discussions are better when highly targeted, and targeted on things other than her own work. She admits to writing intuitively, with the words coming from some level other than the analytic, so the essays talk in terms of symbolism, archetypes, and Jung. If this is not your thing, then the first fifty to seventy five pages are going to be real work and will not make you appreciate her fiction any more.

The criticisms--particularly "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" and "American SF and The Other--are more toothy and toothsome. "Poughkeepsie" in particular rips into a recent fantasy tendency to make the stories more 'realistic' by storylines or characters that are essentially nonheroic: realpolitik, accountancy, and other behaviors that you would not see in myth and legend. It's a delight when she has her dander up and she drops the waffling-talk about symbolism and really rips into the subject with exceedingly specific, eloquent language. She says that she's been writing since the age of nine, and you can feel the force of every single year of craftsmanship.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't so much a review as an anecdote. When I was in high school, Ursula LeGuin came to Toronto to speak. I went for our school paper, of which I was the arts editor. I was a very serious journalist at the time; I had all my questions lined up, and everything but the fedora with the little press card in it. When it came my turn to ask her a question, I stood up. I worded it carefully, referencing the gist of the essay in question.
"Are we still afraid of dragons, or has speculative fiction become more legitimate in the eyes of the literary world since you wrote 'Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons'?"
She looked me in the eye and said, "First of all, I use the term science fiction to include both science fiction and fantasy..."
I interrupted her. "I don't."
She looked affronted, but went on to answer my question, and later signed my copy of "The Lathe of Heaven", thankfully without referencing what an obnoxious kid I was.

[marc | bookmarcreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I believe that maturity is not an outgrowing, but a growing up: that an adult is not a dead child, but a child who survived. I believe that all the best faculties of a mature human being exist in the child, and that if these faculties are encouraged in youth they will act well and wisely in the adult, but if they are repressed and denied in the child they will stunt and cripple the adult personality. And finally, I believe that one of the most deeply human, and humane, of these faculties is the power of imagination: so it is our pleasant duty, as librarians, or teachers, or parents, or writers, or simply as grown-ups, to encourage that faculty of imagination in our children, to encourage it to grow freely, to flourish like the green bay tree, by giving it the best, absolutely the best and purest, nourishment that it can absorb. And never, under any circumstances, to squelch it, or sneer at it, or imply that it’s childish, or unmanly, or untrue.”

“For fantasy is true, of course. It isn’t factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it, too, and that is precisely why many are afraid of fantasy. They know it’s truth challenges, even threatens, all that is false, all that is phony, unnecessary, and trivial in the life they have let themselves be forced into living. They are afraid of dragons because they are afraid of freedom.”

So many brilliant inspirational passages in this collection of essays from a literary giant whose body of work I have yet the pleasure of reading, but I’m aching to finally dive deep into as soon as I finish my current reads.

A treasure trove of fantastic ideas in here! Worth many re-reads to fully absorb them all and carry them over to my own writing and reading moving forward. I’m so happy to have stumbled upon this wonderful little book! I highly recommend it to enrich your own reading and writing journey!

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't believe my luck. I stumbled across this gem while I was picking through the writing essays section in my library and did a little happy-dance when I saw the name on the cover. It was like finding a Spanish Dubloon mixed in with my pocket change.

This book is a fantastic analysis of science fiction and fantasy as a writing path and its place in society at large. I highly recommend it for fans of sci-fi particularly and those who are looking to write in the genre (or even people looking to write at all). She offers some great writing advice and talks about her perspectives not only as a sci-fi writer, but as a "feminist writer" as well.

I love this one so much that I'm holding onto the book I checked out from the library (which is LOADED with removable post-it tabs) until the copy I ordered from Alibris gets here so I can mark it up with all the notes I made on the post-its in my library copy. There are a ton of notable passages and ideas in here that I don't want to forget. This book will become a lifetime reference for me.

The only thing that dropped this book a star was the fact that there are numerous points which are repeated throughout the book due to the fact that a number of these essays are actually adapted speeches she made at various events. I feel like the book needed a little bit more editing to remove those redundancies, because they were unnecessary in the work.

However, other than that little detail, I'd definitely say this is a must-read...a must-devour and must-own, in fact. Read it. Know it. Love it. It's golden wisdom from easily one of the most amazing science fiction writers in the past half-century and deserves to be treasured.

[Nea Poulain · Rating 5 out of 5]

qué genia era Ursula.

luego les escribo algo mejor pensado sobre este libro, pero lo amo, lo adoro y lo quiero mucho.

[Emily M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually found this book of essays on fantasy and science fiction when I was a teenager, not long after I discovered Le Guin’s books and fell in love. It encouraged me to check out a number of other authors, such as Lord Dunsany, Phillip K Dick, and, most rewardingly, James Tiptree Jr. (with the intriguing detail that he was “really” Alice Sheldon…whatever that means as regards authors and pen names, as Le Guin points out!).

I felt like revisiting it in particular for the essays “Why are Americans afraid of dragons?” and “From Elfland to Poughkeepsie”, curious if they would hold up in an age when it seems like everyone knows something about wizards schools and dragon-riding queens - whether they actually read or watched the stories that surely just popped into your head - and when romantasy is one of the most talked-about new publishing categories. Interestingly, YES. (“The Stalin in the Soul” is perhaps even more relevant, but more on that in a minute)

"And the more eccentric and childish side of science fiction fandom, the defensive, fanatic in-groups, both feed upon and nourish this kind of triviality, which is harmless in itself but degrades taste, by keeping publishers' standards, and readers' and critics' expectations, very low....It's a pity...when science fiction uses its limitless range of symbol and metaphor...it can show us who we are."

One of the themes Le Guin returns to in these essays is the potential of SFF to speak to the unconscious mind (like poetry or dreams), to explore the shadow-self, to imagine worlds far beyond our own experience…but also the ways that creative potential can be squandered. And how often readers, publishers, and even governments WANT it to be squandered. Because Elfland or Alpha Centuri are, or should be, foreign to our experience, and only to be reached by a strange and perilous journey that leaves you forever changed – a frightening prospect! In 1974 Le Guin observed that adult American men often regarded any kind of fiction-reading as juvenile and unproductive (maybe being able to talk themselves into enjoying a spy thriller or a cowboy novel because those are “masculine”, and spies and cowboys at least exist), while American women were allowed to be “frivolous” but didn’t get training for the imagination and so glommed onto the trashier fiction aimed their way.

"The general assumption is that, if there are dragons...in a book...then it's a fantasy. This is a mistake. A writer may deploy acres of sagebrush...without achieving a real Western, if he doesn't know the West...To create...a 'secondary universe' is to make a new world...The only voice that speaks there is the creator's voice. And every word counts."

Today, I think, Americans are less afraid of the aesthetic of wizards and dragons – all the romantasy girlies are actively looking for it, in fact – but there are a lot of worlds built with scotch tape and twigs out there, and a lot of supposed princes and princesses of Elfland who talk like they’re from Poughkeepsie! The optimist in me thinks this is not a terrible thing. After all, Le Guin recalls how the writers of her generation generally had their first encounters with Sci Fi as pulp novels with busty fainting maidens being abducted by monsters on the cover…but they saw the genre’s potential! Once someone has the taste for dragons, they’re likely to keep going and maybe stumble on the good stuff. And there IS a lot of good fantasy and sci fi still being written these days, if you know how to spot it. The principles Le Guin spells out here are one way to do that!

Incidentally, I can't help but observe that many of these artists, like Le Guin and her colleagues in the New Wave SFF (James Tiptree Jr., Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler) come from marginalized demographics*: NK Jemisin (Goodreads link not working), Rivers Solomon, Margaret Killjoy, Julia Armfield, Helen Oyeyemi, Cassandra Khaw,etc.
*(yes, white ladies in the '60s and '70s counted, especially in SFF-writing circles, even if that's less true now)
This isn't exclusive, by any means - there are (so far as I know) straight white boys like Adrian Tchaikovsky, China Miéville, and Jeff VanderMeer who are also doing marvelous genre-stretching, mind-stretching work. But all of the authors above seem to be paying heed to another part of Le Guin's advice:

"If you deny any affinity with another person or kind of person, if you declare it to be wholly different from yourself...you may hate it, or deify it; but in either case you have denied its spiritual equality...You have made it into a thing, to which the only possible relationship is a power relationship. And thus you have fatally impoverished your own reality. You have, in fact, alienated yourself."

I mentioned the idea that governments could fear SFF’s potential. Well, the above quote is one reason why: If SFF turns toward understanding the other, rather than hating or deifying, then that can spark all kinds of dangerous thoughts! As can the idea that the world, and society, could be far different than it currently is. Regarding the charge of fantasy being “escapist”: “The best answer was given by Tolkien…Yes, he said, fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape? The money-lenders, the knownothings, the authoritarians have us all in prison; if we value the freedom of the mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can.” But, in “The Stalin in the soul”, she speaks of how the subtle censorship of the capitalist marketplace can suppress creativity as effectively as an actual dictator. After all, a Yevgeny Zamyatin or Alexander Solzenitsyn knows exactly who is censoring him, and why, and may resist, but writing “what will sell” instead of following your own vision feels like a free choice.

There are lighter essays, of course, where Le Guin reflects both on some of her own works and those of others. In “The staring eye”, she recounts her first encounter with Lord of the Rings “They were displayed on the new acquisitions rack…three handsome books…each centered with a staring black and red Eye…I checked out Volume I…Next morning I was there at nine, and checked out the others. I read the 3 volumes in 3 days. Three weeks later I was still, at times, inhabiting Middle Earth: walking, like the Elves, in dreams waking, seeing both worlds at once, the perishing and the imperishable” Her clear love for that work (mirroring my own) doesn’t stop her from noting some things that others might not care for, from the “rocking horse gait” as it alternates between tension and release, to how Sam “keeps saying ‘sir’ to Frodo until one begins to have mad visions of founding a Hobbit Socialist Party.” - both of which are 100% accurate observations!

There are some wording choices here and there that might raise some eyebrows. For instance, I can't quite work out if calling Kafka's writing "autistic" is an insult, a compliment, or a neutral observation. And of course we've solved the problem of neutral English pronouns that vexed her in writing and reflecting on The Left Hand of Darkness(I feel like Le Guin would have been the sort to slap her face and say "of course!" if you pointed out we were already using "they" for persons of unknown gender, even if she didn't want to invent any neopronouns). But that tendency to reflect and respond to criticism in a healthy, creative way is one reason I respect Le Guin and don't hold such slips against her. For example, Coming of Age in Karhide seems to have been written (in the 1990s) to address exactly the issues she was puzzling over in the 1976 essay printed here.

And for those aspiring SFF writers out there, she has some simple advice:
"You want to be a writer. So what do you do? You write. Honestly, why do people ask that question? Does anybody come up to a musician and say, tell me, tell me - How should I become a tuba player?...you get a tuba and some tuba music. And you ask the neighbors to move away or put cotton in their ears. And probably you get a tuba teacher...And then you sit down and you play the tuba, every day..."
Deceptively simple advice, because you are, or should be, exploring your own mind as you do it. And that is a hard – but worthwhile! - thing to do.
“It is a mysterious business, creating worlds out of words. I hope I can say without irreverence that anyone who has done it knows why Jehovah took Sunday off."

[daemyra, the realm's delight · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Language of the Night is a collection of essays written by Ursula K. Le Guin originally compiled and published in 1979. It was reprinted in 1989 with Guin's annotations to her essays, and this 2024 reprint contains a new introduction by Ken Liu, a well-known American science fiction author who translated The Three-Body Problem and also wrote his own award-winning works whose names I forget but whose covers I recall seeing for a while marketed as recommended reads.

I picked this up because I wanted to learn more about Earthsea, and I also thought it'd be good fun to read essays about the genre of fantasy. The fantasy genre is similar to another genre that I love, romance, and I did find parallels to her discussions on the mass perception, the pulp drivel, the literary merit, and the meaning we seek in such a genre. Earthsea is also one of my all-time favourite fantasy stories, and I loved her essays on how she comes up with such tales.

I did not find the science fiction essays that interesting, as I've only really read Philip K. Dick in terms of science fiction, so cannot say too much about the genre conventions. Some of the essays were only 1-2 pages long, and these were public speeches she gave at conferences or at award ceremonies. Some of her other essays were simply introductions to her own works.

I was hoping to pair some quotes with my thoughts but here are some of my notes that paraphrase Guin's thoughts:

On Writing
1. Acknowledging the loneliness of being a writer, and how she admires musicians for having to practice their craft with others in order to get better. A lovely point of how writing is a solitary craft, and how much she valued this writing bootcamp she went to which seems like an exhausting but stimulating writing seminar intensive.
2.On creating worlds like Earthsea, Guin is almost mystical. She is not the practical sort to come up with writing conventions, although she does in later essays define a fantasy voice and aesthetic, but instead holds firm her position that it comes to her. It is the truth. In another essay, she talks of writing of finding Mrs. Brown and the truth of this character. Not a psychology case study but to show an honest portrayal of Mrs. Brown, and that is the gift literature gives us.

On Fantasy
I deeply enjoyed this section and feel like romance readers, particularly those with voracious appetites and a curiosity into the history and thinking behind the genre, will find nice parallels. Guin touches on archetypes as well as on how the genre has been dismissed as escapist by boring middle-aged men. She does not mind that it is an escape but does mind if it is an escape into drivel or escape into a better world, I suppose.

On Science Fiction
Her constant snarky asides against the sexist and template confection that was the Golden Age of science fiction. Thank you so much for that.
Also did not know teaching or not teaching science fiction in school was a big deal.

On feminism
Some of her later annotations on pronouns makes me wonder what she would say about pronouns now. I feel she would have been open to listen and to change her mind.

Random, but did I pick up my usage of "grotty" and "glom" from her? I love to say these words.

[Bibliotecario De Arbelon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una maravilla leer estos ensayos de Ursula K. Le Guin.

Aunque escritos en los años 70, estos ensayos te invitan a pensar y a reflexionar sobre el estado actual de la literatura fantástica y de ciencia ficción, pues gran parte de lo que comenta Le Guin todavía es aplicable hoy en día.

Recomendable para toda persona que quiera reflexionar sobre la literatura de género o, simplemente, leer a Le Guin.

[Tom Meade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few great critics are great writers. It's true that their ideas may topple dynasties with their brilliance, but that's only provided you can make head or tail of them after wading through three hundred pages of dry, tangled prose. And then there is the inevitable padding - ideas like brightly-coloured bits of cloth hanging from the thorns of brambles, as though the author had torn their way through the shrubs at great speed in terror that their readers might catch them and, holding them at knife point, demand from them a simple explanation. I think a large part of this might come from the fact that many critics, when they sit themselves down to expound, may not actually have much idea of what it is they're going to say. It's a similar set of circumstances to that which the novelist finds himself in, confronted by dozens of blank pages and with nothing to fill them but a vague notion, or a half-glimpsed image of a man in a silly hat playing cards with a dragon. It all goes back to the idea of the essay, I suppose - an idea which sits with deceptive frankness in the very name of the thing.

Ursula K. Le Guin, however, actually seems to know what she wants to say - and would that all critics were as clear as she in saying it. As she herself puts it, she is a novelist and not a theorist, and as such she has some very definite opinions of what it is that sf/f (can't forget the second "f"!) should and should not be. In this collection of essays, she makes a wonderfully eloquent argument not just that spec fic isn't automatically trash, and not just that it should be treated with the same respect as mainstream literature, but that it is, can and should aspire to achieve the highest levels of art. It's an exciting argument to hear made, even if it's probably not quite as radical as it once might have seemed. But then, if it isn't all that radical then why are so few authors aspiring to it? Then again, how does one even gauge such a thing?

Le Guin, who cites her principle influences as Tolstoy and Dickens (oh, and Dunsany), is coming from a background of psychological realism, and as a consequence she cites as the key task of any novel the ability to effectively create a whole and comprehensible human being. Quite rightly, she criticises most science fiction for the absence of real human beings. Now, I might criticise her for her placing of a primacy on human experience, but she makes two very compelling arguments for this. Firstly, she rejects conventionally realistic fiction as a construct. She does this in the essay "Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons", summing things up with the wonderful (and depressingly true) statement that "fake realism is the escapist literature of our times". By doing this, she proceeds (making considerable use of Jung) to provide an argument that the conventional fantasy world, with its monotone characters, is possible of function in the whole as a sort of grand allegory of the human mind. The curious thing here is that she never once makes any mention of the trend away from strict realism in Modernist and Post-Modern fiction, but then I suppose that she would consider that fantasy as well and simply grow frustrated at the hypocrisy which sees one thing labelled as another depending upon how "literary" it is (in fact, this is probably the main reason why SF seldom reaches such heights - if it gets too good, they call it something else and then give it the Pulitzer).

Now, as I've said, none of this is really revolutionary at this point, but much of the joy in Le Guin's writing comes from the writing itself. Much of the book just breezes by, as Le Guin shares thoughts on everything from postgenderism (though she never calls it that), to "women in SF), to the need for an individual style and the impossibility of teaching anyone how to write (although, having said this, her book has given me quite a few ideas). There are insights into the evolution of the genre, frank criticisms of its limitations, and scarcely a word is wasted where it could instead be put to use making an excellent point. There's also the genuine joy of a companion piece by a popular author which actually stacks-up as a piece of academic criticism - Le Guin really, really, really knows her stuff.

In the end I'm not really the kind of guy to go around calling anything indispensable, but this really is indispensable. It confirmed my suspicions in some respects, challenged me greatly in others (I debate some of her more mystical conclusions) and even managed to make me change my mind about one or two things. This is a great, great book for anyone interested in the history and mechanics of the genre, and of the process of writing itself.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of her works on literature. Includes the famous "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" essay.

Both essays on the theory and on works -- her own and others, such as J.R.R. Tolkien. (She was writing in the day when Lin Carter's series meant a massive increase in the availability of fantasy.) She's a little over-fond of Jung as an interpretative lens for fiction. "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" is heavy on style, of course. Market pressure and its effects. Virginia Woolf's essay on Mrs. Brown and whether she can be found in science fiction. And more.

[Víctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Además de ser una ventana a cómo pensaba Le Guin para los que nos interesa su obra, se puede aprender muchísimo de cómo se percibía la CF en los años en los que ella empezó a consagrarse como referente. Si tengo que destacar algo, es que no duda ni un momento en comparar lo mejor de la literatura de género no sólo con los autores clásicos como Lewis y Tolkien, sino con novelistas de la talla de Dickens, Tolstoi o las hermanas Brönte. No cabe duda de que hoy la fantasía y la CF han llegado al mainstream y se van a quedar, pero creo que seguimos teniendo miedo a compararlas con las grandes obras de ficción y en ese aspecto, este libro no envejece. Además, es una mujer tremendamente aguda y ácida cuando se lo propone, así que me ha sacado más de una carcajada con sus comentarios. También ha sabido emocionarme como no esperaba que hiciera un ensayo.

Sin embargo, me ha pegado al ojo sus posiciones sobre lo masculino y lo femenino, que son tremendamente progresistas para su época, pero a día de hoy han quedado un poco superadas. Tengo ganas de leer un ensayo que escribió al respecto en relación a las críticas que recibió La mano izquierda de la oscuridad y lo que elaboró después de escribir Coming of Age in Karhide para ver cómo evolucionó su punto de vista en este aspecto.
Por otra parte, admiro que mencione el mercado como elemento de censura y autocensura en los autores, pero creo que hablar sobre la represión política y cultural soviética sin mencionar la represión que ejercía el gobierno de EEUU en el mismo periodo en sus fronteras y las ajenas deja traslucir un poco una posición de cierto privilegio.

[Strega Di Gatti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ursula K. Le Guin has high standards. I love that for her and also for me! First thing to know about this book, there are over a dozen "introductions". That's what happens when you're a straight G like Le Guin. You get introduced by famous people in reprints. I would recommend skipping all the introductions not written by Le Guin. Read the introduction she writes for the revised 1992 edition first, here she reflects on how some of her opinions have changed since the original printing. Read all her subsequent essays. Then, go back and read the various introductions.

So we know it's a famous book, how does it hold up? I think I learned more from this collection of essays about the mechanics of fantasy and science fiction writing than any class I've ever taken. Absolutely essential reading for anyone who loves books.

Le Guin's observations about how fiction (and genre fiction in particular) is valued could not be more timely considering some of the anti-intellectual discourses currently raging on this topic. Her essay Why are Americans Are Afraid of Dragons? has never been more relevant!

"In wondering why Americans are afraid of dragons, I began to realize that a great many Americans are not only anti-fantasy, but altogether anti-fiction. We tend, as a people, to look upon all works of the imagination either as suspect or as contemptible. 'My wife reads novels. I haven’t got the time.'"

I also loved how Le Guin doesn't allow speculative fiction, scifi, fantasy (whatever category you want to put books about robots, elves, and fairies into) off the hook for quality. In fact, the very opposite. Le Guin has something to say about 2025's word of the year: SLOP. She would call it "dreck" or "trash".

Le Guin argues for readers to expect the BEST from genre fiction, not the lazy, trope-filled garbage that cluttered the paperback shelves of the 1970s and continues to clutter Kindle Unlimited of the 2020s.

"In art, the best is the standard. When you hear a new violinist, you do not compare her to the kid next door; you compare her to Stern and Heifetz. If she falls short, you will not blame her for it, but you will know what she falls short of.

And the more eccentric and childish side of science fiction fandom, the defensive, fanatic in-groups, both feed upon and nourish this kind of triviality, which is harmless in itself, but which degrades taste, by keeping publishers’ standards, and readers’ and critics’ expectations, very low. It’s as if they wanted us all to play poker without betting. But the real game is played for real stakes."

Le Guin passionately calls for authors to create fully-realized worlds. Ones that don't sound like our own. Ones where you can't just swap out the setting and the character names and the story is exactly the same.

"To create what Tolkien calls “a secondary universe” is to make a new world. A world where no voice has ever spoken before; where the act of speech is the act of creation. The only voice that speaks there is the creator’s voice. And every word counts."

It feels good to see someone defend the work of critics and the purpose of literary criticism, even if what we are debating involves Dyson spheres or dragons. Le Guin says we badly need "intelligent criticism and discussion" in genre art. I couldn't agree more.

[Miquel Codony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crec que és als seus assajos a on més es nota que la le Guin es divertia escrivint. No tots són iguals d'interessants, però n'hi ha de meravellosos. M'agraden els escriptors que es corregeixen a sí mateixos a mesura que evolucionen, i la UKL ho fa molt, aquí.

Molt recomanable.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays, introductions from various editions of the author's novels, and talks given at workshops and conventions. They set out the author's philosophy on what makes good science fiction or fantasy - truth rather than commercial qualities. There is quite a lot of Jungian philosophy which sometimes veers close to pretentiousness. The most interesting parts for me are where she discusses her own method of writing, which was intuitive and from the subconscious. She usually began with a character in a scene - or maybe a couple of characters - and then had to write the story to work out what was happening.

Some of what she said about "trash" writing is probably correct, but she was quite proscriptive on what constitutes truth in fantasy. In this connection, the essay 'From Elfland to Poughkeepsie' stoops to an attack on the work of a particular author. I immediately recognised whose work was being pilloried from the character names in the quoted extract. A footnote at the end of the essay confirmed it was taken from that author's first novel. Le Guin posits a fictional novel in which only four words are changed in that extract, transforming it into a political novel set in Washington DC. She apologises to the author for picking her for this object lesson, saying something good had gone wrong for her to be able to do this, and decides it is the straightforward style.

Although I haven't read the book in question for many years I greatly enjoyed it, and I think its use is unfair, especially as the examples of 'good' fantasy it is compared to include E R Eddison (whose prose I found so impenetrable I gave up the idea of reading 'The Worm Ouroboros') and Kenneth Morris who isn't much better. (Considering I once read William Hope Hodgson's 'The Night Land', which is written in a kind of cod Elizabethan, I don't think I can be accused of giving up easily on a novel.) From my memory of the book attacked, I don't think much of it could be translated into a Washington political thriller: the story is set in an alternative medieval Wales, beset by political and religious strife and the persecution of a race who have magical abilities. If anything, if it were to be reassigned to another genre and the magic were somehow to be removed (which might not be possible anyway), it would be a historical novel. But I don't see anything wrong with lucid, straightforward prose that does not get in the way of the story - as the Eddison and Morris examples do.

Le Guin characterises this plain prose as 'Poughkeepsie' style (ironically, as someone from the UK, Poughkeepsie sounds to me like somewhere in Elfland). In her view, this is fake plainness (she takes care to distinguish it from Tolkien's who she admired) equivalent to journalism. She attributes it to a lack of serious intention: 'a failure to take the job seriously'. Presumably permission was given for the quote to be used, but with the author denied the right of comeback, the attack mounts up over several pages into overkill, causing me to lose respect for Le Guin as a person. It wasn't necessary to quote a particular author's work to make the points she wanted to make, and I'm sure the book's author takes her job just as seriously as Le Guin did.

She also attacks the extract for a line spoken by one of the characters who says 'I could have told you that at....' This she interprets as "I told you so" and says 'Nobody who says "I told you so" has ever been, or will ever be, a hero.' This isn't consistent, since elsewhere in the collection she talks about people not being heroes but doing heroic things, and having normal human flaws etc. The quote from the story is given no context anyway, but I don't see a problem with a protagonist, heroic at other times, having the odd impatient moment under stress. But, she tells us, Lords of Elfland are the only true lords and the sign of their lordship is their inward greatness and therefore they can't actually show human flaws. To me, that sounds more like a cardboard cutout than the portrayal of a real person with weaknesses and strengths.

Given my level of annoyance with this essay and the slight pretentiousness elsewhere, I can only rate the collection overall at 3 stars.

[Ignacio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esta colección recoge los primeros ensayos publicados por Le Guin en fanzines, revistas... entre finales de los 60 y los 70. Aparte de algunos de sus textos más afamados ("Why are Americans Afraid of Dragons?", "The Child and the Shadow", "A Citizen of Mondath"...) contiene otros menos conocidos, caso de las introducciones para las reediciones de las novelas del Ekumen en tapa dura, recomendaciones de varios de sus fetiches literarios (ESDLA, Dick) o "The Stone Ax and the Muskoxen", su percepción del mundo del fandom anglosajón de la época. Los más generales abren las puertas a su interés por la fantasía y la ciencia ficción como mecanismos narrativos para contarse a sí misma; defiende el poder de la imaginación, la importancia de la visión del autor y cómo el acto de narrar lo debe dejar al descubierto; el cuidado que presta a la construcción del lenguaje... Los más específicos permiten ver a una escritora humilde sin problema para tratar los puntos más débiles de su obra, firme en sus convicciones y asertiva a la hora de tratar temas espinosos, ingeniosa y divertida, siempre a la busca de comunicarse con el lector desde un entorno muy cercano.

Leído con cuatro décadas de diferencia respecto a su publicación, The Language of the Night mantiene su vigencia; para los lectores más ajenos a su obra y para los que deseen abrirse una vez más a ella. La continua búsqueda personal que albergan sus páginas transmiten una visión genuina de la creación literaria. Como tantas obras de no-ficción de escritores de género, es una pena que se haya quedado sin traducir.

[Kamakana · Rating 4 out of 5]

.??? 80s: sf is ultimately... characters. humanist, liberal, modernist interpretation, where ideas inform but do not define the genres. manifesto for sociology-sciences inflected work. really liked this when i read this... decades ago...

[Bas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4,5/5 stars

So far I have never been completely sold on her fiction but this non-fiction collection was excellent and a pure joy to read. It is passionate about fantasy and SF and you feel Le Guin's love for the genre even when she is critical about it. The collection deals both with Le Guin's own work as with her thoughts about other writers as with reading and writing in general. It absolutely has given me a strong desire to read more fiction by her and I certainly feel like her essays will have an influence on me as I read more SFF. While maybe not everything in here was as interesting to me and I don't necessarily agree with everything she says, I enjoyed all the different texts in here. But if I have to pick some favourites : From Elfland to Poughkeepsie, Science Fiction and Mrs. Brown, The Stalin in the Soul and The Stone Ax and the Muskoxen. As a cherry on the cake I will say that the Ken Liu introduction in my edition was fabulous !

[Useless Mathom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whatever one's tastes in fiction, Le Guin was an exceptionally erudite woman, with a remarkable breadth of spirit, and that is amply evidenced in this essay collection. Do I agree with every single one of her opinions and conclusions -- obviously not (the deathgrip that Nazi twat Solzhenitsyn had on the western public in the 70s is insane, he comes up several times) -- but it's incredibly refreshing to see opinions and worldviews brought forth, argued and delineated in such an earnest, limpid fashion, where even if I disagreed with them vehemently (which was rarely in this collection, but not never), I had to respect the sincerity with which the matter was approached. So often nowadays opinions on important topics seem banal or frivolously adopted from your thought leader/influencer of choice, it felt almost invigorating to read someone who took life an its questions quite seriously, though not without humour.

Fuck Poughkeepsie writers.