Solitude

by Ursula K. Le Guin

The inhabitants of 11 Soro spend much of their lives alone. Women live in communities, but do not enter each others homes as adults. Those men who survive life within the brutal adolescent gangs go on to live as hermits. This has made it all but impossible for past expeditions of Ekumen researchers to understand the lives and culture of the planet. But now, an anthropologist has realised that her own children might provide a window into this guarded and private world.

First published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, vol. 87 and then later in "The Birthday of the World" and the "The Unreal and the Real" (Volume 2)

Genres: Science Fiction

Unknown Binding

Published December 1, 1994

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

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soul bag!

[Elise · Rating 3 out of 5]

A planet with gender/sex separation and a novel depiction of individualism within a community network.

[Leonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good imagination of another culture and finding yourself between cultures.

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

One thing about ursula, she knows how to build a world

[Nickolas Segura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Avoid magic! Hold fast to your autonomy

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25