Sur

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literature, Fiction

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1982

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

[Jaime Dear · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who is super into Ernest Shackleton and just last year read the account of the expedition that took place right before this story, AND as someone who loves Ursula Le Guin and has critiques about the ideology behind polar exploration, this story was a dream come true to find out about. I feel like it would be weird to read it with NO context, because having just read about pemmican, Hut Point, skua gulls, and ice crevices, this story felt like a WONDERFULLY referential and critical treat. The fact that two things I love so much met in the middle & found new nuance. CHEF KISS...FIVE STARS BECAUSE IM CRYING ABOUT IT.

I also have more to say about like. What was actually in the story. But mostly I just wanted to say how excited I was. If you read Shackleton's diaries you can see how kinda gross and un-thoughtful to the environment and animals they were.

[Emilia Macchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me enamoré de este cuento con solo saber de qué se trataba.
Después lo leí y lo amé más, reúne todas mis últimas obsesiones: el feminismo, la bitácora de aventuras, la antártica y la zona austral, la (anti)épica.
Bellísimo.

[Johannes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have more thoughts than I can coherently articulate on a subway ride but I'll try. Le Guin never falls into the trap of ~women's spiritual knowledge~ though I feel this story would have been an easy place for it. There's no 'women would have reached Antarctica because of their innate qualities.' instead, the book emphasises subaltern knowledges that allow the women in the book to try other approaches to the pole that help them succeed, and luck also plays its part.

This luck also stands in counterpoint to the idea of exploration in the book. The women cannot frame their expedition as a scientific endeavour, since their achievements can never be known, and so they must be honest with themselves. Why do they go? To see. One might imagine, when it comes down to it, that other explorers to the pole might have said the same, when it came right down to it. And likewise, the women do not race against another explorer, or to be first. They test themselves, and explore their own capacities, as much as they explore the world around them. Their achievements are rarely measured against those of other explorers, only compared without judgement, for the reader's reference. The comparison instead is outcomes that might have been, and this is where their luck factors in. They did not succeed because they were braver or because they were women or because men are ignorant. They were lucky to be in the right place at the right time, with all the faculties that all people are equipped with, that allowed them to succeed. No narrative of superiority is drawn from this, because Le Guin is not interested in superiority—a great frame for a story about a place where so many people were concerned about being first.

I am turning around a TC talk in my head now.

[Anders Holbæk · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5 Som sådan et glimt-i-øjet feministisk, satirisk værk over den hæder-og-ære-søgende opdagelsesrejsende store mand er Sur enormt vellykket og sjov. Det er svært for mig rigtig at vurdere, hvor stor litterær kvalitet den har derudover som et stykke fiktion. Hun rammer datidens memoir-stil (eller vores popkulturelle idé om den i det mindste) lige i røven, men jeg har ikke rigtig nogle følelser post-læsning andet en hihi og hygge - hvilket også er helt fint!

[karoline · Rating 5 out of 5]

åh, en rar og kold vinterekspedition at blive indviet i.

[Lise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Ursula K. Le Guin's writing and this little book is a fine example of her subdued and subtle feminism.

[Paulina Aurora Vera Henríquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Dimos nombres a estas cumbres, aun-
que sin mucha seriedad porque no espe-
rábamos que nuestros descubrimientos
llamaran la atención de los geógrafos."

[Damir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una sorpresa que encontramos en la Furia del Libro. Preciso y perfecto, con muchas sutilezas estudiadas que lo hacen verosímil. Y puntos extra por el Piloto Pardo.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An adventurous expedition without a trace.

[August · Rating 5 out of 5]

i wish this was 1000 pages long <3

[Anne Lydolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written but vague and bland. The whole story seems like a first chapter of a longer book, not a finished story in itself.

[Anhid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completamente fan de esta historia que te hace creer que realmente existió. Mujeres... su silencio ya no es impuesto sino que lo eligen, no por miedo, sino por inteligencia.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

But achievement is smaller than men think. What is large is the sky, the earth, the sea, the soul.

[Abby Brens · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this for school, made me cry, i love women so much idfk man😞😞😞

[J_BlueFlower · Rating 3 out of 5]

My opinion about
Sur
by Ursula K. Le Guin, 29 pp, 1982

The story describes an expedition to the South Pole by a group of women from South America arriving at the pole 2 years before Amundsen. They do not leave any message or evidence at the pole, not wanting to make a man unhappy.

Back at base camp they find one of the women pregnant. A baby girl is born while still in Antarctica.

Taken at face value, I think the story was a bit flat and uninteresting. According to Wikipedia Anne K. Kalerargues that the story provides a cleverly coded map for women striving to be professional writers; to illustrate the paths that women writers must take into the tundras ruled by male writers Women can do the same as men and have babies at the same time?

[Cami · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is only the second Le Guin story I've read, but I have a very favorable opinion of her thanks to The Left Hand of Darkness, and I saw many similarities between the two texts. I'm not sure I understand all of "Sur," but that's okay, because the writing is fantastic, and Le Guin's imagery will stick with me forever. It's very interesting to put this story into conversation with non-fiction texts about the Anthropocene, what with the characters' emphasis on "leaving no footprints" and adapting with nature.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this as part of a seminar on Feminist glaciology and it really made me feel the days of exploration.

"But then, the backside of heroism is often rather sad; women and servants know that. They kno also that the heroism may be no less real for that. But achievement is smaller than men think. What is large is the sky, the earth, the sea, the soul."

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

A group of women undertake an expedition to be the first to reach the South Pole. They complete their mission leaving no trace and this short story is formed of a manuscript left in a trunk belonging to the leader of the expedition many years later.

[Carolyn F. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this as part of Women of Futures Past. I didn't really care for it. A parallel universe story.

[Samy Sanzana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un cuento bellísimo al que probablemente regrese luego de investigar un poco más sobre lo que fueron las expediciones en el polo sur. Ursula K. Le Guin tiene una gracia para reimaginar situaciones y acercarlas a la realidad que son imprescindibles y envidiables

[Isabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute? that sounds rude. straightforward and kind of cute, though.

[rhys · Rating 5 out of 5]

fya

[C S Olate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantasía y realismo en un relato que reivindica los esfuerzos de las primeras mujeres invisibilizadas de la historia. Gracias Úrsula.

[eik madsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

en lille vinterekspedition på den første sommerdag

[Mikkeline Johansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elsker historier om seje kvinder

[Rikke Sørensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meget fin lille fortælling om en kvindelig vinterekspedition. Jeg nød den virkelig.

[Tobias Cramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sur er den korte og gribende skildring af en gruppe kvindelige polarforskeres rejse for at nå Sydpolen. Novellen er enkel og gribende og formår på eksemplarisk vis at demonstrere den type fortællinger og litteratur som Ursula K. Le Guin plæderer for i sit essay Bæreposeteorien om fiktion.

[Orlando Ruiz · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

3,5 //

[Pernille · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ved ikke helt hvad jeg forventede af denne novelle. Må lige tænke lidt over den...