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The Last Interview
Ursula K. Le Guin: The Last Interview: and Other Conversations
Ursula K. Le Guin was one of our most imaginative writers, a radical thinker, and a feminist icon. The interviews collected here span 40 years of her pioneering and prolific career.
When she began writing in the 1960s, Ursula K. Le Guin was as much of a literary outsider as one can she was a woman writing in a landscape dominated by men, she wrote genre at a time where it was dismissed as non-literary, and she lived out West, far from fashionable east coast literary circles. The interviews collected here--covering everything from her Berkeley childhood to her process of world-building; from her earliest experiments with genre to envisioning the end of capitalism--highlight that unique perspective, which conjured some of the most prescient and lasting books in modern literature.
When she began writing in the 1960s, Ursula K. Le Guin was as much of a literary outsider as one can she was a woman writing in a landscape dominated by men, she wrote genre at a time where it was dismissed as non-literary, and she lived out West, far from fashionable east coast literary circles. The interviews collected here--covering everything from her Berkeley childhood to her process of world-building; from her earliest experiments with genre to envisioning the end of capitalism--highlight that unique perspective, which conjured some of the most prescient and lasting books in modern literature.
208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 5, 2019
About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin
1,042 books32.2k followersUrsula 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
April 20, 2023
Ursula K. Le Guin on writing.....
"The way to make something good is to make it well.
If the ingredients are extra good (truffles, vivid prose, fascinating characters) that’s a help. But it’s what you do with them that counts. With the most ordinary ingredients (potatoes, everyday language, commonplace characters) — and care and skill in using them — you can make something extremely good.
Inexperienced writers tend to seek the recipes for writing well. You buy the cookbook, you take the list of ingredients, you follow the directions, and behold! A masterpiece! The Never-Falling Soufflé!
Wouldn’t it be nice? But alas, there are no recipes. We have no Julia Child. Successful professional writers are not withholding mysterious secrets from eager beginners. The only way anybody ever learns to write well is by trying to write well. This usually begins by reading good writing by other people, and writing very badly by yourself, for a long time.
There are “secrets” to making a story work — but they apply only to that particular writer and that particular story. You find out how to make the thing work by working at it — coming back to it, testing it, seeing where it sticks or wobbles or cheats, and figuring out how to make it go where it has to go."
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Ursula Le Guin documentary....
https://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Ursula-...
"The way to make something good is to make it well.
If the ingredients are extra good (truffles, vivid prose, fascinating characters) that’s a help. But it’s what you do with them that counts. With the most ordinary ingredients (potatoes, everyday language, commonplace characters) — and care and skill in using them — you can make something extremely good.
Inexperienced writers tend to seek the recipes for writing well. You buy the cookbook, you take the list of ingredients, you follow the directions, and behold! A masterpiece! The Never-Falling Soufflé!
Wouldn’t it be nice? But alas, there are no recipes. We have no Julia Child. Successful professional writers are not withholding mysterious secrets from eager beginners. The only way anybody ever learns to write well is by trying to write well. This usually begins by reading good writing by other people, and writing very badly by yourself, for a long time.
There are “secrets” to making a story work — but they apply only to that particular writer and that particular story. You find out how to make the thing work by working at it — coming back to it, testing it, seeing where it sticks or wobbles or cheats, and figuring out how to make it go where it has to go."
-------
Ursula Le Guin documentary....
https://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Ursula-...
March 12, 2019
I keep reading essays by Le Guin and interviews with her as I enjoy spending time with this woman and her fine mind so much. What wonderful company she continues to be.
Some choice interview bits:
On what she wants her legacy to be:
"Irreverence toward undeserved authority, and passionate respect for the power of the word. Oh, and my books staying in print, too."
How she became a feminist in the early 1970s:
"It was a real mind shift. And I was a grown woman with kids. And mothers of children were not welcome among a lot of early feminists. I was living the bad dream. I was a mommy. You know there's always prejudice in a revolutionary movement. I wasn't even sure I was welcome. And I wasn't to some of those people. It took a lot of thinking for me to find what kind of feminist I could be and why I wanted to be a feminist." (xv)
"Isn't the real question this: Is the work worth doing? Am I, a human being, working for what I really need and want--or for what the State or the advertisers tell me I want. Do I choose? I think that's what anarchism comes down to. Do I let my choices be made for me, and so go along with the power game, or do I choose, and accept the responsibility for my choice? In other words, am I going to be a machine-part, or a human being?"
"To genrify is necessary. There are different genres. What is wrong is to rank them as higher or lower, to make a hierarchy based only on genre, not the quality of the writing. That is my whole argument and it goes no further. So don't try to extend it into this world."
From a written interview, not Le Guin's words:
"To put it simply, anarchy is based on the realistic observation that people left to themselves, without the intervention of the state, tend to cooperate and work out their differences. The process may be awkward, inefficient and punctuated by fights, but its end result is usually more satisfying to everyone than when things are done by command." (94-5)
Some choice interview bits:
On what she wants her legacy to be:
"Irreverence toward undeserved authority, and passionate respect for the power of the word. Oh, and my books staying in print, too."
How she became a feminist in the early 1970s:
"It was a real mind shift. And I was a grown woman with kids. And mothers of children were not welcome among a lot of early feminists. I was living the bad dream. I was a mommy. You know there's always prejudice in a revolutionary movement. I wasn't even sure I was welcome. And I wasn't to some of those people. It took a lot of thinking for me to find what kind of feminist I could be and why I wanted to be a feminist." (xv)
"Isn't the real question this: Is the work worth doing? Am I, a human being, working for what I really need and want--or for what the State or the advertisers tell me I want. Do I choose? I think that's what anarchism comes down to. Do I let my choices be made for me, and so go along with the power game, or do I choose, and accept the responsibility for my choice? In other words, am I going to be a machine-part, or a human being?"
"To genrify is necessary. There are different genres. What is wrong is to rank them as higher or lower, to make a hierarchy based only on genre, not the quality of the writing. That is my whole argument and it goes no further. So don't try to extend it into this world."
From a written interview, not Le Guin's words:
"To put it simply, anarchy is based on the realistic observation that people left to themselves, without the intervention of the state, tend to cooperate and work out their differences. The process may be awkward, inefficient and punctuated by fights, but its end result is usually more satisfying to everyone than when things are done by command." (94-5)
April 14, 2019
Я маю складні стосунки із сучасною близькістю до автора. Як вогню боюся твіттерів та тумблерів улюблених молодих англомовних письменниць, іноді лякаюся того, скільки маю літераторів у фб-стрічці (і відпоюю себе думкою, що з більшістю ми подружилися ще до того, як вони видали свої перші книжки), нечасто читаю інтерв'ю, а певна колонка Тараса Прохаська на "Збручі" кілька років тому розбила мені серце. Якщо коротше, то це така страусяча позиція: живий ти автор - чи вже ні, але я тебе не знаю. І я ніколи не думала, що збірка інтерв'ю конкретної авторки - нехай навіть знакової - розірве мене на кількасот маленьких Ксень і збере наново в трохи іншій конфігурації.
"Останнє інтерв'ю" Урсули ЛеҐуїн - це моя персональна І Цзін, книжка, яку можна відкрити на будь-якій сторінці і вона відповість на питання, поставлене або невимовлене. Інтерв'ю 1970-х років розповідають про те, як бути письменницею-початківицею у фантастичному середовищі. Інтерв'ю 1980-х - про стереотипи сприйняття, про подальше життя текстів, про те, як живеться авторці, чиї книжки уже увійшли до канону, а хочеться ж іще далі щось писати. Інтерв'ю останніх років говорять про старість, про залежність/незалежність від чужих оцінок, про свободу роздавати власні оцінки, про поступ, що необов'язково є прогресом, про літературу як таку. Власне, про літературу як таку, про творчі механізми, про ідеї та їхнє коріння, про те, як писати, коли ти жінка і вповні це усвідомлюєш, розповідає кожна бесіда. Це круто, щиро, це змушує думати про те, про що не хотілося, або зітхати з полегшенням, або ледь не плакати: "Дякую, пані Урсуло, за те, що ви були, ви писали, ви не мовчали". І це той рідкісний випадок, коли мені страшенно жаль, що це "дякую" я не змогла сказати наживо.
PS: для спраглих розгадок - а ще в цих інтерв'ю можна-таки вичитати, що нам хотіла сказати авторка. І це теж нівроку цікаво.
"Останнє інтерв'ю" Урсули ЛеҐуїн - це моя персональна І Цзін, книжка, яку можна відкрити на будь-якій сторінці і вона відповість на питання, поставлене або невимовлене. Інтерв'ю 1970-х років розповідають про те, як бути письменницею-початківицею у фантастичному середовищі. Інтерв'ю 1980-х - про стереотипи сприйняття, про подальше життя текстів, про те, як живеться авторці, чиї книжки уже увійшли до канону, а хочеться ж іще далі щось писати. Інтерв'ю останніх років говорять про старість, про залежність/незалежність від чужих оцінок, про свободу роздавати власні оцінки, про поступ, що необов'язково є прогресом, про літературу як таку. Власне, про літературу як таку, про творчі механізми, про ідеї та їхнє коріння, про те, як писати, коли ти жінка і вповні це усвідомлюєш, розповідає кожна бесіда. Це круто, щиро, це змушує думати про те, про що не хотілося, або зітхати з полегшенням, або ледь не плакати: "Дякую, пані Урсуло, за те, що ви були, ви писали, ви не мовчали". І це той рідкісний випадок, коли мені страшенно жаль, що це "дякую" я не змогла сказати наживо.
PS: для спраглих розгадок - а ще в цих інтерв'ю можна-таки вичитати, що нам хотіла сказати авторка. І це теж нівроку цікаво.
November 10, 2019
I started reading her after her death. I will continue reading her till my death. Wish I read her earlier, say my twenties, but now is a good time too.
January 3, 2025
First book of the year. I gotta love everything Le Guin says. This was so interesting to see into her life, her ideas, and her writings. I still have so much of her stuff to read. Maybe this year is another great Le Guin year for me. I hope so.
October 10, 2019
Wow, I love this woman. I don't agree with *everything* she said, but the brightness and the intelligence she exuded is amazing. I hope we manage to keep your legacy, Ursula.
August 17, 2022
Captivating, funny, earnest, and enlightening. Ursula K. Le Guin was a unique writer and deservedly beloved. I'll likely read it again someday, after I've read several more of her novels.
April 19, 2022
4,5 stars
I love reading in-depth interviews. Le Guin gives gem advice on writing, reading, and storybuilding. Her mind!!!!!!!
I love reading in-depth interviews. Le Guin gives gem advice on writing, reading, and storybuilding. Her mind!!!!!!!
August 7, 2025
Le Guin is a mysterious figure, was happy in life to let herself and her privacy recede behind her stories. This collection offers a glimpse into her thoughts on a variety of 21st century topics from social media to pop culture to America's far-right radicalization. She's sharp-witted and sharp-tongued even here, in her 90s. I am sure the world's a dimmer place without her.
August 25, 2019
Não há muito o que dizer: uma bela coletânea com a palavra de uma das grandes.
Entrevistador: "What do you hope your legacy will be?"
Le Guin: "Irreverence towards undeserved authority, and passionate respect for the power of the word. Oh, and my books staying in print, too."
Entrevistador: "What do you hope your legacy will be?"
Le Guin: "Irreverence towards undeserved authority, and passionate respect for the power of the word. Oh, and my books staying in print, too."
May 30, 2022
Do you ever sit down with friends and wonder who the top five personalities, dead or alive, that you would like to meet or have dinner with? Well the more I read of her works, the more I would have liked author Ursula K. Le Guin to have been one. Le Guin was born in Berkeley Ca in 1929 and died in Portland Ore in 2018. Over her life she wrote 20+ novels and over 100 short stories. She also wrote poetry, literary criticism, etc. She might be best known for her Earthsea fantasy series and her Hainish Sci-Fi series. My first exposure to her work was The Left Hand of Darkness back in my university days. I readily admit that I didn't explore her work further for a long while, but I've begun in the past years and such a great writer. I've enjoyed the first two books in the Earthsea series, a book of her poetry, The Lathe of Heaven (a standalone) and this collection of interviews by various interviewers, a collection called Ursula K. Le Guin: The Last Interview and Other Conversations.
It's a series of books published by Melville House and features interviews by various authors, philosophers, etc. I've previously enjoyed a collection featuring political philosopher Hannah Arendt. This collection with Le Guin is excellent and you get a lovely feel for her personality and her thoughts on so many topics; her writing, feminism, her family, her ideas on science fiction and so many other things. It brings you closer to her, to her wonderful personality, her bluntness, her thoughtfulness, her humor.
The book contains a series of seven interviews conducted by different people from 1977 to 2018. The last interview was conducted by David Streitfeld, a reporter for the NY Times and he had to cancel his last interview with her because she passed away. Her last thoughts were very poignant as she discussed having one of her daughters visit for her 88th birthday. "My daughter came from Los Angeles, and I got to see her. It's a serious age, eighty-eight. If you turn the numbers on their side, it's two infinities on top of each other."
I enjoyed this book so very much but it left me feeling somewhat bereft. Bereft that I'd waited so long to start enjoying Ursula Le Guin's works, but at the same time, happy that I've been able to experience something of her personality and have many of her books still to enjoy. (4.5 stars)
It's a series of books published by Melville House and features interviews by various authors, philosophers, etc. I've previously enjoyed a collection featuring political philosopher Hannah Arendt. This collection with Le Guin is excellent and you get a lovely feel for her personality and her thoughts on so many topics; her writing, feminism, her family, her ideas on science fiction and so many other things. It brings you closer to her, to her wonderful personality, her bluntness, her thoughtfulness, her humor.
The book contains a series of seven interviews conducted by different people from 1977 to 2018. The last interview was conducted by David Streitfeld, a reporter for the NY Times and he had to cancel his last interview with her because she passed away. Her last thoughts were very poignant as she discussed having one of her daughters visit for her 88th birthday. "My daughter came from Los Angeles, and I got to see her. It's a serious age, eighty-eight. If you turn the numbers on their side, it's two infinities on top of each other."
I enjoyed this book so very much but it left me feeling somewhat bereft. Bereft that I'd waited so long to start enjoying Ursula Le Guin's works, but at the same time, happy that I've been able to experience something of her personality and have many of her books still to enjoy. (4.5 stars)
December 23, 2025
"I’m not interested in talking about who I was. I’m much more interested in finding out who I am."
"She wrote without conscious intention, as a voyage of discovery—which meant that after publication she was delighted to entertain readers’ conclusions about where she ended up."
"To genrify is necessary. There are different genres. What is wrong is to rank them as higher or lower, to make a hierarchy based only on genre, not the quality of the writing."
Like The Dispossessed, the interviews with Le Guin is very quotable. She offers so much to think about, whether you agree with her or not, it's all interesting and makes you learn something about yourself in the process.
Learning about Le Guin’s public life and philosophy was also really interesting, because I know it's going to add more depth and colour when I read her works. It also makes me want to seek out more author interviews. There's just something so valuable in hearing writers talk about their craft and influences directly. And I'm curious about the books that inspired Le Guin or that she simply enjoyed reading.
"She wrote without conscious intention, as a voyage of discovery—which meant that after publication she was delighted to entertain readers’ conclusions about where she ended up."
"To genrify is necessary. There are different genres. What is wrong is to rank them as higher or lower, to make a hierarchy based only on genre, not the quality of the writing."
Like The Dispossessed, the interviews with Le Guin is very quotable. She offers so much to think about, whether you agree with her or not, it's all interesting and makes you learn something about yourself in the process.
Learning about Le Guin’s public life and philosophy was also really interesting, because I know it's going to add more depth and colour when I read her works. It also makes me want to seek out more author interviews. There's just something so valuable in hearing writers talk about their craft and influences directly. And I'm curious about the books that inspired Le Guin or that she simply enjoyed reading.
January 3, 2020
So this is a book in a series of "Final Interviews," ranging from Hunter S. Thompson to Kurt Vonnegut to Jane Jacobs to Jacques Derrida to, well, Le Guin. It contains seven interviews ranging from 1977 to 2018, which allows it to show the development of some of Le Guin's thoughts (on, for example, science fiction, feminism, publishing, and art) longitudinally across forty years.
The temptation here is to launch into a eulogy, or even a hagiography, of Le Guin. But I'm here to discuss this one book. Other than saying that I really am happy to have it and to have read it, the only thing I can do is pull quotes, and that would be too much like spoilers. So I won't.
Some things stay the same. For example, Le Guin seems to have been genuinely annoyed that her books (and by reverse metonymy herself) had a reputation of being humorless. Her humor is, often, drier than Hawkeye Pierce's martinis, but it is and always has been there for those with eyes to see - which I freely admit I lacked for my first decade or two of reading Le Guin. It isn't laugh-out-loud boffo yoks. It's subtle, and requires subtle reading. Another example: from beginning to end she is irritated by illustrators (and, eventually, directors) who make the people of Earthsea white.
On the other hand, things change. Her attitude toward aging changed as she did it.
The personality that emerges in these interviews is a woman generous with her thoughts, even about her private life - which she, nonetheless, keeps largely private. She is patient with ignorance, but not stupidity, and genuinely (if quietly) outraged by what we are doing to our planet, to our fellow animals, and to each other and ourselves.
I really liked the book.
The temptation here is to launch into a eulogy, or even a hagiography, of Le Guin. But I'm here to discuss this one book. Other than saying that I really am happy to have it and to have read it, the only thing I can do is pull quotes, and that would be too much like spoilers. So I won't.
Some things stay the same. For example, Le Guin seems to have been genuinely annoyed that her books (and by reverse metonymy herself) had a reputation of being humorless. Her humor is, often, drier than Hawkeye Pierce's martinis, but it is and always has been there for those with eyes to see - which I freely admit I lacked for my first decade or two of reading Le Guin. It isn't laugh-out-loud boffo yoks. It's subtle, and requires subtle reading. Another example: from beginning to end she is irritated by illustrators (and, eventually, directors) who make the people of Earthsea white.
On the other hand, things change. Her attitude toward aging changed as she did it.
The personality that emerges in these interviews is a woman generous with her thoughts, even about her private life - which she, nonetheless, keeps largely private. She is patient with ignorance, but not stupidity, and genuinely (if quietly) outraged by what we are doing to our planet, to our fellow animals, and to each other and ourselves.
I really liked the book.
August 15, 2019
There are two things to say about this book. First it was a joy to get inside the head of one of my favorite authors and second, there is some truth to the idea that you shouldn't meet your heroes. Reading this was a good lesson in remembering that just because I love an author's work doesn't mean that we are going to agree on everything or have the same opinions about other works of fiction.
July 9, 2021
This book is a collection of a handful of interviews conducted with author Ursula K. Le Guin. It is interesting to hear Le Guin in her own voice. The book provides key insights into her work. I would recommend it as a companion to her fiction.
September 18, 2019
4.5 stars. One of the best I’ve read in this series.
August 19, 2020
Always interesting to hear Ursula's thoughts, but a bit repetitive with the interviewers asking similar questions. I'd rather read her novels and essays.
February 22, 2022
Collection of interviews with Ursula K Le Guin from the 1970s to a final series of interviews between 2015 & 2018. Full of interesting little tidbits of info about Le Guin & her work. This book is probably as good as a biography, covering various parts of her life. The brief part in one of the final interviews in which she discusses the Berkeley she grew up in in the 30s & 40s made me think of my Grandmother who was growing up in San Francisco (then “an expedition, not a commute” away from Berkeley), around the same time. I often try to imagine what the Bay Area of that era looked & felt like. I was a little surprised & gladdened to find that Le Guin, like Bradbury, was another non-driver. Her perspectives on Philip K Dick were interesting, especially in the later interviews when she said she re read his work & found it dated. I also liked the tidbit that she and Dick corresponded, but that she was worried he would just show up at her house one day. Based on reading Dick’s collected short stories, I thought her opinion that his late life “mystical breakthrough” was “a breakdown” was spot on. The parts about her & Charles’s relationship in the later interviews were very cute.
September 5, 2022
an exceptional collection of insightful interviews and essays that illuminate the writer behind some incredible stories. If you have ever been kept up at night finishing one of her novels, or been left thinking about one weeks after you closed the back cover on it, this book is for you
August 15, 2026
- ***"I did that introversion/extroversion test once long ago, and I was just off the charts on intro-vert," she told Interview magazine in 2015. "I was slightly inhuman. It was sort of scary."*** p.IX UTLI
D'acord amb Le Guin, la ciència-ficció no es defineix per habitar el futur, sinó per representar el present, per dislocar el present a través de l'analogia per fer-lo més fàcilment interpretable, analitzable, per a dotar-nos d'una major perspectiva. Així,
- ***The thing about science fiction is, it isn't really about the future. It's about the present. But the future gives us great freedom of imagination. It's like a mirror. You can see the back of your own head.*** p.3 UTLI
I és que segons Le Guin, la preferència per la no-ficció, o pel realisme, és un mal endèmic d'Occident: una negativa a atorgar valor moral a la ficció i, per tant, valor a l'exercici de la imaginació. Per contra, els escenaris ficticis no deixen de parlar-nos de la realitat:
- ***Why don't I just write about what's real? A lot of 2oth century— and zist century-American readers think that that's all they want. They want nonfiction. They'll say, I don't read fiction because it isn't real. This is incredibly naive. Fiction is something that only human beings do, and only in certain cir-cumstances. We don't know exactly for what purposes. But* *one of the things it does is lead you to recognize what you did not know before. This is what a lot of mystical disciplines are after—simply seeing, really seeing, really being aware. Which means you're recognizing the things around you more deeply, but they also seem new. So the seeing-as-new and recognition are really the same thing*.** p.XIX UTLI
Tradicionalment, i encara quan Le Guin comença a escriure, ens trobem amb una ciència-ficció pulp —que reprodueix en el futur l'estat ideològic d'Occident i els seus somnis hipertècnics de dominació de l'Altre. Per tant, la ficció serveix efectivament com un mirall de la no-ficció, o de la realitat ideològica de la nació americana: el que caracteritza la novel·la pulp és, potser, que mostra però no posa en qüestió aquestes dinàmiques —és a dir, que encara juga amb plaer dins d'aquestes, allunyada de lac rítica. Per contra, Le Guin supera, poc a poc, les limitacions que el gènere mateix s'havia imposat per tal de tenir èxit:
- ***Here we've got science fiction, the most flexible, adaptable broad range, imaginative, crazy form that prose fiction has ever attained and were going to let it be used for making toy plastic ray guns that break when you play with them and prepackaged, precooked, predigested, indigestible flavorless TV dinners and big inflated rubber balloons containing nothing but hot air? Well, I say the hell with that.**** p.XVI UTLI
I és que una constant en la fabulació leguiniana és tant la composició amb l'alteritat com la crítica a les pràctiques capitalistes —espoli extractivista, colonització. No és que Le Guin fabriqui un llibre com una bomba incendiària, amb la meta de destruir el capitalisme: és que el seu desig de destrucció del capitalisme no deixa d'aflorar en la seva obra artística.
- ***"We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words."*** p.XXIII UTLI
Per què escriure, doncs? Escriure com a acte de dignitat humana, d'expressió libidinal de l'odi a la màquina capitalista, escriure com a mode de resistència a la ignominia, com a mode de convocatòria d'un nou poble que s'haurà d'oposar a l'estupidesa de la matriu productiva en què vivim. Escriure perquè, finalment, Ursula conté de manera virtual nous modes d'existència, pobles que demanen ser instaurats literàriament, com ho demanen els de Haraway i Despret:
- ***Writers are often asked, "Why do you write?" which is, you know, an impossible question. But a lot of them give that very answer. I wrote it because nobody else would, and I wanted to read it. Tolkien, as a matter of fact, said that—he said, "I knew nobody else could write it, because nobody else knew about Middle Earth."*** p.23 UTLI
Aquest procés d'instauració de pobles, de modes d'existència, però, no té lloc sense certa investigació, sense cert posicionament, sense cert esdevenir-ella-mateixa anarresti i urrasti, sense adquirir nous punts de vista, certa inhumanitat que permetrà expandir el propi punt de vista, del qual una mai escapa:
- ***As the cultural anthropologist must resist and be conscious of his own cultural limitations, and bigotries, and prejudices he can't get rid of them, but he must be conscious of them—I think a science fiction writer has a responsibility to do the same thing if he's inventing what he calls a different planet, a different race, alien beings, and so on. His beings can't just be white Anglo-Saxon Protestants with tentacles. You do have to do some rethinking—and [with] a certain self-consciousness of your own bias. But you can't get rid of your limitations; you can't deculturate yourself.*** p.34 UTLI
I, de fet, a mesura que Le Guin s'allunya dels tòpics de la ciència-ficció pulp, a mesura que apareixen els seus pobles, té lloc un esdeveniment molt especial: la ruptura amb la forma clàssica tel·leològica de la novel·la i, en especial, de la figura de l'heroi. L'establiment de noves relacions possibles amb l'Alteritat:
- ***"But they don't have to be human others," she replies. "We live with others on all sides at all times. That's the thing about religion, about monotheism. They say we're other and better. It's a very silly and dangerous course. It also relates to feminism. Women have been treated as animals have been. If the men insist on talking about it that way, then the men and God can walk in Eden-they can walk alone there."*** p.100-1 UTLI
Com a Miyazaki, trobem que un cos impulsat pel desig de llibertat, pel desig de construir nous modes d'existència, és el punt zero del canvi...però encara insuficient per aquest: el canvi no es construeix, no s'actualitza, sinó en l'encontre amb un altre cos igualment desitjós. Shevek no seria res sense Takver. Per a Le Guin, el canvi és essencial a la vida: la pròpia Le Guin diu que no té interès en escriure una autobiografia perquè no li interessa el que ha estat, sinó el que arribarà a ser. La qüestió, doncs, no és mai arribar a un punt final, i per això hi ha pocs finals tancats en l'obra de Le Guin: és la de recórrer, tant bé com es pugui i de manera immanent, el camí que és la vida.
- ***WICKES: Now that brings up something else. You have all these journeys in your fiction; people are always traveling around. That's a great way to see your geography, but it often becomes the plot. We go on a journey, not always an ordeal or quest, but we always go on a journey. LE GUIN: You've just hit a very significant note here. Actually I'm terrible at plotting, so all I do is sort of put people in motion and they go around in a circle and they generally end up about where they started out. That's a Le Guin plot.*** [...] ***I admire plot from a vast distance, with unenvious admiration. I don't do it; never did it; don't want to; can't. My stories are driven (rather slowly and erratically, with pauses to admire apparently irrelevant scenery) by a different chauffeur.*** p.61 UTLI; p.109 UTLI
De fet, per això mateix s'oposa a la idea —històricament situada a Occident— de progrés i, per tant, obre la qüestió sobre la teleologia —o manca d'aquesta— humana, i sobre què suposa viure una bona vida:
- ***A "sustainable" lifestyle is "sentimentally nostalgic"? [...] Any refusal to accept the abuse of the world by ill-considered, misapplied technologies as desirable/inevitable can be labelled Luddite. All genuine alternatives to Industrial Capitalism can be, and are, dismissed as "nostalgia." All ideals are positively dangerous. All idealists are dangerous: Pol Pot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jefferson, Lenin, Osama Bin Laden, Francis of Assisi. What is endangered, and how it is endangered may, however, vary.*** p.110 UTLI
En aquest sentit, Always coming home és la seva obra mestra, aquella en què es permet per primera vegada ja no la suggerència, sinó la concreció total d'un poble que existeix més-enllà del mode capitalista, del dictatum de la propietat, del domini i del progrés, de l'acumulació material i les dinàmiques racistes i sexistes que implica. Aquí, diu
- ***You know, a novelist's job is largely leaving things out. Getting the story flowing clear of all the junk around it—the river banks. Well, in this book, I wanted to include the river banks. Not only the river, but the banks of the river and the bed of the river and the trees over the river.*** p.XVI UTLI
- ***Believing that we have no future but that of high-tech development, urgent expansion, urbanization, and ruthless exploitation of natural and human resources-believing that we have to go on as we are going now-people tend to see that book as backward-turning. It isn't. It looks at, but not back. It's a radical attempt to think outside current assumptions, a refusal of them. It's an attempt to portray a genuinely mature society. To imagine a "climax technology," the principle of which would not be enforced growth, but homeostasis. To offer not a mechanical but an organic model for culture.*** p.112 UTLI
L'escriptura de Le Guin, finalment, és revolucionària únicament en tant que la pròpia Le Guin ho és. Ella mateixa narra com, des d'un punt de vista feminista, la seva vida és conservadora, reaccionària fins i tot: no per això, però, Le Guin deixarà de declarar-se feminista i lluitar, amb aquestes i amb grups pacifistes anti-nuclears, per una revolució que va més enllà de la clàssica imatge dels fusells i els adoquins.
- ***I's a very slow revolution, and it doesn't involve blood and killing people and burning bras and all that stuff. It's just, it's going to happen. It's happening. [...] The changes are painfully slow, but they have happened, and they are continuing to happen. So there's hope.*** p.131-3 UTLI
Una revolució lenta que consisteix en...tornar a casa. L'anarquisme és, per a Le Guin, precisament la llibertat de moviment en un retorn cap a casa...que no acaba mai:
- ***"The flow of a river is a model for me of courage that can keep me going carry me through the bad places, the bad times. A courage that is compliant by choice and uses force only when compelled."*** p.178 UTLI
és a dir, existir admetenent que el canvi és perenne, que mai el territori que habitem és fixe, sinó que habitem de manera vectorial i no estàtica, cercant sempre augmentar la nostra joia, consolidar el nostre territori, la casa, sense mai acabar-nos de sentir del tot, completament, enterament, a casa —que seria, per a Sartre o Deleuze, anatema, la fi del desig.
- ***There are two places: home, away. I lack A map that shows me anywhere but those. [...] We say the Earth has a circular orbit around the Sun, but of course it doesn't. The sun moves too. You never come back to the same place, you just come back to the same point on the spiral. That image is very deep in my thinking. You can't come home again and you can never step in the same river again. I quote that over and over again. [...] Homecoming may not be such an easy visit, after all. The world is changing. It is a spiral. That is kind of the point.*** p.165-6 UTLI
D'acord amb Le Guin, la ciència-ficció no es defineix per habitar el futur, sinó per representar el present, per dislocar el present a través de l'analogia per fer-lo més fàcilment interpretable, analitzable, per a dotar-nos d'una major perspectiva. Així,
- ***The thing about science fiction is, it isn't really about the future. It's about the present. But the future gives us great freedom of imagination. It's like a mirror. You can see the back of your own head.*** p.3 UTLI
I és que segons Le Guin, la preferència per la no-ficció, o pel realisme, és un mal endèmic d'Occident: una negativa a atorgar valor moral a la ficció i, per tant, valor a l'exercici de la imaginació. Per contra, els escenaris ficticis no deixen de parlar-nos de la realitat:
- ***Why don't I just write about what's real? A lot of 2oth century— and zist century-American readers think that that's all they want. They want nonfiction. They'll say, I don't read fiction because it isn't real. This is incredibly naive. Fiction is something that only human beings do, and only in certain cir-cumstances. We don't know exactly for what purposes. But* *one of the things it does is lead you to recognize what you did not know before. This is what a lot of mystical disciplines are after—simply seeing, really seeing, really being aware. Which means you're recognizing the things around you more deeply, but they also seem new. So the seeing-as-new and recognition are really the same thing*.** p.XIX UTLI
Tradicionalment, i encara quan Le Guin comença a escriure, ens trobem amb una ciència-ficció pulp —que reprodueix en el futur l'estat ideològic d'Occident i els seus somnis hipertècnics de dominació de l'Altre. Per tant, la ficció serveix efectivament com un mirall de la no-ficció, o de la realitat ideològica de la nació americana: el que caracteritza la novel·la pulp és, potser, que mostra però no posa en qüestió aquestes dinàmiques —és a dir, que encara juga amb plaer dins d'aquestes, allunyada de lac rítica. Per contra, Le Guin supera, poc a poc, les limitacions que el gènere mateix s'havia imposat per tal de tenir èxit:
- ***Here we've got science fiction, the most flexible, adaptable broad range, imaginative, crazy form that prose fiction has ever attained and were going to let it be used for making toy plastic ray guns that break when you play with them and prepackaged, precooked, predigested, indigestible flavorless TV dinners and big inflated rubber balloons containing nothing but hot air? Well, I say the hell with that.**** p.XVI UTLI
I és que una constant en la fabulació leguiniana és tant la composició amb l'alteritat com la crítica a les pràctiques capitalistes —espoli extractivista, colonització. No és que Le Guin fabriqui un llibre com una bomba incendiària, amb la meta de destruir el capitalisme: és que el seu desig de destrucció del capitalisme no deixa d'aflorar en la seva obra artística.
- ***"We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words."*** p.XXIII UTLI
Per què escriure, doncs? Escriure com a acte de dignitat humana, d'expressió libidinal de l'odi a la màquina capitalista, escriure com a mode de resistència a la ignominia, com a mode de convocatòria d'un nou poble que s'haurà d'oposar a l'estupidesa de la matriu productiva en què vivim. Escriure perquè, finalment, Ursula conté de manera virtual nous modes d'existència, pobles que demanen ser instaurats literàriament, com ho demanen els de Haraway i Despret:
- ***Writers are often asked, "Why do you write?" which is, you know, an impossible question. But a lot of them give that very answer. I wrote it because nobody else would, and I wanted to read it. Tolkien, as a matter of fact, said that—he said, "I knew nobody else could write it, because nobody else knew about Middle Earth."*** p.23 UTLI
Aquest procés d'instauració de pobles, de modes d'existència, però, no té lloc sense certa investigació, sense cert posicionament, sense cert esdevenir-ella-mateixa anarresti i urrasti, sense adquirir nous punts de vista, certa inhumanitat que permetrà expandir el propi punt de vista, del qual una mai escapa:
- ***As the cultural anthropologist must resist and be conscious of his own cultural limitations, and bigotries, and prejudices he can't get rid of them, but he must be conscious of them—I think a science fiction writer has a responsibility to do the same thing if he's inventing what he calls a different planet, a different race, alien beings, and so on. His beings can't just be white Anglo-Saxon Protestants with tentacles. You do have to do some rethinking—and [with] a certain self-consciousness of your own bias. But you can't get rid of your limitations; you can't deculturate yourself.*** p.34 UTLI
I, de fet, a mesura que Le Guin s'allunya dels tòpics de la ciència-ficció pulp, a mesura que apareixen els seus pobles, té lloc un esdeveniment molt especial: la ruptura amb la forma clàssica tel·leològica de la novel·la i, en especial, de la figura de l'heroi. L'establiment de noves relacions possibles amb l'Alteritat:
- ***"But they don't have to be human others," she replies. "We live with others on all sides at all times. That's the thing about religion, about monotheism. They say we're other and better. It's a very silly and dangerous course. It also relates to feminism. Women have been treated as animals have been. If the men insist on talking about it that way, then the men and God can walk in Eden-they can walk alone there."*** p.100-1 UTLI
Com a Miyazaki, trobem que un cos impulsat pel desig de llibertat, pel desig de construir nous modes d'existència, és el punt zero del canvi...però encara insuficient per aquest: el canvi no es construeix, no s'actualitza, sinó en l'encontre amb un altre cos igualment desitjós. Shevek no seria res sense Takver. Per a Le Guin, el canvi és essencial a la vida: la pròpia Le Guin diu que no té interès en escriure una autobiografia perquè no li interessa el que ha estat, sinó el que arribarà a ser. La qüestió, doncs, no és mai arribar a un punt final, i per això hi ha pocs finals tancats en l'obra de Le Guin: és la de recórrer, tant bé com es pugui i de manera immanent, el camí que és la vida.
- ***WICKES: Now that brings up something else. You have all these journeys in your fiction; people are always traveling around. That's a great way to see your geography, but it often becomes the plot. We go on a journey, not always an ordeal or quest, but we always go on a journey. LE GUIN: You've just hit a very significant note here. Actually I'm terrible at plotting, so all I do is sort of put people in motion and they go around in a circle and they generally end up about where they started out. That's a Le Guin plot.*** [...] ***I admire plot from a vast distance, with unenvious admiration. I don't do it; never did it; don't want to; can't. My stories are driven (rather slowly and erratically, with pauses to admire apparently irrelevant scenery) by a different chauffeur.*** p.61 UTLI; p.109 UTLI
De fet, per això mateix s'oposa a la idea —històricament situada a Occident— de progrés i, per tant, obre la qüestió sobre la teleologia —o manca d'aquesta— humana, i sobre què suposa viure una bona vida:
- ***A "sustainable" lifestyle is "sentimentally nostalgic"? [...] Any refusal to accept the abuse of the world by ill-considered, misapplied technologies as desirable/inevitable can be labelled Luddite. All genuine alternatives to Industrial Capitalism can be, and are, dismissed as "nostalgia." All ideals are positively dangerous. All idealists are dangerous: Pol Pot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jefferson, Lenin, Osama Bin Laden, Francis of Assisi. What is endangered, and how it is endangered may, however, vary.*** p.110 UTLI
En aquest sentit, Always coming home és la seva obra mestra, aquella en què es permet per primera vegada ja no la suggerència, sinó la concreció total d'un poble que existeix més-enllà del mode capitalista, del dictatum de la propietat, del domini i del progrés, de l'acumulació material i les dinàmiques racistes i sexistes que implica. Aquí, diu
- ***You know, a novelist's job is largely leaving things out. Getting the story flowing clear of all the junk around it—the river banks. Well, in this book, I wanted to include the river banks. Not only the river, but the banks of the river and the bed of the river and the trees over the river.*** p.XVI UTLI
- ***Believing that we have no future but that of high-tech development, urgent expansion, urbanization, and ruthless exploitation of natural and human resources-believing that we have to go on as we are going now-people tend to see that book as backward-turning. It isn't. It looks at, but not back. It's a radical attempt to think outside current assumptions, a refusal of them. It's an attempt to portray a genuinely mature society. To imagine a "climax technology," the principle of which would not be enforced growth, but homeostasis. To offer not a mechanical but an organic model for culture.*** p.112 UTLI
L'escriptura de Le Guin, finalment, és revolucionària únicament en tant que la pròpia Le Guin ho és. Ella mateixa narra com, des d'un punt de vista feminista, la seva vida és conservadora, reaccionària fins i tot: no per això, però, Le Guin deixarà de declarar-se feminista i lluitar, amb aquestes i amb grups pacifistes anti-nuclears, per una revolució que va més enllà de la clàssica imatge dels fusells i els adoquins.
- ***I's a very slow revolution, and it doesn't involve blood and killing people and burning bras and all that stuff. It's just, it's going to happen. It's happening. [...] The changes are painfully slow, but they have happened, and they are continuing to happen. So there's hope.*** p.131-3 UTLI
Una revolució lenta que consisteix en...tornar a casa. L'anarquisme és, per a Le Guin, precisament la llibertat de moviment en un retorn cap a casa...que no acaba mai:
- ***"The flow of a river is a model for me of courage that can keep me going carry me through the bad places, the bad times. A courage that is compliant by choice and uses force only when compelled."*** p.178 UTLI
és a dir, existir admetenent que el canvi és perenne, que mai el territori que habitem és fixe, sinó que habitem de manera vectorial i no estàtica, cercant sempre augmentar la nostra joia, consolidar el nostre territori, la casa, sense mai acabar-nos de sentir del tot, completament, enterament, a casa —que seria, per a Sartre o Deleuze, anatema, la fi del desig.
- ***There are two places: home, away. I lack A map that shows me anywhere but those. [...] We say the Earth has a circular orbit around the Sun, but of course it doesn't. The sun moves too. You never come back to the same place, you just come back to the same point on the spiral. That image is very deep in my thinking. You can't come home again and you can never step in the same river again. I quote that over and over again. [...] Homecoming may not be such an easy visit, after all. The world is changing. It is a spiral. That is kind of the point.*** p.165-6 UTLI
February 15, 2020
Excellent treatise on the writing and life of Ursula K. Le Guin. Novelist, Science Fiction writer, poet and feminist offers enlightened insight into her talent and creative writing. Her passing is not only a loss to science fiction, but literature itself.
February 27, 2020
This book is a truly inspirational and nifty one in the series of The Last Interview. I knew next to nothing about Ursula Le Guin before reading this book, other than her being a respected sci-fi author.
I didn't know she was funny nor that she was an anarchist.
She was punk. She wrote fantasy and sci-fi before they hit the mainstream and made universes from her head. She was clearly very insightful:
She had integrity and spoke like a true intellectual.
Her words on writing are also very inspirational, direct or not:
All interviews are interesting: a couple are plain and not very well researched, but the very last one, conducted over several meetings from 2015 to 2018, by David Streitfeld, is wonderful.
She had no qualms about talking about the works of others:
She spoke lovingly and straight-forwardly about her husband, Charles.
In short, this collection of interviews is enticing, alluring, straighter than an arrow (all due to Le Guin's graces), and makes me want to read Le Guin's work straightaway.
I didn't know she was funny nor that she was an anarchist.
She maintained that distinction for more than forty years, talking publicly but not privately. It was enough. Some writers need experience to feed the imagination, but Le Guin’s experiences were all in her head. She prided herself in having as few external stimuli as possible. She told an interviewer from Poland in 1988 her ideal schedule:
5:30 a.m.—wake up and lie there and think.
6:15 a.m.—get up and eat breakfast (lots).
7:15 a.m.—get to work writing, writing, writing. Noon—lunch.
1:00-3:00 p.m.—reading, music.
3:00-5:00 p.m.—correspondence, maybe house cleaning.
5:00-8:00 p.m.—make dinner and eat it.
After 8:00 p.m.—I tend to be very stupid and we won’t talk about this.
Le Guin echoed in her 2014 National Book Foundation lifetime achievement acceptance speech: “We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable—but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”
She was punk. She wrote fantasy and sci-fi before they hit the mainstream and made universes from her head. She was clearly very insightful:
PETER JENSEN: You write science fiction. Do you have any particular vision of the future?
URSULA K. LE GUIN: The thing about science fiction is, it isn’t really about the future. It’s about the present. But the future gives us great freedom of imagination. It’s like a mirror. You can see the back of your own head.
She had integrity and spoke like a true intellectual.
ZELTZER: I notice there’s no anima in your books.
LE GUIN: Of course not—I’m a woman. But the animus writes my books. My animus, what inspires me, is definitely male. People talk about muses—well, my muse ain’t no girl in a filmy dress, that’s for sure. But of course this is all metaphor.
Her words on writing are also very inspirational, direct or not:
MCPHERSON: Once you’re into a major work, like a novel, that has to be written over an extended period of time, how do you maintain the creative flow and deal with the constant interruptions?
LE GUIN: Hemingway, l think it was, had a definite and useful word of advice here. When you stop in the middle of a story or a novel, he said, never stop at a stopping place; go past it a little or stop short of it. Stop even in the middle of a sentence. Tomorrow when you come back to it you can read back the last few paragraphs, or pages, until you come to the “oh yeah, this is what happened next” and you can hook back up into your unconscious flow. That starting and stopping is sometimes a very hairy business.
It’s one reason I adore Tolkien; he always tells you what the weather is, always. And you know pretty well where north is, and what kind of landscape you’re in and so on. I really enjoy that. That’s why I like Hardy. Again, you always know what the weather is.
All interviews are interesting: a couple are plain and not very well researched, but the very last one, conducted over several meetings from 2015 to 2018, by David Streitfeld, is wonderful.
STREITFELD: How does getting old look now?
LE GUIN: It’s not the metaphysical weariness of aging that bothers me. It’s that you get so goddamn physically tired you can’t pull yourself together. If you’ve ever been very ill, it’s like that. You just can’t rise to the occasion. It’s why I don’t do many public appearances anymore. I’m a ham. I love appearing in front of an audience. But I can’t.
STREITFELD: How do you feel about e-books these days? In 2008 you wrote for Harper’s Magazine about the alleged decline of reading. It now seems prophetic about the reliability and durability of physical books: “If a book told you something when you were fifteen, it will tell it to you again when you’re fifty, though you may understand it so differently that it seems you’re reading a whole new book.”
LE GUIN: When I started writing about e-books and print books, a lot of people were shouting “The book is dead, the book is dead, it’s all going to be electronic.” I got tired of it. What I was trying to say is that now we have two ways of publishing, and we’re going to use them both. We had one, now we have two. How can that be bad? Creatures live longer if they can do things different ways. I think I’ve been fairly consistent on that. But the tone of my voice might have changed. I was going against a trendy notion. There’s this joke I heard. You know what Gutenberg’s second book was, after the Bible? It was a book about how the book was dead. Personally, though, I hate to read on a screen. I don’t have an e-reader.
STREITFELD: Some writers grumble to me about Amazon, but they’re reluctant to be public about it because they think it will hurt their careers. Others say they do not see an issue here at all.
LE GUIN: Amazon is extremely clever at making people love it, as if it were a nice uncle. I don’t expect to win, but I still need to say what I think. When I am afraid to say what I think is when I will really be defeated. The only way they can defeat me is by silencing me. I might as well go out kicking.
She had no qualms about talking about the works of others:
LE GUIN: What some consider a mystical breakthrough late in Phil’s life looks to me more like a breakdown. Still, this was a remarkable mind. But his works don’t wear as well as I hoped and thought they would.
STREITFELD: Oh no!
LE GUIN: I did an introduction to the Folio Society edition of The Man in the High Castle, and re-reading it I was struck by the clunkiness. Others that I liked a lot I now find hard going. I’m afraid to re-read Galactic Pot-Healer, my secret favorite. Clans of the Alphane Moon, which I was crazy about, now seems cruel. The way he handled women was pretty bad.
She spoke lovingly and straight-forwardly about her husband, Charles.
STREITFELD: I don’t see the books you and Charles were reading last night. Usually they’re on the tables here.
LE GUIN: He’s now reading the Oxford Book of English Verse to me. I’m reading Brontë’s Shirley to him. It’s a good book, much better than I realized. I wasn’t feeling so hot, so we had the reading upstairs, with a little whiskey. I’m still recovering from my birthday. It was very nice. It kind of went on for a week. My daughter came up from Los Angeles, and I got to see her. It’s a serious age, eighty-eight. If you turn the numbers on their side, it’s two infinities on top of each other.
In short, this collection of interviews is enticing, alluring, straighter than an arrow (all due to Le Guin's graces), and makes me want to read Le Guin's work straightaway.
March 4, 2019
A book of last interviews, and the last one, THE last one, in the summer of 2017, before Le Guin's death in 2018: yes, please read,
As I write this, I am thinking this was one last time to listen in on the ruminations of one amazing and wonderful and creative mind, as she pondered questions about her work, her thoughts on the craft of writing, on her fictional universes, and I wish I could do so again.
Reading her work, studying her fiction, changed my life.
I am so lucky to have met Ursula K. Le Guin and I told her just that.
Highly recommended.
Bonus: a footnote telling the reader that one last Earthsea story, "Firelight," was published in the Summer 2018 Paris Review, 6 months after Le Guin's death. David Streitfeld, the editor of The Last Interview, and the man who interviewed the last time, says "Firelight" is "a moving account of of Ged's dying, with Tenar by his side" (161). I can't wait to read it--and am thinking: her last published story, about the death of one her most famous and beloved characters, written close to her own death, published not long after: life, poetry, art, the story, farewell.
As I write this, I am thinking this was one last time to listen in on the ruminations of one amazing and wonderful and creative mind, as she pondered questions about her work, her thoughts on the craft of writing, on her fictional universes, and I wish I could do so again.
Reading her work, studying her fiction, changed my life.
I am so lucky to have met Ursula K. Le Guin and I told her just that.
Highly recommended.
Bonus: a footnote telling the reader that one last Earthsea story, "Firelight," was published in the Summer 2018 Paris Review, 6 months after Le Guin's death. David Streitfeld, the editor of The Last Interview, and the man who interviewed the last time, says "Firelight" is "a moving account of of Ged's dying, with Tenar by his side" (161). I can't wait to read it--and am thinking: her last published story, about the death of one her most famous and beloved characters, written close to her own death, published not long after: life, poetry, art, the story, farewell.
April 18, 2026
Everything Le Guin says is wonderful and some of the questions are intelligent. A bit short, though...
June 10, 2024
Fascinating and well-redacted
August 22, 2021
Rating 3.5 stars
I was in a bit of a quandary when it came to rating this one. On the one hand, it was an absolute joy to read Ursula K. Le Guin's words about her craft. On the other, not all of the interviews are as engaging as the rest. This book is made up of an introduction by the editor, David Streitfeld, and then 7 interviews with the author. Of these, the majority of them are the usual question and answer format, but a couple follow more of a long-form profile style. I wasn't a huge fan of the more narrative-based pieces because I felt that they were more focused on the interviewer than the writer. They were much less insightful in terms of Le Guin's life or work. Instead, they spent far too long setting the scene. You can barely hear the author's voice under the journalist's point of view.
I much preferred getting to read Le Guin's own words. That is, after all, the reason why we want to read something like this. Le Guin is an incredible writer and it's fantastic to be able to get into her head for a bit. I know that plenty of writers have written about their process but I always worry that there is something a bit manufactured about that. There's something more organic about the interview form that leads to a more natural way of speaking. In the hands of the right journalist, a writer can give away plenty of insights into their mind. With Le Guin, the best interviews in this book allow her to showcase her unique and dry sense of humour. You get an impression of the real human being underneath the reputation and it's brilliant. You come away feeling more connected to her as a person.
Mostly because you feel as though you're spending so much time with her. The interviews span her career so she is ageing as you read through. It's easy to see how some of her attitudes and beliefs change. Obviously, the key stuff sticks with her throughout her life but you can see certain alterations that come from ageing. You also see how her relationships change. Her husband and children are on the periphery of this book and you see glimpses of how the family dynamic changes through the years. Yes, this isn't an in-depth biography of the writer but it does give you enough detail to piece things together.
She is very open and honest about her feelings. There are times when she doesn't hold back her criticism and irritation. This is one of those books that I could have highlighted everything. She expresses such ease about setting her ideas down and feels so natural talking about her career. You can feel how much she enjoyed writing and loved her books. More than anything, you see her passion and her interest. The passages in which she talks about the writers that inspired her to make her seem like any other booklover. She's a fan of literature and just wants to do what she loves. Anyone who has any prior knowledge of her political and social leanings won't be surprised by the parts that deal with these but it's still enjoyable to see her tackle them. A lot of focus lands on gender and she offers some great arguments for her beliefs.
So, if this has just been a book full of Le Guin's own words, then it would have been an easy 5-star read. However, two of the interviews just didn't work for me. The longer articles that followed more of an essay/profile approach seemed like odd choices. On both occasions, I felt as though the author was lost and overshadowed by the journalist. The result just seems self-indulgent and unfocused. They also feel a little repetitive, which is saying something considering how many questions are repeated throughout the book. Although, this is to be expected from a writer like Le Guin. She has written some popular and iconic novels in her time, so it makes sense that they crop up a lot.
When it comes down to it, this might not be the definitive guide to Ursula K. Le Guin but it is definitely worth a read for anyone who wants to know more about her. I don't think people give her enough credit for her humour, so I think that may surprise some readers. There are also plenty of inspirational quotations and insight into the life of a writer. Does offer any practical tips? No, but that's not that point. Instead, we get to spend a few minutes in her head and learn more about what makes her tick. It's a lovely way to spend a few hours.
I was in a bit of a quandary when it came to rating this one. On the one hand, it was an absolute joy to read Ursula K. Le Guin's words about her craft. On the other, not all of the interviews are as engaging as the rest. This book is made up of an introduction by the editor, David Streitfeld, and then 7 interviews with the author. Of these, the majority of them are the usual question and answer format, but a couple follow more of a long-form profile style. I wasn't a huge fan of the more narrative-based pieces because I felt that they were more focused on the interviewer than the writer. They were much less insightful in terms of Le Guin's life or work. Instead, they spent far too long setting the scene. You can barely hear the author's voice under the journalist's point of view.
I much preferred getting to read Le Guin's own words. That is, after all, the reason why we want to read something like this. Le Guin is an incredible writer and it's fantastic to be able to get into her head for a bit. I know that plenty of writers have written about their process but I always worry that there is something a bit manufactured about that. There's something more organic about the interview form that leads to a more natural way of speaking. In the hands of the right journalist, a writer can give away plenty of insights into their mind. With Le Guin, the best interviews in this book allow her to showcase her unique and dry sense of humour. You get an impression of the real human being underneath the reputation and it's brilliant. You come away feeling more connected to her as a person.
Mostly because you feel as though you're spending so much time with her. The interviews span her career so she is ageing as you read through. It's easy to see how some of her attitudes and beliefs change. Obviously, the key stuff sticks with her throughout her life but you can see certain alterations that come from ageing. You also see how her relationships change. Her husband and children are on the periphery of this book and you see glimpses of how the family dynamic changes through the years. Yes, this isn't an in-depth biography of the writer but it does give you enough detail to piece things together.
She is very open and honest about her feelings. There are times when she doesn't hold back her criticism and irritation. This is one of those books that I could have highlighted everything. She expresses such ease about setting her ideas down and feels so natural talking about her career. You can feel how much she enjoyed writing and loved her books. More than anything, you see her passion and her interest. The passages in which she talks about the writers that inspired her to make her seem like any other booklover. She's a fan of literature and just wants to do what she loves. Anyone who has any prior knowledge of her political and social leanings won't be surprised by the parts that deal with these but it's still enjoyable to see her tackle them. A lot of focus lands on gender and she offers some great arguments for her beliefs.
So, if this has just been a book full of Le Guin's own words, then it would have been an easy 5-star read. However, two of the interviews just didn't work for me. The longer articles that followed more of an essay/profile approach seemed like odd choices. On both occasions, I felt as though the author was lost and overshadowed by the journalist. The result just seems self-indulgent and unfocused. They also feel a little repetitive, which is saying something considering how many questions are repeated throughout the book. Although, this is to be expected from a writer like Le Guin. She has written some popular and iconic novels in her time, so it makes sense that they crop up a lot.
When it comes down to it, this might not be the definitive guide to Ursula K. Le Guin but it is definitely worth a read for anyone who wants to know more about her. I don't think people give her enough credit for her humour, so I think that may surprise some readers. There are also plenty of inspirational quotations and insight into the life of a writer. Does offer any practical tips? No, but that's not that point. Instead, we get to spend a few minutes in her head and learn more about what makes her tick. It's a lovely way to spend a few hours.
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