Mazes

by Ursula K. Le Guin

Short story first published in Epoch, 1975.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1975

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

[The Conspiracy is Capitalism · Rating 4 out of 5]

Le Guin revisits Kafka…

--I recently read Le Guin’s 1971 The Lathe of Heaven, where the semi-conscious plot involving reality-altering dreams delivered a Kafka-esque experience (in particular, The Trial).
…Now, Le Guin performs a haunting switch-of-perspective in the 1975 short story “Mazes” reminiscent of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. The protagonist is a lab creature and Le Guin works her magic narrating the reversed, inside-out observations.

…My mind wanders to our messy relationships with animals and nature, how we build our “value” systems, the long and winding process to develop empathy and the contradictions that remain. A personal relationship with nature has been particularly difficult; Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants has been eye-opening on this.

[Tobias Cramer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ursula K. Le Guin er allerbedst i hendes korteste tekster. Derfor falder mikroforlagene over hinanden for at komme først med den næste novelle, der forrykker grænserne mellem arternes livsverdener.

Labyrinter er fortalt fra et forsøgsdyrs perspektiv og lader os forstå, hvor lidt vi egentlig forstår. Det grundlæggende spørgsmål er: Hvordan erkender vi verden som en mus?

Det gør vi ikke. Vi er ontologisk forbandet. Vi kommer aldrig til at se og opleve verden som andet end mennesker. Disse tumpede opretstående kødhylstre. Disse brovtende hårbefængte humørsyge parasitter.

Le Guin lærer os i lige så høj grad som Houellebecq, hvor lidt vi er værd.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn, this is neat. I loved every choice made in Le Guin's "Mazes". Gives a horrifying perspective to even the most harmless of animal testing.

[Esperanza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta historia me dejo con un muy mal cuerpo.

[Concertina · Rating 5 out of 5]

<3

[Sezen Yasar · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The best maze is the mind '.
For being an alien to another being, you do not need to live out of space or another planet. Just look at animal testing or lab mouse .

[xenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

fucking hell

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this story (which follows Nine Lives) more though it was shorter... but still more understandable as it took place in a familiar setting of a lab animal intelligence test with choices offered to the "animal". No attempt to communicate would be part of lab protocols. Having a story of the intelligent animals perspective in the experiment and its views on its options was very interesting especially because most animal psychology experiments take place in the supposed setting of causing no harm/injury to the animal. This story's animal certain thought its death was immanent.

[Nayantara Chandrasekhar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of a very short science fiction story that makes me question everything that is my reality and I must say Le Guin comes close to achieving this. Perhaps I'm biassed because much of my degree explores the disconnect and ambiguity of language and communication, but her very simply exploration of semiotic meaning v/s linguistic meaning and the communication of tone and intention through action rather than words shared between species was beautiful.

[Abram Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mazes is criminally under-appreciated. Le Guin gives agency and language to one of society's very least privileged creatures.

[Etain · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the idea of a society whose main art is dance but I feel I missed the point. I couldn't figure out if it was an abstraction or a metaphor or something else

[Syirah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm vegan I gotta give it 5 stars

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75