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meyerlemon (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} meyerlemon) wrote,@ 2007-08-18 15:01:00 |
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Uch, it's so hot! I'm seriously considering taking myself to a COOLING CENTER (ie, ...a mall of some kind) but that would involve getting in my car. And.
TOO HOT.
Last night, I read "The Other Wind" by Ursula Le Guin. I just like her so much, you guys. I went and read the Wiki recap of "Tehanu" (the previous in the EARTHSEA novels) to refresh my memory, and it was full of whiny crap like "GED WAS TOTALLY EMASCULATED AND IT'S BECAUSE URSULA LE GUIN IS A FEMINIST" and it made me cranky.
She's the only writer where I feel like she's this really wise person, and I admire her so much as a writer and a thinker and I think maybe she's the answer to the question I always draw a blank on ("Who are your heroes?") and-- anyway. I just think she's GREAT.
(Also, she's really good at writing men! She doesn't emasculate them at all, THANK YOU, STUPID WIKIPEDIA PERSON, she lets them have inner emotional lives, and still understands that they're not women with penises.)
And I really like that in this book, Tenar and Ged are both old. And they're-- PEOPLE. MARRIED OLD PEOPLE. And it's so rare to have books where the elders get to be the protagonists, and-- I just liked it a lot. OBVIOUSLY.
Here is a line I thought was extremely great:
He followed the Doorkeeper out into the night, through the streets, past the walls of the School, across fields under a high round hill, and along a stream singing its water music softly in the darkness of its banks.
Isn't that lovely?
Also. I really like - I'm sorry, I'm still blabbering - that in Le Guin's writing, the alternate worlds she creates are just vehicles for talking about people.
I don't understand why anyone would go "OH, she's a FEMINIST writer", either. What does that even MEAN? FRANKLY, I feel like that's just a way MEN (sorry) sideline really smart female writers. Because I would really question the thought that her work is in any way "feminist", in the sense that it advocates for a particular perspective. It's just about people.
*hates everyone*
I cried a lot at the end. Not because it was so tragic! (It wasn't. So I'm not spoiling anything. Hush.) But because I think that Le Guin (I feel like I should call her Miss Le Guin, hee!) is coming into the twilight of her own life, and a lot of the themes of this book had to do with people growing older, and preparing to go through the shift out of this life and into the next, which can be a joyous thing for the person transitioning, but is I think always a little sad for the people staying behind. Part of my weepiness, I know, was my sadness that we won't have this author for ever and ever.
Anyway, I think she's wonderful. And she's basically the only living author where if I met her I would get stuttery and starstruck and say things like "I THINK YOU'RE MAGNIFICENT. PLEASE, BLESS MY BABY." or something.
SO THERE.
TOO HOT.
Last night, I read "The Other Wind" by Ursula Le Guin. I just like her so much, you guys. I went and read the Wiki recap of "Tehanu" (the previous in the EARTHSEA novels) to refresh my memory, and it was full of whiny crap like "GED WAS TOTALLY EMASCULATED AND IT'S BECAUSE URSULA LE GUIN IS A FEMINIST" and it made me cranky.
She's the only writer where I feel like she's this really wise person, and I admire her so much as a writer and a thinker and I think maybe she's the answer to the question I always draw a blank on ("Who are your heroes?") and-- anyway. I just think she's GREAT.
(Also, she's really good at writing men! She doesn't emasculate them at all, THANK YOU, STUPID WIKIPEDIA PERSON, she lets them have inner emotional lives, and still understands that they're not women with penises.)
And I really like that in this book, Tenar and Ged are both old. And they're-- PEOPLE. MARRIED OLD PEOPLE. And it's so rare to have books where the elders get to be the protagonists, and-- I just liked it a lot. OBVIOUSLY.
Here is a line I thought was extremely great:
He followed the Doorkeeper out into the night, through the streets, past the walls of the School, across fields under a high round hill, and along a stream singing its water music softly in the darkness of its banks.
Isn't that lovely?
Also. I really like - I'm sorry, I'm still blabbering - that in Le Guin's writing, the alternate worlds she creates are just vehicles for talking about people.
I don't understand why anyone would go "OH, she's a FEMINIST writer", either. What does that even MEAN? FRANKLY, I feel like that's just a way MEN (sorry) sideline really smart female writers. Because I would really question the thought that her work is in any way "feminist", in the sense that it advocates for a particular perspective. It's just about people.
*hates everyone*
I cried a lot at the end. Not because it was so tragic! (It wasn't. So I'm not spoiling anything. Hush.) But because I think that Le Guin (I feel like I should call her Miss Le Guin, hee!) is coming into the twilight of her own life, and a lot of the themes of this book had to do with people growing older, and preparing to go through the shift out of this life and into the next, which can be a joyous thing for the person transitioning, but is I think always a little sad for the people staying behind. Part of my weepiness, I know, was my sadness that we won't have this author for ever and ever.
Anyway, I think she's wonderful. And she's basically the only living author where if I met her I would get stuttery and starstruck and say things like "I THINK YOU'RE MAGNIFICENT. PLEASE, BLESS MY BABY." or something.
SO THERE.
