RE: My Tribute to Ursula LeGuin, Who Wrote Some of the First Books I Cared About Reading
Wow. Awesome tribute. This is great. I really loved her and still do.
My favourite book with Le Guin’s name on it is her translation of the Tao Te Ching.
It don’t take to new things easily, so when i first read her translation is rubbed me wrong, it wasn’t what I was used to, what I expected.
But I kept coming back to it, and eventually became my favorite translation.Another favourite book by her is the Dispossessed. This is kind of a cop out answer because I’ve only read two books she authored, The Dispossessed and Left Hand of Darkness (which I had to return to the library before finishing so…). And frankly, I really don’t like Genly Ai (which has a lot to do with why I didn’t finish the book before the due date. I w as fascinated by what seemed like some parallels between the beliefs of the Foretellers and the Tao, so I’ll probably go back and finish it one day.
I really would miss her. To you my Le Guin you will be missed
more than you will ever know.
The Dispossessed is very good also. Yes, there are unlikable characters in some of her books, I agree. But groundbreaking and thought provoking they are, all of them. I never understood, until I was older, how much Taoism influenced her. The balance and the way were there in almost every book and in her words whenever she spoke.
Hmmmm. Taosim influences my life a lot even though I don't consider myself to practice it. Both of my best friends took up meditation at different times of their lives and they lead, though separately, lives of tranquility and quiet observation. Now I'm seeing signs of it everywhere, and every time I find a moment of crisis, I settle down and remember their teachings.
One of them also admires Buddha a lot and, funnily as it sounds, while I lead a life of pleasure-seeking, any time I'm alone and in a time-out, I imagine I've reached Nirvana and watch myself from above. I think this is also one of the pleasures of a writer, imagining yourself as a character and examining your own essence.