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Sep 7, 2023
Earthsea, and Other Realms
Ursula Le Guin as Social Inactivist
Summary
To mark the publication of John's book Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea (My Reading), with Oxford University Press (2023), John and Elizabeth take to the airways to share their love of Le Guin's "speculative anthropology," gender politics, and goats.
And we share a delight we've been holding back for just this occasion, a series of clips from John's interview with Le Guin in her hometown of Portland, Oregon, in 2015 (a longer print-only version appeared in Public Books). Since Ursula is no longer with us, having died in 2018, it's especially poignant to listen to their conversation. Though its tone actually isn't sad at all, but friendly, generous, and ruminative.
Mentioned in the Episode
- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Books of Earthsea
- Friedrich Schiller, "On Naive and Sentimental Poetry"
- Ursula K. Le Guin, "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie"
- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
- Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer (and the Chronicles of Prydain)
- Judith Butler Gender Trouble
- Angelica Gorodischer (esp. Le Guin's translation of Kalpa Imperial)
- Lao Tzu, the Tao Te Ching, tr. Ursula K. Le Guin
- "The Bones of the Earth" in Tales from Earthsea
- John Plotz, Time and the Tapestry
- Listen to the episode here
- Read episode here
Your Host
Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
Free-ranging discussion of books from the past that cast a sideways light on today's world. Recall This Book is hosted by Elizabeth Ferry, Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis University and John Plotz, Barbara Mandel Professor of the Humanities at Brandeis University and co-founder of the Brandeis Educational Justice Initiative.