From last time....
I've got the PDF on the ol' HD, but I'd prefer a paper copy.
It comes in "The Wind's Twelve Quarters" along with "The Day Before The Revolution" a prequel to "The Dispossessed".
Well!!
This one had a free PDF too!
Read it right here.
I gave the elevator pitch version already here.
"The Day Before The Revolution" is about Odo (not the Star Trek shapeshifter), the female anarchist who founded the society that begat Shevek from "The Dispossessed".
If Shevek is the Hainish-verse's Einstein, then Odo is Shevek's Jesus.
Le Guin said Odo walked away from Omelas.
That's the connection.
It's another quickie. About only 5-6 pages longer than "Omelas".
I'm still gonna get "The Wind's Twelve Quarters" for the physical copy, like I wanted physical copies of "The Others Trilogy".
Plus, its got some other Hainish stories in there.
But I just needed TDBTR in my head.
It was gonna drive me crazy.
I loved it.
It's pretty melancholy, but much more hopeful and heartful than the pure gloom of Omelas.
All the more hopeful knowing it leads into "The Dispossessed" which gives birth to the rest of Hainish-verse.
Amar El-Mohtar, who did the introduction to "Worlds Of Exile And Illusion" brought up TDBTR, and said it made her cry.
Well, I didn't bawl, but it did make my tummy tingle.
El-Mohtar also mentions that as a bratty kid, she turned her nose up to the Earthsea books, then re-read them later in life, and wondered what the Hell was wrong with her, and caught back up on all of Le Guin with a sense of regret.
But then realized she came to Le Guin both too late, and just in time.
I felt exactly that way reading Margaret's books after she passed. Times a fucking 100.
I already cried all those tears over Margaret.
But yeah, I get it.
Some critic said Le Guin connecting "Revolution" to "Omelas" cheapens "Omelas".
I'm reminded of the Marshall McLuhan expert in "Annie Hall".
Fuck him.
I think they go together like peanut butter and jelly.
So!! Next time; "The Wind's Twelve Quarters" for sure.
Stay tuned!
3 comments:
"Vonnegut expert"? You mean Marshall McLuhan expert? I've watched that film many times and don't recall Vonnegut being mentioned in it.
Good lord how low do we have to sink for BORIS JOHNSON to look like the good guy? This should be way bigger than that thing where Johnny Rotten blasted Jimmy Savile:
https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/1gsrxjp/boris_roasts_republicans_putin_infatuation_in/
Dawkins praising Elon...
....if I haven't mentioned this already, I have a very strong feeling that if Christopher Hitchens were alive today he'd probably be doing something similar, too.
Oh, right! You know what I got that flipped around with? Vonnegut in "Back To School" Doy!! Fixed it!
Yeah, Hitchen's response would be hard to gauge. He was a war-hawk, and Trump wants to end all the wars through total surrender. But he would have liked every other part of the Elon package up to the Trump-licking. There would have been some crappy takes either way.
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