R.I.P. Ursula K. LeGuin

[HopAlongBunny]

Science fiction writer, translator, feminist, scholar,...1929 to the present.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/23/obituaries/ursula-k-le-guin-acclaimed-for-her-fantasy-fiction-is-dead-at-88.html

I am embarrassed to say that while I read (and loved) Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and The Lathe of Heaven, it was so long ago I can't remember much about any of them:book2: Have to re-read them I guess.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

RIP

Not only a wonderful writer, but spawned an entire coterie of good sci-fi and fantasy writers in the Pac NW.

[Agent Miles]

I watched the "Lathe of Heaven" back in 1980 on PBS. The alien looked like a cross between an upright turtle and a lamp post. An amazing image I've never forgotten.

The writing style of "set on a planet where the customary gender distinctions do not apply" must have been novel a half century ago, but I would hope that at least the West has grown beyond that. The initial military column to cross into Iraqi territory in the First Gulf War was led by a female Military Police lieutenant. I served under three female commanders who were excellent officers. Thankfully, our women leaders no longer reside only in fiction.