
Ursula Le Guin’s Writing Was Shaped by Anthropology (2018) - Thevet
https://www.sapiens.org/culture/ursula-le-guin/
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bscphil
> In The Dispossessed, she contrasts the different political systems of two
> neighboring worlds, not to argue which one is best, per se, but to show that
> in order for these systems to exist, humans need to actively participate in
> and reproduce them.

This is kind of a strange take. I find it difficult to imagine anyone reading
The Dispossessed and not coming to the conclusion that Le Guin's loyalties lie
much stronger with one side than the other.

~~~
jackyinger
Yeah she clearly has a favorite, but she points out flaws in both systems. I
think that being critical of ones preferred system is noteworthy.

Edit: Furthermore, are the protagonists of The Dispossessed totally free in
their society? No. Despite Le Guin’s apparently utopian aims in rendering
functional anarchism, the protagonists chafe with society in many ways.

~~~
jaspax
I actually think that this understates the degree to which LeGuin critiques
the anarcho-communism of Anarres. We are presented with a society which is
overtly anarchic and which finds its entire _raison d 'etre_ its its rejection
of coercive power structures. But the entire thrust of the Anarres portions of
the book is to demonstrate that the society is not, in fact, anarchic, that it
is filthy with power and coercion, and that by pointing this out (and by being
willing to work with the nations of Urras on scientific progress) the
protagonists find themselves on the wrong side of that power structure.

On a recent re-read, I was particularly struck by the anecdote of a playwright
who got sent to a de-facto prison for making a play critical of the local
governing committee. "Gulags for political dissidents" is a pretty bad time in
any case, but doing so in a society that _specifically_ prides itself in
having no prisons or police is uniquely bad.

~~~
cdent
Yeah, there is a very strong critique of the way in which neighbors on Anarres
can effectively be tyrants.

Le Guin is masterful at letting no one and no thing off the hook. No character
or society is ever perfect. She clearly has preferences and hopes. Any
character or society which intentionally and actively constrains the liberty
of another is subject to withering.

I'm currently in the midst of a read through of everything I can find of hers.
Started with the Earthsea books (which I hadn't read before) and now in the
midst of the Hainish cycle books (on The Telling at the moment). Many of those
I had read before, but the differences in me between now and when I read them
before are very apparent. I'm responding to the books in a much more emotional
way, now.

Left Hand of Darkness and Dispossessed are deservedly the classics. If you've
limited time, read those. "Five Ways to Forgiveness" is a very moving
collection of five (funny that) novellas in the same story line.

The Telling is proving to be very interesting to me. It is very explicitly
about the notions of humans creating culture by learning and telling mentioned
in the original post. That is helping to illuminate many of the reasons why
I've remained invested in computing and the web, despite many wrong turns.

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JNRowe
[Speaking as someone who takes a lot of random book recommendations from side
discussions on this site…]

If, like me, you're aware of how prolific¹ she was but have yet to dip in,
where would you start?

 _Edit_ : Thanks! Looks like The Left Hand Of Darkness wins so far.

1\.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin_bibliograp...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin_bibliography)

~~~
DantesKite
On a side note, I noticed some of the best book "choices" I've made came when
I was able to read a couple snippets. Just enough to get my curiosity going.

It would be cool if Amazon released some of the most highlighted passages for
some of these stories. I feel like it would do more for discoverability than
just recommending book titles.

~~~
JNRowe
Yeah, I'd like to see some improvement too. Simply asking strangers who you
think _may_ be like you feels weak.

My favourite weird recommendation was The 2020 Commission Report¹. I watched a
guy miss his stop on the train home because his thoughts were so taken by it.
Seemed like a good enough reason to pick it up ;)

1\.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_2020_Commission_Report_o...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_2020_Commission_Report_on_the_North_Korean_Nuclear_Attacks_Against_the_United_States)

~~~
DantesKite
Ohh. Thanks for the recommendation. Just reading about the Wikipedia article
had me entranced.

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a_bonobo
If you want to learn more about Le Guin's influences, I just finished reading
Charles King's Gods Of The Upper Air (
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42951225-gods-of-the-
upp...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42951225-gods-of-the-upper-air) )

It's pop-history of the early 20th century anthropologists with a focus on the
influence of Franz Boas and the many things he spawned, and how Boas and his
pupils fought against genetic determinism. Many of the 'characters' in the
books appear in OP's article. Recommended companion piece!

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andrewflnr
Speaking of culture and context: it's crazy that these ideas are relatively
new when they seem so obvious to me, having grown up with the idea that
culture is anything but innate.

~~~
cmrx64
isn't participating in culture fun!

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tonyedgecombe
If you have access to iPlayer then the BBC has a program on Ursula Le Guin
which is worth watching:

[https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000bh0x/the-worlds-
of...](https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000bh0x/the-worlds-of-ursula-k-
le-guin)

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BadThink6655321
“The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” is a great short story. It won a Hugo in
1974.

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crimsonalucard
Kroeber was ultimately wrong in the sense that culture is in fact intimately
tied to evolution.

Natural selection happens at the biological level and at the macro level. Have
you ever thought why ecological systems are so in equilibrium with the
environment? Because any system that wasn't in equilibrium was ultimately
destroyed by natural selection.

Macro level systems with reproductive qualities like culture or ecology are
subject to evolution.

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Hitton
I don't know why are you downvoted, it's pretty much settled science. There
are multiple papers on culture-gene co-evolution of individualism-collectivism
and the serotonin transporter gene. And individualism/collectivism is big part
of any culture. It's hard to imagine something like Confucianism developing in
highly individualistic western Europe.

~~~
jtr1
The phrase "there are multiple papers" with no attribution should be
considered as something analogous to a code smell.

~~~
crimsonalucard
This is not true. If genes control physical features it does not make any
sense to preclude genes from controlling mental features.

From evidence we see that culture is flexible among different races but by the
above logic alone there must be some genetic factor that we aren't able to
measure yet.

I wouldn't be surprised to find a paper that addresses this on some level.

In fact did you know that in the field of anthropology. There has never been a
scientific evidence found for a human culture or civilization where women in
general dominated and took the overall leadership role? When it did happen it
was temporary and the baton was handed back to the males voluntarily. Many
anthropologists including my female professor who taught me the concepts at
UCLA believe that the prevalence of this fact across multitudes of cultures
may point to a biological phenomenon rather than a cultural one.

Controversial, I know. I'm not advocating anything political here just
science. Morally I feel both sexes should be judged on equal grounds but even
believing this on a moral level, scientifically I cannot deny what has been
observed, and much of academia feels the same way.

