30
votes
Accepted
Is there anything to support this Wikipedia claim about Ursula K. Le Guin re-using the planet name "Werel"?
If you follow the source linked in the Wikipedia article it quotes LeGuin with saying in an open letter that she had "simply forgot" that she had used the name already. Also the planets are ...
- 19.4k
19
votes
Accepted
Has Ursula Le Guin ever cited Kibbutz as an influence for the society described in The Dispossessed?
From the Guardian:
Q: The austere, anti-materialistic, pioneering spirit of the anarchist settlers on Anarres, in The Dispossessed, reminds me a bit of accounts of the very early kibbutzim, set up ...
- 10.7k
18
votes
Accepted
What does this phrase from Ursula Le Guin's book "The Lathe of Heaven" mean?
This is a world in which drug use is ubiquitous. The irony being that while the counsellor says that his goal is to help Orr off of drugs, literally his first action is to offer him more drugs
"O. ...
- 718k
14
votes
Looking for title of a Ursula K. Le Guin story/novel that features four-way marriage/romantic relationships
Could this be Mountain Ways by Ursula K. Le Guin? You can read in in full here
Marriage on O is a foursome, the sedoretu—a man and a woman from the
Morning moiety and a man and a woman from the ...
- 718k
13
votes
Has Ursula Le Guin ever cited Kibbutz as an influence for the society described in The Dispossessed?
According to Le Guin, she did consider the Kibbutzim (and Chinese Commune) movement in relation to the relative gender differences that might be found in utopian society, but cites her main influence ...
- 718k
10
votes
Why does Le Guin say that Superman's mother was a 'funnybook'?
Before being dominated by superheroes, comics were mostly humour, first as comic strips and then as anthologies like Famous Funnies, which we would recognise as a modern comicbook.
Le Guin's not ...
- 4,931
9
votes
Accepted
Are the shadow creatures in the Court of the Terrenon of the same kind as the ones in the Tombs of Atuan?
The natures of the various dark powers of the Earth is one of the least explored elements of Earthsea's cosmology. In particular, the episode at the Court of the Terrenon in Osskil is probably the ...
- 102k
9
votes
Accepted
The concept of shifgrethor in the book 'The Left Hand of Darkness'
I have two ways to answer this:
First in universe - Genly Ai is trying to understand the society of Gethen, and some concepts are alien to him. He connects this to the Earth concepts of "Face" and "...
- 7,652
8
votes
Accepted
Rocannon's World vs "Rokanan"
In Planet of Exile Agat says that his people learned mindspeech from "another race, long ago, on a world called Rokanan."
In Four Ways to Forgiveness Solly had learned "farthinking from ...
- 143k
6
votes
Accepted
Looking for an Ursula K Le Guin Story
I think this might be Some Approaches to the Problem of the Shortage of Time. It's in her anthology The Compass Rose.
[Incidentally, both of the stories quoted below were written as humorous pieces ...
- 28.4k
6
votes
What is the meaning of the name 'Getheren' of Gethen?
Getheren is apparently an eponym, that is, a person who was the founder of a place or custom or discovery. Other examples include Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, and Charles Darwin, the very ...
- 18.3k
4
votes
Why the choice of Genly Ai's last name?
"Ai" is an actual last (family) name; it's the roman alphabet representation of a Chinese family name ("艾"). As of the 2000 census, there are apparently 337 people with that last name in the U.S.
...
- 143k
4
votes
Accepted
Is "The Matter of the Seggri" a novelette or a novella?
The story contains 16,566 words.
This puts it into the novelette category, albeit at the top end.
Best Novelette: Awarded for a science fiction or fantasy story of between seven thousand five ...
- 718k
3
votes
Was Leckie's Raven Tower inspired by Wizard of Earthsea?
Frankly, it would be astonishing if Leckie didn't claim Ursula Le Guin as an influence. She gives "The Left Hand of Darkness" as one of her favourite novels and an influence on her Ancillary ...
- 820
3
votes
Is "The Matter of the Seggri" a novelette or a novella?
Approximately? Somewhere around 12k, which is enough less than 17.5k that an error of 25% still won't make it a novella.
I'm basing the estimate on its appearance in the collection The Birthday of ...
- 143k
3
votes
Guide to Napa Valley sites from Le Guin's "Always Coming Home"?
The Na valley is indeed the Napa Valley and some places of note are listed below. Compare satellite imagery for the locations with the Nine towns of the River map of the Valley (available here, but ...
- 183
3
votes
Have the writers of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds credited Ursula K. Le Guin?
Yes Kurtzman has commented on the story previously. But it was regarding the Kelpian that caused the burn in STD not this Strange New Worlds episode.
Nitpicking Nerds'...
- 11.5k
2
votes
Why does Le Guin say that Superman's mother was a 'funnybook'?
"Funny book" in this context is most likely just a synonym for "comic book". Le Guin isn't saying that the Superman strips themselves are funny, she's saying that the series is ...
- 16k
2
votes
Why didn't the Nameless Ones try to punish "sinners" other than Arha and Ged?
Since Ged had entered the Tombs, he had used his Mage skills to weave 'a vast network' of spells of concealment and sleep on the Nameless Ones- the powers of the Earth of that particular spot- for his ...
- 21
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