We’re pretty big genre-lit nerds here at WGBH Digital. You name it — horror, sci-fi, fantasy — we have someone on our team who’s read a large chunk of the library shelf. So, as we prepped for Friday's screening of The Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, we were horrified to discover that none of our well-read group had digested any of her books. For shame! So, naturally, we did what any good group of book-obsessed geeks do, and asked our Le Guin-loving audience (and co-workers): What books are required for a Le Guin must-read list?
Check out some responses below, and give us your own answer at #WGBHLeGuin on Twitter , or right on our page on Facebook . And don't forget to watch The Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin on American Masters this Friday at 9 pm.
Tales from Earthsea
. What I enjoy about it, and about all her writing overall, is her depictions of the people in the world. They feel warm and real. Even when the world is steeped in magic, they still feel tangible and relatable. They don't feel "other" or "better than" and remain very human.
Laura, Georgia
I would go with
The Dispossessed
. It is both dated and extremely relevant to our lives on this planet today. I just reread it a year or two ago, and found it just as solid as the first time I read it 40 years ago.
Nora, Massachusetts
The Farthest Shore
(Earthsea Trilogy) “We men dream dreams, we work magic, we do good, we do evil. The dragons do not dream. They are dreams. They do not work magic: it is their substance, their being. They do not do; they are.” It inspired me while I studied at Yvonne Andersen’s Yellow Ball Workshop. [In] my first cut-out animation exercise DRAGONS, I imagined myself as the young lad, becoming aware of the magic inside himself and the magic in the world around him. When a dragon shared with you it’s name, it created a very special bond.
Bob, Massachusetts
The Lathe of Heaven
is sort of a weird book ([and] I don't call a lot of books weird) about a guy who learns his dreams can change reality. And he goes to a therapist because he thinks he's crazy and the therapist realizes what's happening. And then it spirals from there.
Tori, Washington D.C.
The Left Hand of Darkness
was a hugely impactful book for me. I remember immediately feeling wholly immersed in this foreign world and getting entirely swept up in it. Le Guin's prose is gorgeous and I often found myself rereading sentences or paragraphs slowly just to be able to savor them again. The story's epic journey and deep meditation on gender are so powerful and thought-provoking. I loved that the book forces you to think about gender in such a new way, and really question what it means. Finally, I read this book for the first time during a really hot stretch in the summertime, and I loved reading about the frigid landscape of the book when I was roasting personally.
Fiona, Massachusetts
I like the
Earthsea series
as a whole because the characters grow and reappear in different roles as the story progresses. It starts with a coming of age story where the hero has to confront himself, rather than some big bad evil guy, to succeed. He’s in the next book, but this time he’s the antagonist while the protagonist is a young girl. They actually have to work together to succeed this time. Then, in the third book, he is cast in the role of the wise old man who must sacrifice his powers to help that book’s protagonist. I’m still reading the fourth book, but all three characters appear in it. I like that although there are “evil” forces in the world, the resolution to the problems faced by the characters are more often an internal reckoning rather than simply another big dumb battle scene.
Chuck, Washington
