Sci-fi master Ursula Le Guin always asked the question: what sort of world do you want to live in? In her masterpiece, The Dispossessed, she considers injustice and war through an alternative universe.
Short fiction’s fragmentation reflects its origins as a response to trauma. Two new collections explore the dangers and vulnerability of womanhood, and the global threat of climate change.
‘California is America fast-forward,’ writes one scholar. Does that mean that the dystopian infernos that have consumed parts of the state are simply a picture of what awaits the rest of America?
Le Guin’s father, Alfred Kroeber, was at a forefront of a movement that rejected social Darwinism and cultural superiority. In his daughter’s fiction, we see these ideas come to life.
Le Guin’s A Wizard of EarthSea and The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas are just two examples of her prolific and influential writing career in fantasy and science fiction.