Ursula K. Le Guin - “Powers” reading ⋅ Novelish

Oct 19, 2007

Ursula K. Le Guin - “Powers” reading

I just got back from Ursula K. Le Guin’s reading of Powers at the University Bookstore in Seattle. Exciting, no?

Duane - University Bookstore Seattle

Pictured above: Duane giving the introduction. Duane is the University Bookstore’s fantasy specialist, sort of. I don’t know his official job title. He is very awesome, however.

Ursula K. Le Guin reading

And here’s Ursula Le Guin; after reading a passage of Powers - as well as a poem that someone in the audience requested - she answered a few questions.

I’ll copy down what I remember of the Q&A below. Disclaimer: I believe I accurately captured the essence of what was said, but I’m writing this several hours later. It’s possible that I may have made a small mistake or two.

The world of The Western Shore series and Powers isn’t based on any particular country or culture - it’s her world, an invented world. The northern parts of it resembles Scotland in some ways… but she’s only been to Scotland once and doesn’t really knows what it’s like there.
On differences between writing life in 1955 and 2005: the largest change for her is that, after a few decades, she’s getting paid for her books. (Presumably meaning paid enough to live on.) Writing is not a very romantic pursuit, she explains, in response to an audience member bringing it up. It involves a lot of sitting alone. For the writer that may be enjoyable - they’re lost within in their own worlds, after all - but definitely not biography material.
Does she have an ending planned out when she begins? Basically, yes. She doesn’t work very well without an idea of where something is going; she needs a “strong conviction” of where it’s headed. But sometimes where it’s headed will change - and a lot of how the characters get to where they’re headed isn’t planned at all beforehand.
She belongs to a poetry group that will give a monthly assignment, usually involving some specific form (e.g. a sonnet). She finds that having the structure laid out can be a really good thing in helping the words come out. (I believe the word “liberating” was used, even though you might think it’s the opposite.)
She is a very fast reader. In regards to how she allocates time, reading is something she usually does when she’s tired, since writing can be a lot of work. She often reads in the early afternoon or at night, which would presumably mean she writes in the morning.
She likes languages a lot, inventing them and so forth. She identifies with Tolkien in this way, as that’s something he did, too.
She thinks she’s taken the Earthsea books to where she wanted them to be, so it’s unlikely that there will be another.
She’s also unlikely to return to the space opera genre. Previously, the idea that humans were headed for space seemed possible. She feels this gave some credibility to the genre among readers, and also made it more appealing to her to write. But today, it doesn’t seem so realistic.
There are only so many paragraphs about traveling you can do before it starts to get boring, so sometimes corners have to be cut; horse-travel is one corner that shouldn’t be cut and often is. All too often, riders will travel at a gallop for an entire day, only to jump off and go about their business as usual at the end of it. The poor horses would be left exhausted, desperately in need of some food and water, and likely unable to keep up a similar pace the next day - but in so much fantasy none of that is ever mentioned.
Writing about invented worlds gives her the opportunity to be political and talk about current events (Iraq is mentioned) without, well, talking about them. Many people don’t like to be preached to too directly. Many people don’t like hearing about politics in a direct way because they already hear about it all the time from many sources - they want an escape of some sort. History doesn’t offer a very good one, as it constantly reminds you of current events. Fiction, on the other hand, does, even if it’s very political at the core.