She is one of the writers I admire for her uncompromising and thoroughly researched exploration of possibilities - especially of race, gender and political philosophies. Ursula Le Guin's novel The Dispossessed has in many ways clarified my personal questions on anarchism and gave a vocabulary to build my thoughts on. It is great to see her speak. These words in the interview struck a chord in me:
I can't say I have suffered for my politics. SF and fantasy slip under the wire a lot, you know? People just aren't looking for radical thought in a field the respectable critics define as escapist drivel. Some of it is escapist all right, but what it's escaping is the drivel of popular fiction and most TV and movies.
For those who write (or wish to), her A Few Words to a Young Writer is a kind reminder of what's writing all about. You may also take heart from the rejection letter she received for one her finest feminist SF novels "The Left Hand of Darkness".
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