The Language of the Night

The Language of the Night by Ursula K. Le Guin (Scribner, 1979) This is one of Le Guin’s earliest collections of essays, bringing together writing about the genre of science fiction and fantasy with reflections on her own fiction, including the very critical “Is Gender Necessary? (Redux)” in which she annotates an earlier essay and notes where she has changed her mind. That piece is, I think, a kind of keystone to the whole collection, and to much of her writing generally: a facility for learning and discovery accompanied by a willingness to acknowledge being wrong. For what is learning except the ongoing, unending awareness that we have been, and will again be—possibly someday soon—wrong? And perhaps, also, this is part of what sf is for: to bring the future where we discover that wrongness into the present. View this post on the web, reply via email, or become a supporter.