labingi

The War in the Middle East - A Person Reflection

2026-03-10T18:56:11Z

(Copied from my Substack)

Disclaimer: I’m not claiming my story is important. It’s just the story I have to tell.

One of my best friends lives in Baghdad, which is among the many, many places now bombed in this regional war started by my government. As I write this, she and her family are probably all right. As far as I know, there have been no strikes near where they live and work. They’ve survived worse. They survived being bombed by my country during the war over obviously fake WMD’s. But as the days go by and I don’t hear from her, I can’t help reflecting that they might soon die because my country is run by lunatics and cowards.

And I keep thinking I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.

My own senators and representative already oppose the was on Iran, even heavily pro-Israeli Ron Wyden. I’ve already written to thank them. But they are outnumbered by the cowards in Congress. I could sign petitions. I could write or call other legislators. I could stand in the street with a sign, but what can I do that would have real impact? Where do my strengths lie for taking action?

I don’t have a good answer for what to do about this war. But broadly, thinking of my life on Earth, my mind turns toward my writing, and as that’s a focus of this Substack, I’ll share a thought about it. In my science fiction, I write messy situations, and I write with sympathy toward virtually all my characters. I sometimes feel this puts me at odds with the prevailing values of my own progressive comrades in current social science fiction circles. The Zeitgeist there seems to favor sharp divisions between right and wrong: the oppressed are in the right; the oppressors are in the wrong. This must be clearly driven home in the name of real-world justice.

I think I respectfully disagree. Not with the premise about oppression being bad, but with the narrative prescription of moral simplicity. I’m not saying straightforward moralizing stories shouldn’t exist. Many value them and get validation of their own struggles from them. Those stories have their place. But I occupy a different place. I try to write (almost) everyone with sympathy: oppressed, oppressor, dictator, soldier, abused, abuser, the broadminded, the dogmatic.

What does this have to do with the war in the Middle East? This war has been enabled by simplistic morality narratives: Iran has a harmful regime (true); therefore, it’s fine for “the good guys” (us/US) to drop missiles on them because they are “bad guys.” The same rationale supports ICE, excuses January 6th but deports people for a school protest, excuses kidnapping the president of Venezuela while defending “Our President” tooth and nail. It’s American exceptionalism on steroids: “We are Good, and they are Bad, so anything we do to ‘get’ them is Good.”

This kind of mindset, even if it’s not even close to this level of stupid, makes it easy to label groups as deserving punishment because they do bad things. Iran’s government is oppressive; it does fund attacks that kill civilians. This eclipses the schoolgirls, the families going about their business, the people doing the hard work for decades of trying to resist a reactionary theocracy. It makes a bomb seem like an easy answer.

My friend, whom I dearly love, could die in this war. She’s an English teacher just trying to live her life.

What can I do? I’ll go on trying to figure that out, imperfectly, often ineffectually, and sometimes irresponsibly, as I learn how to be a citizen under fascism. But one thing I will surely keep on doing is writing characters with sympathy. With the exception of a few very minor walk-ons, it will be every character, every time: the murderers, the rapists, the wealthy, the colonizers, the trampled, the sacrificed, the raped, the ignored, the destitute, the elite, the insightful, and the lacking in insight. I’ll do it because this world needs more sympathy, and that’s something I can do.

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Got Proof Copy of My Novel!

2025-12-09T23:42:56Z

I (finally) received the proof copy of my social sci-fi novel, A Soldier in the Borderlands, lovely cover art by Xavier Aguirre. Here's the blurb:

On a planet racked by drought, fourteen-year-old soldier Tánashen has done terrible things to serve the Citadel. Guilt is a price he’s willing to pay for the Citadel to protect his brother from the raiders who massacred their people. But when the so-called “raiders” capture Tánashen, he must face the fact that the Citadel lied; they are the true oppressor. Now, he’ll risk death to save his brother from the Citadel and liberate his homeland. There's just one complication: most lies contain some truth.

If anyone is interested in reviewing this book, I'm happy to send you a free epub or PDF. Just PM me.

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"My Cat Is a God"

2025-08-12T21:42:54Z

Pleased to share my first article for Sufficiency and Wellbeing magazine, "My Cat Is a God" (literally), featuring Hudson the Hudster.

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One-Act Orpheus Play Has Been Published

2025-06-22T03:26:05Z

For those who like the Greek classics, I'm gratified to announce my little one-act play on the death of Orpheus, "Orpheus Changed" is up at Eternal Haunted Summer. Summary: middle-aged Orpheus meets an old woman on a hill and they have a chat that preserves the three unities of ancient Greek drama.

^{“Orpheus” attributed to Jean Francois Duqueylard (c. 1800)}

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Own Hands Newsletter and Book Launch

2024-11-24T21:24:04Z

Reposting my newsletter from ownhands

Election Reflections

Like everyone on the left, I'm scared for our future. I'm also hopeful. In the face of the fear and polarization, there's an undercurrent of mutual care I don't remember seeing in 2016 or 2020. There's a sense that the left needs to do some soul searching. In this moment, I personally think our most important task is listening. Our most important stance is compassion, remembering the humanity of each person.

Book Launch for Being Cut

Sunday, January 26, at 11:30 a.m.

Kairos-Milwaukie United Church of Christ
4790 SE Logus Road, Milwaukie OR 97222.

Join me January 26 for a brief reading from Being Cut: A Rumination on Relationship Cutoff and open discussion of why cutoff happens, how cutoff feels, and how we can to heal from it or limit its harm. (No pressure to attend the church service before the event.)

I didn't write this book with this election in mind, but I think the book may be timely. At its most basic, it's about listening and connection, things we need now more than ever.

Own Hands Story Search Update

Glenn and I have been slammed by the day jobs, which has slowed our progress on our story search tool (and these newsletters). But as I write this, he coding away on website setup. I'll keep you posted!

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Has a Loved One Cut You Off? You're Not Alone

2024-09-03T03:14:26Z

My non-fiction book Being Cut on relationship cutoff (severing contact) officially launches in ebook format today!

Blurb:

Chances are you have cut someone out of your life or someone has cut you out. Cutoff—severing all contact—is a common way to manage troubled relationships, yet it remains virtually unstudied and semi-taboo to discuss. We have the right to cut people off. Nonetheless, being cut off is often traumatic in ways our culture fails to recognize. Being Cut is a first-of-its-kind exploration of our society’s attitudes toward cutoff and a call for a cultural transformation that respects cutoff while being mindful of the harm it can do.

So if you haven't already heard me maunder enough about cutoff, you can now read more now!

In all seriousness, I owe many thanks to all the folks on DW who responded to my posts on cutoff over the years. From those who offered sympathy when I was in the throes of grief over being cut off by a dear friend to those who shared their views extensively and are quoted (under aliases) in this book, you have been a large part of this journey. Thank you.

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Questionnaire on Search Tool for Readers

2024-06-21T16:16:40Z

I'm pursuing a passion project from library school: building a better search tool to help readers find the books they crave and writers reach their target audience.

If you have a minute, I'd love your input on what features would help you.

Here is a brief questionnaire.

Please spread the word: more input is better. Thanks!

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Thoughts Inspired by Video on Atonement

2024-06-17T19:32:26Z

I really enjoyed Quality Culture's video on the movie, Atonement. Disclaimer: I have not seen the movie or read the book, so my thoughts purely based on this video.

I really appreciated the narrative the video highlights of moving from a univocal perspective to a dialogic perspective as a way of presenting human beings with sympathy and without judgment. I also understand there's ambiguity and irony in this, since the dialogism is entirely authored by one (problematized) voice. But I also appreciate ambiguity and irony, and overall, the story this video explores expresses why a dialogic approach to storytelling--and life, really--is so central to me.

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Begging for Beta

2024-03-23T03:44:42Z

Does anyone have time in the next few days to read a 1500-word science fiction story and tell me if it's comprehensible? I'd be glad to read something in return.

It's for the Air and Nothingness call for long titles, due by March 31st, so, alas, I've left finding a beta reader down to the wire. Plus, my couple of go-to people won't work because they've already read stuff relating to these story events.

Thanks in advance to any kind taker.

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Teaching at Willamette Writers Hybrid Conference, August 2024

2024-03-02T05:47:28Z

I'll be teaching a workshop on fictional languages in worldbuilding for the Willamette Writers Hybrid Conference this August. Registration is now open and folks can learn more at Bit.ly/Wilwrite24. I've been there quite a few times now, as speaker and attendee, and it's good fun, good food, and lots of writing craft and publishing info.

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Author Alchemy Summit & Reflections on Vocation/Life

2024-02-26T04:24:49Z

I had a great time at the Author Alchemy Summit in Portland, OR this weekend, though I had to miss part due to teaching. Many thanks to Jessie Kwak and her husband, Robert, for all their work bringing this together. I think it helped clarify some big life questions for me.

A couple of the sessions involved using the Enneagram to figure out one's strengths as a writer and figuring out one's brand. One common lesson was to be true to yourself in pursuing your authorial career, to figure out what you want your writing to do.

What do I want my writing to do?

This sounds simple, but it has been a hard question for me for a long time. Moreover, it's a subset of my whole career problem: what do I want to do? Not just one thing. In writing, I care about psychological realism, utopia, ecology/ecocentrism, strong character relationships, cultural exploration/getting outside our daily norms, and lots and lots of guilt.

In my life work, I care about teaching, degrowth/just and sustainable economy, saving my hometown from climate disaster as much as possible, reasoned inquiry, my sci-fi writing, nature, Buddhism. The core reason I've gotten next-to-nowhere in both my writing career and my teaching career is that I've always been split in ten different directions. (This isn't even touching on time and energy for family and friends.)

But sitting in that session, I think I cracked it--how all these things are connected. I care about bringing different perspectives together to seek goodness. In fiction, this is dialogism (my dear love as both writer and reader) with a utopian/hopeful bent. In life, it is teaching and reasoned inquiry and Buddhist compassion and care for nature and just/sustainable economy. And I think this clarifies some things about my path forward. ( Read more... )

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On Judging People Who Do Really Bad Things

2024-01-19T04:22:41Z

content warning for non-graphic ethics discussion of Really Bad Things.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and figure I’ll put some thoughts down. People seem to use two main ethical approaches to orienting themselves to those who do really bad things. I mean things like might include rape, murder, all the way to war crimes. The philosophical crux seems to be whether such people are theoretically redeemable (in a secular and/or possibly religious sense).

One view holds that some actions are “beyond redemption,” at least in a worldly/social sense. In this view, if you commit certain really bad actions, you are irredeemable for life (if not beyond), and people should treat you as such. YouTuber Steve Shives is in this camp, as he explains well in his interesting video on Garak in Deep Space Nine. He likes Garak as a character, but notes that if this were real life, Garak would not be morally redeemable because, regardless of his personal moral development, he has committed acts too heinous. For reference, Shives notes that the Cardassians in DS9, including Garak, are coded as Nazis. Basically, he’s saying Nazis—and, by extension, others who do really bad things—can’t be redeemed, i.e. it would be immoral to consider them/treat them as redeemable. It would be giving a pass to their heinousness.

[EDIT: reworking this paragraph in response to selenak's very legitimate point that I totally mischaracterized Christianity.] This view—though atheist Shives might cringe at this—seems philosophically close to Christianity, in the sense that it posits some people deserve to go to hell. Selenak rightly reminds me that Christianity is based on the idea that everyone can repent and be forgiven anything; in that sense, no one is beyond redemption, which sounds like the opposite of the view Shives is expressing. Solid point. I was thinking (a) of the Calvinist strain that infests American secular thinking, which holds that everyone deserves damnation, but more broadly (b) of the metaphor of existence after damnation: the person who didn't repent and, therefore, is now stuck in hell for eternity, regardless of what potential they might theoretically have for learning better/repenting given longer life/reincarnation/purgatory. An attitude of "you can't be redeemed" is what I think of as "secular damnation" in that, metaphorically, it treats the person as if they were damned in the eyes of the human judge, maybe not for eternity but for their life on Earth. I do think that view is related to certain Christian mindsets (and not just Christian), though it's fair to note that Christianity is also founded on the idea of radical redemption for all through Christ. It's complicated.

The other view holds that people are constantly in flux (at least potentially) and that anyone could theoretically be redeemed if they change enough to become a truly better person. In this view, people should be treated more according to who they are in the present (which could include actions to atone for the past). Under this view, Garak is certainly potentially redeemable. It’s a question of how much he changes, including what he might do to try to be accountable for former heinous acts. And I’d like to amplify a point made in some of the comments on Shives’ video: redemption is not the same as forgiveness. Both words have many meanings, but I’m with those commenters who see redemption as more internal to the self while forgiveness is something someone gives you (though you can give it to yourself too).( Read more... )

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Relativistic Space Travel Question

2023-11-11T16:27:00Z

A question for you physicsy folks out there (astrogirl?). I'm writing a story that hinges on time dilation in space travel, and to get the sort of time dilation I need for the story to work, I need to reach speeds around 0.9c or higher.

My question is what kind of drive could I posit these people are using? This story is not set in the super distant future: a few to several hundred years. And I can trade on the idea that a lot can happen in 100 years of unexpected innovation (as we've seen in the past), but they're not gods or anything.

These ships are not multi-generational. They are designed to get people from point A to point B in not more than a few years, ship time. (In terms of living space, they are closer to Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary than KS Robinson's Aurora. I'm thinking they rely on acceleration for simulated gravity, not rotation.

This society does have access to lots of raw materials, ranging from bodies to mine to stars, nebulae, etc., and they have big, fast 3D printers.

I want to reasonably appease an audience that is not picky about very hard SF but would like some semblance of scientific plausibility.

Thanks!

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Reclaiming Joy Cover Reveal

2023-09-09T15:43:20Z

I'm blown away by this beautiful cover for WriteHive's upcoming Reclaiming Joy anthology, which I'm proud to be featured in.

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My Book on Relationship Cutoff - Requesting Beta Readers

2023-07-30T16:17:08Z

I'm seeking beta readers for my book on relationship cutoff, which focuses on permanently severing contact with people one has had a close interpersonal relationship with (~88,000 words). If anyone is interested in reading it and giving me your impressions, please feel free to reply here or PM me.

[Edit: It is a non-scholarly, non-fiction book that makes a cultural argument using research, interviews, and personal experience.]

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My Article on Greg Sarris's How a Mountain Was Made: Stories Is Published

2022-02-11T22:24:58Z

I don't publish very much. The fact I have two DW posts on publications in a row is partly coincidence and partly that the yawning sense of duty to have some sort of "author platform" is galvanizing me to post when I don't otherwise feel I have time. (Would love to do an update post on recent viewing!)

That preamble said, I am very happy to have my short article on Greg Sarris's book How a Mountain Was Made: Stories up at SFRA Review. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Though I published in a sci-fi journal, it is not sci-fi, but it is a beautiful, hopeful work on indigenous futurism that truly changed my relationship with Sonoma Mountain in California, the mountain in whose foothills I grew up.

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My Little Queer Steampunk Story Has Found a Home

2022-02-08T01:08:44Z

I am very pleased to have my short steampunk-ish story, "The Flowers of the Devil's Ring" published on Hyphen-Punk. It is a queer-identity-affirming story but also set in Victorian times, so content warning: it features prejudices of the period, though they do not win the day. It also showers some love on 19th-century evolutionary science, which is an area close to my heart and (sometimes) scholarship.

Thanks to Erik, JW, Dane, and Astro for the great help with edits.

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Can y'all help me with comp titles for my novel?

2022-01-15T22:49:04Z

Because I've been trying to figure out how comp titles work for fifteen years, and it ain't happening.

Can anybody name me fairly recent science fiction novels (ideally decent sellers but not top award winners) that have any of the following characteristics or something along similar lines:

* A colonized protagonist who's been indoctrinated to identify with the colonizers and has to rediscover their identity.

* An adolescent or child protagonist in a fairly grim adult novel.

* An adolescent protagonist suffering from war/colonial/childhood trauma in an adult novel, especially if "teen" is not really a cultural category the way it is for us.

* Low-tech sci fi geared toward exploration of intercultural conflict, especially with a serious tone.

For the Blake's 7 fans out there, the story I know that is most like this book is the B7 episode "Horizon," if you imagine Blake's crew as much more secondary and the story being primarily about Ro as a teen.

Any reading suggestions appreciated.

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Timeless 2: Anthology of Re-Imagined Fairy Tales

2021-11-24T20:58:52Z

Pleased as punch to have my Peter Pan story "Lila" featured in this lovely anthology of re-imagined fairytales, Timeless 2 from Dragon Soul Press, coming out November 30.

It has long been an ambition of mine to write a Peter Pan fan fic, and it's very gratifying to see that come to fruition in this book.

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Panel for Le Guin-Inspired Anthology, Dispatches from Anarres Tomorrow

2021-11-13T01:06:08Z

Tomorrow, I'll be moderating an author panel for the Portland Book Festival on the anthology Dispatches from Anarres, science fiction and fantasy stories inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin, in which I'm fortunate enough to have a story featured.

While I have not yet read all the stories in the collection, my four fellow panelists offer a wide range of material, each touching on different things Le Guin's writing meant to them. I will shout of hear to Jason Arias's "JoyBe's Last Dance," a chilling yet hopeful almost allegory about racial and class oppression and changing perceptions to see new possibilities.

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Found a Home for My Peter Pan Story: Timeless 2 Anthology

2021-09-05T01:00:50Z

Happy to announce my modern-day Peter Pan story, "Lila," has been accepted for Dragon Soul Press's forthcoming anthology, Timeless 2: twists on fairy tales. Many thanks to fellow Peter Pan story writer Melissa Snark for catalyzing this story via Indie Artist Press's proposed Peter Pan anthology. That project ended up not happening, but I'm jazzed the story has found a new home. Many thanks too to fellow SF&F writer Erik Grove for the beta read and excellent revision suggestions, as per usual.

It's been a hankering of my fan fic writer's heart to do a Peter Pan story for years, every since reading The Child Thief a modern-day Peter Pan novel by artist Brom. Unsurprisingly, I found the art in the book amazing. The story had some very interesting ideas, but it also made me think how I might go another way if I were playing with Pan lore, and so eventually I did, keeping rather closer than Brom to Barrie's original story. It's been a gratifying journey.

EDIT: Embarrassed I forgot to mention the excellent Brit-picking vilakins did for this story. I could not have faked a British-oriented story without her! Many thanks!

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Author News, August: Tell Me Your Favortie Non-Eurocentric Stories

2020-08-12T17:01:54Z

This issue:
* Tell me your favorite non-Eurocentric stories.
* Report from the Willamette Writers Conference
* Short story acceptance for anthology of spiritual literature

Full newsletter with links and stuff is here.

What Are Your Favorite Non-Eurocentric Stories?
Question of the month: What are your favorite non-Eurocentric stories? This mean stories that are not primarily from a Western Civilization frame of reference. They might be traditional narratives or recent science fiction, acclaimed best sellers or fan fiction. They might even by authors of Eurocentric descent if the story itself is located in a very different worldview (thinking Le Guin here, for example). Comment and I will put together a summary for the next newsletter.

Willamette Writers Conference, 2020
I was privileged to be part of a panel on worldbuilding at this year's Willamette Writers Conference along with Sarina Dorie, Emily Suvada, and Hannah Mann, all of whom had great insights to offer on worldbuilding and creating setting. As an attendee, I was humbled (this word is overused, but here I mean it) to attend the panel on Privilege, Politics, and Cultural Experience with Claudia F. Saleeby Savage, Kimberly Johnson, Shayla Lawson, and Jenny Forrester. I will not tell a lie: this panel brought me to tears, particularly in the midst of my own struggles with how to be an adequate parent as a white person raising two Black kids. The speakers did some useful, if painful, calling out of our own Portland, Oregon as a very racist space, even by white American standards. Well, we white folx have our work to do.

The conference was all online and went off impressively smoothly. My regards to Greg Gerding, Kate Ristau, and everyone who worked so hard to bring this event to life. It was also great to see Curtis Chen again, who I hear tell was attending two conferences at once!

Story Forthcoming in Anthology of Spiritual Literature
I am pleased as punch to announce that my short story "The Descent of the Wind" has been accepted for publication by This Present Former Glory: An Anthology of Honest Spiritual Literature, published by A Game for Good Christians. This quirky organization of Christians has a serious (humorous, and snarky) interest in delving deep into spiritual, Biblical questions; I might describe their tone as irreverently reverent. It feels like a good home for this particular oddball story, and I'm really looking forward to reading the full anthology. I especially want to thank my pastor, Jeanne Randall-Bodman, for her help with navigating the story's Biblical material, and also my dear friend, Z., who gave it a very encouraging read from a Muslim perspective.

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Author Newsletter - February 2020

2020-02-18T01:23:03Z

Highlights from my Author Newsletter

On Seeking Cultural Consulting
One of the puzzlements for a white writer in this age is how to walk the line between writing works that are too Eurocentric and appropriating the culture of a group you don’t belong to. I’ve pondered this for years while my writing hovered semi-safely in the Continuation Universe, a far-future setting not strong connected to particular Earth cultures—though its bones are very Western. Lately, however, I’ve started writing short stories that engage directly with real societies. To that end, I’ve begun to reach out for cultural consulting services, an emerging best practice for writing outside one’s own demographic groups.

As I write this, I’m in the midst of negotiating to obtain consulting from Tribal groups near my home town. Oh my. Butting up against indigenous experience never ceases to be humbling. And I don’t mean “humbling” in the sense we use today of feeling honored by our inclusion in awesome group, no. I mean “humbling” like being rudely knocked off the pedestal of my privilege and brought up against the reality that no matter how aware, respectful, and progressive I attempt to be, I remain drenched in my own self-importance. They don’t trust me. They are not impressed that I want to learn. They are not impressed that I want to pay. My people have already taken too much. My family owns ten acres of their land. Yet they have expressed some willingness to meet with me and further assess my motives. That’s an open door, a start. I hope—I believe—it can be the start of something good, though with every step I stumble as if it were the first.

[Edit: The day after I sent this out to my mailing list, I got a very nice, encouraging call from a different Tribal organization, the moral being don't overgeneralize, I guess. That means of gotten responses from three out of three places I contacted, which I am really grateful for.]

BookPod Interview Is Live
Thanks to Ben and Sarah Nadler for the chance to appear on their Bookpod podcast, where I read from and discuss my first novel, Perdita, a far future eco-sci fi tale of pro-tech and anti-tech forces tangling over how to address a dangerous new technology.

Book Rec: Ninefox Gambit
I want to recommend Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit. The far-future sci-fi military adventure novel is not new. It’s from the ancient days of 2016 and is the first in a series. But if you missed the initial hype of its Hugo and Nebula nominations, consider checking it out now. It has perhaps the strong worldbuilding from an Asian sensibility that I have ever seen. In fact, the only other book that comes to mind with such nuanced and plausible far-future worldbuilding based largely on Asia is Dune, which focuses on Muslim and Hindu influences. Lee focuses on Korean and Confucian influences, both deeply and creatively.

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Brit Pick Achieved Thanks to Vilakins

2019-07-01T03:23:31Z

Many thanks to vilakins for doing an excellent, intricate Brit pick, plus some proofing of my Peter Pan story, which has now been sent off on submission. Turnaround time is 4-6 weeks, says the website.

Meanwhile, I got a provisional acceptance for my short story for Dispatches from Anarres, an Ursula Le Guin themed anthology of works by Portland-based writers. I need to do some editing, which I'll start work on tomorrow.

And, yes, I did just come back from an (unrelated) Ursula Le Guin conference, which I will write about at some point. Much fun was had!

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Update - Media and Life

2019-05-02T01:52:49Z

I've been so remiss with DW. It's due to being overwhelmed with real-life work. But here's a brief rundown on stuff.

Been Watching...
Star Trek: Discovery and wish I had time to do a post, and may make time. I both enjoy it and don't really like it. Yet we're paying to watch it, and may even pay if it gets a season 3.

Game of Thrones: Three episodes in and I'm enjoying this season more than the last. Still not what it was, but much more engaging than S7. I'm glad it's back for a little longer.

Sapphire and Steel (rewatch): My partner has never seen it before, so that's fun. I had forgotten how much I love this sort of X-Files precursor show. My mom once described it as "soporific" and I think that's kind of fair, but I love sitting back and watching it go through its very slow paces, a bit like 2001 (only in the sense of pacing). The titular leads are the heart of the show and so great.

Russian Doll: Partner had to cajole me into this one, because I'm a stick-in-the-mud and tend to be unenthusiastic about new stuff, but this is an amazing show! The nearest comparison I can make in terms of "genre" is The Prisoner. Their metaphors, societies, and mise en scène are very different, but I think their underlying psychological purpose is kind of the same.

Been Reading...
Tons of stuff for the science fiction class I'm teaching.

The Left Hand of Darkness umteenth reread: I still love this book; it will always be one of my favorites, but doubtless informed by the paper I'm writing on Le Guin for a conference, I keep seeing the white privilege, which is interesting--never saw it before. I'm also noticing its age more (of course, it keeps getting older). Also noticing the craft more, including bits that feel rather heavy handed. Still love it though. Still a work of genius. Still needs to be made into a TV series, which they keep threatening to and then not.

Short stories: highlights include...( Read more... )

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