One of the greatest sci-fi authors.
One of the greatest fantasy authors
Los dos!
thanks for sharing. I've been feeling pretty hopeless lately and this helped me today
Divine right of kings simply morphed into capitalism. We didn't get rid of jack shit, and we never will.
Feudalism is entirely different from Capitalism, which is entirely different from Socialism. Class dynamics have changed, and will change.
Feudalism is entirely different from Capitalism
Not really, no. Even though feudalism doesn't consider greed and resource hoarding inherently virtuous like capitalism does, both are at their core about the few rich and powerful exploiting and abusing the many poor and powerless through ownership of the necessities for life and a greater capacity for violence.
I agree These systems both emerged from inherent humanity, not conspiracy.
That would make sense for capitalism, if humanity didn't have to have its permanent, essential characteristics beaten, traumatised and groomed out of them with land seizures, branding, whipping, workhouses, schools, prisons, debtors prisons, being forced to sell their children, slavery and the threat of homelessness and starvation for hundreds of years.
People didn't just accept either of those two systems and there's nothing remotely inherent about them. They were both forced on people through violence or the threat of it.
Not to piss in the lemonade, but some places still have the divine right of kings.
The point is that societies could progress past it, that it's not inescapable.
So the fact that there are still absolute monarchies does not invalidate that societies that are better are possible, like most of our societies today.
Every empire seems unassailable and eternal, until it doesn't. The USSR seemed like it will last beyond our lifetimes, until it didn't.
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Shelley’s Poetry and Prose (1977)
One of my favorite poems. First published in 1818:
I've only read two books of Le Guin's, and they were both memorable:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Word_for_World_Is_Forest
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed
The second one is more relevant to this meme.
Absolutely 100% run (don't walk!) and get The Left Hand of Darkness. It is easily one of the best sci-fi/fantasy books I have ever read.
I just finished it two days ago. I agree completely.
I will caution people that because of the writing style the beginning of the book (at least to me) is a bit disorienting. It takes a minute to find her rhythm.
The Dispossessed had been in my backlog for a while now. I really need to get to it.
I just finished the dispossessed. Didn't find it as compelling as reviews had me hoping. The sci-fi depiction of anarchism wasn't flattering and the main character wasn't easy to like either.
Spoiler and trigger alert: I put the book down for a while after he sexually assaulted a woman, but eventually finished it and wasn't impressed by the ending or by the fact that his assault was glossed over and not mentioned again.
Yes, that's a fair assessment. It's not an enjoyable book and to some extent isn't meant to be -- the cover of the version I read said something about an "ambiguous utopia," the story structure is pretty far from a Campbellian Hero's Journey, and the main character is not relatable. The book is more memorable than enjoyable.
Funny this cropped up, I just finished The Left Hand of Darkness two days ago. Very good book with some beautiful prose.
It was the first Le Guin book I've read. I'll be reading more.
Kings had nothing on capitalism. You could overthrow a king.
You can overthrow Capitalism, it weakens itself.
But then you ended up with another king. Overthrowing royalty was hard.
Easier to kill a man than an idea.
The problem is that this time we've likely got a few decades at the most to form a movement before a huge chunk of the world becomes uninhabitable and society crumbles under the weight of war and famine.
Looking at how things are going, I have little hope that the majority of people are willing to let go of the status quo.
We live in the most peaceful time in all of human history. It's bad but not that bad.
I agree with the sentiment and also wonder if she's still ferociously pro-copyright?
She passed away in 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_K._Le_Guin
Bruh she died
and look where that got kings, EATEN
great quote from an amazing author.
any idea why the image saves a .json?
Is this quote from The Dispossessed? Or another of her many works?
Thanks! What a great speech! Her voice shines through as always
the thought process has just been replaced with nepo baby billionaires who think they are special because they were shit out of the right vagina.
