Ursula K Le Guin

1929–2018

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American novelist best known for her works of speculative fiction.

The thing I internalised most about from reading A Wizard of Earthsea as a teenager was the power of true names. How they are not always the name you are given at birth, how they are something you may have to grow into and sometimes you have to be careful who you share yours with, lest you hand the wrong person power over you.

There's a direct line between my thoughts on the power of true names and my anger at deadnaming trans people.^[1]

Quotes

We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings

Books aren’t just commodities; the profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art

The truth is that as a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower - until at last he chooses nothing but does only and wholly what he must do

we need writers who know the difference between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art

See also: Ursula Le Guin's schedule