I want to write about being kind to oneself but I can't. Not today and it is all Ursula LeGuin's fault. True, the 88 year old woman died a year ago but that doesn't mean, especially these days, that she is powerless. Her writings are powerful, peppy and interesting. I haven't read much science fiction but I have heard of her "Left Hand of Darkness". Now I see other fiction she wrote. Somehow, I was drawn to buy her "The Wave in the Mind", a book of her talks and essays.
I read two of the pieces while waiting for the doctor to tell me about a blood analysis from a week ago. Nothing too shocking turned up in my blood but Le Guin's wit and wordsmithing had me laughing, giggling and smiling during my wait.
In the first piece, "Introducing Myself", she explains that she is a man.
I predate the invention of women by decades. Well, if you insist on pedantic accuracy, women have been invented several times in widely varying localities, but the inventors just didn't know how to sell the product. (She admits that she owns three bras and has been pregnant five times.)
Guin, Ursula K. Le. The Wave in the Mind (p. 3). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.
I read in several places that she wanted to write more books that sold well and featured women. I don't think she felt satisfied with the amount of that she did.
In the second piece, "Being Taken for Granite", she explains that she isn't granite and should not be assumed to be granite. She is much softer than granite and wants to be treated like mud:
And I wish that those who take me for granite would once in a while treat me like mud. Being mud is really different from being granite and should be treated differently. Mud lies around being wet and heavy and oozy and generative. Mud is underfoot. People make footprints in mud. As mud I accept feet.
Guin, Ursula K. Le. The Wave in the Mind (p. 8). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.
I wish I had written that. Ok, my doctor actually had me fill out a questionnaire today. It was about my gender. I have been squarely on the male side all my life and squarely on the heterosexual side, too. Show me a hetero and I immediately get all excited and stuff.
But regardless of sex or gender, this person's brains and ideas are of strong interest. Among many other surprising things, a book and a man and a situation I learned about decades ago are related to her family. In 1901, Le Guin's father founded the anthropology department at the U of California-Berkeley. He was instrumental in helping the native American I learned to call "Ishi", a member of a California tribe who remained alive when all other humans who knew his language had died. Le Guin's maiden name was Kroeber, the name of the author of two important books on Ishi. That author was Theodora Kroeber, Ursula Le Guin's mother.
