To mark the publication of John’s book Ursula Le Guin’s Earthsea (My Reading), with Oxford University Press, John and Elizabeth take to the airways to share their love of Le Guin’s “speculative anthropology,” gender politics, and goats.
And we share a delight we’ve been holding back for just this occasion, a series of clips from John’s interview with Le Guin in her hometown of Portland, Oregon, in 2015 (a longer print-only version appeared in Public Books). Since Ursula is no longer with us, having died in 2018, it’s especially poignant to listen to their conversation. Though in fact, the tone of their conversation isn’t sad at all, but friendly, generous, and ruminative.
Mentioned in the Episode
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Books of Earthsea
Friedrich Schiller, “On Naive and Sentimental Poetry”
Ursula K. Le Guin, “From Elfland to Poughkeepsie“
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven
Lloyd Alexander, Taran Wanderer (and the Chronicles of Prydain)
Judith Butler Gender Trouble
Angelica Gorodischer (esp. Le Guin’s translation of Kalpa Imperial)
Lao Tzu, the Tao Te Ching, tr. Ursula K. Le Guin
“The Bones of the Earth” in Tales from Earthsea
John Plotz, Time and the Tapestry
Recall This Book 