Thursday, May 18, 2006

Ursula the wise

Once upon a time (years and years ago--way back in my college days) i took a women's studies
class in women's lit--i was supposed to take it with my mom but she never showed up for class. Anyway the professor was always reading this Ursula K. Le Guin book called Dancing at the Edge of the World: thoughts on words, women, places before class, during breaks, writing exercises, whatever. For some reason i was really drawn to that book and kept waiting for her to use it in class, which she never did.
So now i am finally reading it on my own and it is a wonderful collection of talks, prose poetry, essays (a few wonderful personal takes on politics which are MUST READS), and reviews (of course as Ursula is terribly wise). She takes on C.S. Lewis, Doris Lessing (another wonderful author who everyone should read--and never should on yourself as my mother would say), John Gardner, Italio Calvino and even throws in some discussion of her own Lathe of Heaven (yet another of my all time favorites and a very quick and thought provoking read--definitely check this one out--i'll have you sold on Ursula at some point!) Anyway if you know Ursula's (and you've just gotta love that name--at least i do) fiction you really need to read some of her non-fiction it really shows not only her vast intelligence in such broad areas, and how well read she really is, but what a wry sense of humor she has.

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