The Telling

231 pages

English language

Published July 29, 2003 by Ace.

ISBN:
978-0-441-01123-0
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
52711488

View on OpenLibrary

(24 reviews)

1 edition

Thoughtful tale of culture vs monoculture

The cover blurb makes it sound like a cautionary tale about our highly-tech-dependent world (even in the 1990s!), but it's not the technology that's the problem. It's the homogenization of culture, and the insistence that there be one perspective, and only one perspective, that really matters.

Think of how we travel and find the same chain stores, chain restaurants, the ISO standard Irish Pub with its bric-a-brac decor, and how our TV and movies are full of endless reboots, spinoffs and sequels.

We see it first in Sutty's memories of Earth, controlled largely by a theocracy until contact with alien civilizations kicks their support out from under them. And then in the world she's trying to understand, one that's undergone a complete transformation in the time it took her to travel there at relativistic speed. She knows there were flourishing cultures here before she left Earth. She studied the few …

A beautiful masterpiece

It is fitting that a story about storytelling is so beautifully told.

Out of several Hainish Cycle books that I've read this one is the most exquisitely written. Others might be more immediately thought provoking, or include more elaborate sci-fi elements. The Telling, on the other hand, is laser focused on its theme of suppression of a culture. Everything supports and complements this.

The main protagonist, Sutty, is the only character that we really get to know deeply. And her backstory and entire personality molds here into a perfect vessel for exploring the world of the book. The story focuses on her reflections and the atmosphere of the place and the people she interacts with, instead of plot points. Even the rarest instances of paranormal occurrences are not mysteries to be unraveled, but simply add to the mystique of the world.

I fullheartedly recommend reading this wonderful book.

Review of 'The Telling' on 'Goodreads'

This was a much more meh read in the series for me. It’s very talk-y and anthropological to the detriment of character. Some of the weakest character and plot in this one. I’d also say the ideas are less subtle, it’s more didactic.

However, Le Guin is still a lovely writer on a sentence level. And I will say that, as a librarian, when Sutty visits the book cave, I was so happy

avatar for maja

rated it

avatar for Lasu

rated it

avatar for Lasu

rated it

avatar for oisin

rated it

avatar for Racketmensch

rated it

avatar for Ivia

rated it

avatar for bondolo

rated it

avatar for skrud

rated it

avatar for V171

rated it

avatar for jmc142

rated it

avatar for sleep-er

rated it

avatar for bentreegecko

rated it

avatar for flip

rated it

avatar for Anders_S

rated it

avatar for milsyobtaf

rated it

avatar for TimMason

rated it

avatar for TVLuke

rated it

avatar for JudgeR

rated it

avatar for betweenchaosandshape

rated it

avatar for kranzi

rated it