Le Guin is so interesting. Her decisions about the type of story to tell are so different from the typical author of science fiction. She regularly picks people who are not the main actors in a political drama. She’ll give us slow, understated events. She also doesn’t focus a lot on the technology of her settings. She’s always talking about physical books in her worlds of space travel, which makes me laugh, but I forgive it.

I actually read Five Ways to Forgiveness from a two volume set of the Hainish Cycle. Old Music and the Slave Women was included.

Like her other work, there are some forward thinking moments and some backward stuff. At one point she refers to some male performers as “transvestites.” As far as I can tell they would be parallel to men in drag in our world. But she uses a dated term, offensive to many people. At the same time, she’s writing a story which defends their existence.

“A Woman’s Liberation” was probably my favorite story. Le Guin’s choice to have an owner’s attempt to help his slaves go so poorly was fascinating. For such short stories, she’s always presenting complicated politics. The “good” side is still flawed, includes ignorant and greedy people.

Favorite quotes:

There are two kinds of knowledge, local and universal.

You can't change anything from the outside in. Standing apart, looking down, taking the overview, you see pattern. What's wrong, what's missing. You want to fix it. But you can't patch it. You have to be in it, weaving it. You have to be part of the weaving.