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Carl E. Reed

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14 comments on And Now, Ursula K. Le Guin

And Now, Ursula K. Le Guin

It looks like my time to blog post has come ’round again. Are Curtis, GD, Mimi, Atthys, Sue and I the only writers in regular rotation here? I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say: We’d love to hear from others! (Perry, Tom, Amber, et. al.) You’ve got a ready-made soapbox and a built-in audience here on Writers Co-op; let us know what’s on your mind these fear-fraught dystopian days, eh?

Truth is, however, that I have nothing urgent to communicate at present. Therefore, I’d like to step aside and let Ursula K. Le Guin take the stage. Here is the speech she gave when accepting the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters a couple of years ago. (After clicking on the url, scroll down and click on the embedded video link three-quarters of the way down the landing page to watch this 85-year-old dynamo in action.) Her speech is a marvel of concision, eloquence, truth and power.

:::applause-applause:::

http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2014/11/ursula_k_le_guin_on_reaction_t.html

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Carl E. Reed

14 responses to “And Now, Ursula K. Le Guin”

  1. GD Deckard Avatar
    GD Deckard

    WoW Carl! That was putain de Great! (Pardon my French) That was 6 amazing minutes. It was honestly a privilege to listen to so talented and experienced a writer.

    She clearly articulated today’s writing environment.

    Liked by 2 people

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  2. mimispeike Avatar
    mimispeike

    UKLeG:
    “The time will come when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives . . . who can see through our fear-stricken societies . . . to other ways of being.

    “The profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art. Its power often seems inescapable.”

    Me:
    Will come? That time has always been with us, has never left.

    Self-pub offers the opportunity to do it our way. Too often writers simply build on what has succeeded. We have one among us with a thrillingly maverick vision, Sue, with her Sarcasm Font. Her sample has made me put aside my scorn for the Undead genre, I am going to buy her book. I’ve only read a sample, who knows what other delights she has in store for us?

    UKLeG:
    Writers are like herding cats. Writers get out of control pretty easily. They want to talk.

    Me:
    One would think so. I like to talk, online, where I can focus my thoughts. The downside is, our Coop now meets my need for a procrastination space, that Book Country used to provide.

    Face to face talk doesn’t work so well for me. In the midst of any conversation, my mind is usually elsewhere. Often with Sly.

    Who is Maru the cat? I’ll check that out.

    _________________________________________

    Maru the cat has given me a brilliant idea! The perfect (and huge fun) solution to my problem of none of our critters being willing to don pirate garb for a photo-op. I have saved the screen shot to my Facebook page. Oh, this is great. Great, great, great!

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. Sue Ranscht Avatar
      Sue Ranscht

      Goodness. Almost four years have elapsed between Mimi’s unexpected praise of Sarcasm Font and my awareness of it. Thank you, Mimi. Romero Russo is still expanding into his novel form. As one of three or four others, he takes turns at the forefront of my attention and dedicated efforts. But we keep moving forward.

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  3. mimispeike Avatar
    mimispeike

    GD, you are on the job! I plunked in that last paragraph after you had already Liked me. Go go go over to Facebook and see what I’ve just found! Great! Fabulous! Marvelous! A wonderful new joke for my book.

    My Punk (her name, she was named after a beloved pet of old, but Punk suits her fine) won’t cooperate with me. She won’t pose in a hat, let alone a pair of boots. Screw the brat. There’s more than one way to skin (or dress) a cat.

    Liked by 4 people

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    1. 0ldspice Avatar
      0ldspice

      Pssst… Mimi? Lizbeth here. Old Spice asked me how to find your Facebook page. What do I tell him? Can you give us the URL?

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply
      1. mimispeike Avatar
        mimispeike

        Dear God, Old Spice! You’re not on Facebook? All you have to do is type Mimi Speike into the ‘find friends’ box. But here is the URL:

        https://www.facebook.com/mimi.speike

        Liked by 3 people

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        1. Old Spice Avatar
          Old Spice

          His Spaceness thanks you.

          Psst… Spice peeked at your draft, “Almost True As It Can Be.” He says it’s honest writing. Thoughtful, but without artifice. I could tell he liked it.

          Liked by 2 people

          Reply
  4. atthysgage Avatar
    atthysgage

    “…books are not commodities in the same sense as potatoes, and they cannot be sold rightly in the same way. There is no use-by date for literature. There is for certain kinds of books, of course, but with anything literary a book could be sold for the next 100 years or if it’s Homer or something for the next couple of thousand years. You just can’t treat art the way you can treat salable goods…”

    Thank you. I’ve been saying this for two years now. Marketers tend to be hammers, and every kind of salable object is just another nail.

    Liked by 5 people

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  5. Sue Ranscht Avatar
    Sue Ranscht

    Thanks for sending me here, Carl.

    Like

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    1. Carl E. Reed Avatar
      Carl E. Reed

      Just tried to “like” your comment from home. Can’t do it; I can only “like” comments from my work computer. Damn puzzling!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      1. Sue Ranscht Avatar
        Sue Ranscht

        Is it telling you you have to log in to WP?

        Like

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        1. Carl E. Reed Avatar
          Carl E. Reed

          No. when I click “like” the star in front of “like” disappears. Nothing else happens.

          Liked by 1 person

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        2. Carl E. Reed Avatar
          Carl E. Reed

          Also: Just found out I cannot edit my comments from home. I am logged into WordPress. When I try to follow this site from my home page, I get ” Sorry; there was a problem following this site.” ?!

          Liked by 1 person

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          1. Sue Ranscht Avatar
            Sue Ranscht

            That sometimes happens to me, too, sometimes a box flashes once on the left hand side that apparently requires me to log in again, even though it flashes so quickly I can’t read it. After I log in — even though I never logged out, things are back to normal.

            The past couple days, I noticed there is no “Edit” beneath any of my comments. What’s up with that?

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