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posted by martyb on Thursday January 25 2018, @06:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the RIP dept.

The New York Times reports that Renowned fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin has died at age 88. From the article:

Ursula K. Le Guin, the immensely popular author who brought literary depth and a tough-minded feminist sensibility to science fiction and fantasy with books like "The Left Hand of Darkness" and the Earthsea series, died on Monday at her home in Portland, Ore. She was 88.

Her son, Theo Downes-Le Guin, confirmed the death. He did not specify a cause but said she had been in poor health for several months.

I'm not a fantasy fan (except for Prachett and Tolkien), but she will be missed none the less. I'm sure quite a few Soylents are fans of hers. Any author's loss is a loss to us all.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 25 2018, @07:28AM (7 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 25 2018, @07:28AM (#627586) Journal

    Women in Sci-Fi and Fantasy has been a thing, in recent years. Ursula was my first female author. I asked myself a time or two, "Isn't Ursula a girl's name?" I wasn't certain, but didn't care - if the story was good, that was all that mattered. After a couple of her stories, I went to the trouble of reading about her. Yep, a woman! And, what a woman!

    Rest in peace, Ms. Le Guin. You certainly enriched my life.

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  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday January 25 2018, @07:36AM (3 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Thursday January 25 2018, @07:36AM (#627589) Journal
    "Isn't Ursula a girl's name?"

    Latin, diminutive form of Ursa, hence 'little she-bear.'

    Semantically equivalent to 'ursa minor' in a sense, you mean when you found her you didn't immediately pun on the constellation?
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday January 25 2018, @07:45AM (1 child)

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 25 2018, @07:45AM (#627590) Journal

      Semantically equivalent to 'ursa minor' in a sense, you mean when you found her you didn't immediately pun on the constellation?

      He was a sailor, not a Latin college boy or an astronomer.

      (very large grin, with a big woosh handy)

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
      • (Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday January 25 2018, @08:23AM

        by Arik (4543) on Thursday January 25 2018, @08:23AM (#627597) Journal
        There was a time when being a sailor meant speaking Latin (in the form of "Lingva Franka") and watching the stars as well, I suppose that went out of style along with wearing an onion on the belt for macaroni eh?

        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:00AM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 25 2018, @11:00AM (#627629) Journal

      No, I discovered Ursula in sixth grade, I think, maybe seventh. For whatever reasons, I didn't connect the obvious dots. Naturally enough, when I did connect the dots, it was a face palm thing. ;^)

      Oh - seventh grade. I had walked up and down the library aisles, and saw all the names that I was familiar with. Found a book of short stories, saw a name or two I was familiar with, and there was Ursula, halfway down the contents page. I checked the book out, and read it that night.

  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday January 26 2018, @06:46PM (2 children)

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Friday January 26 2018, @06:46PM (#628405) Homepage Journal

    Yes, women are indeed a thing in SF. The head of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (they award the Nebula award) is Cat Rambo, a woman who has been writing SF since the 1970s. Of the authors listed on the cover of the current F&SF magazine, half are women. Don't forget, a woman wrote Frankenstein.

    As to the name, I once new a man named Gail, and a woman named Charlie. Also, many writers use pen names; for instance, The Running Man was written by Stephen King under a pen name.

    --
    mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 26 2018, @10:43PM (1 child)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday January 26 2018, @10:43PM (#628600) Journal

      Yeah, I was tangentially referring to that whole Sad/Rabid Puppy thing. :^)

      • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:51PM

        by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:51PM (#630687) Homepage Journal

        At the 2016 Hugos, Cat Rambo had a bullwhip to keep them in line (true, she really did, although jokingly). I think that controversy is pretty much settled. The new controversy should be "why are so few black folks SF fans?" Except for the Asians and hispanics, Worldcon 2016 looked like a Trump rally with space aliens and rockets.

        --
        mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org