Monday, December 10, 2007
I just finished Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and I'm not quite sure how to describe my reaction to it: Thoughtful and respectful at the end, distant and skeptical during the read. It's a Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and National Book Award winner; I expected to be riveted by a book so acclaimed, but just wasn't.
One personal observation: The sort of utopia described in the book looks, by the eyes of this 49 year old who was young during the aftermath of the if-it-feels-good-do-it 60's, to be fatally flawed. Having seen what most of that nonsense from back then turned into, it's not plausible, in my mind, that the Utopian society described could remotely work. Such things seem based in a liberal naivete that, by 2007, takes on a tone of irresponsibility that is either criminal or laughable.
Having said all of that, I would still recommend the book. It's well-written and one of the classics in its genre. My disagreement with its ideas may not be yours.
One personal observation: The sort of utopia described in the book looks, by the eyes of this 49 year old who was young during the aftermath of the if-it-feels-good-do-it 60's, to be fatally flawed. Having seen what most of that nonsense from back then turned into, it's not plausible, in my mind, that the Utopian society described could remotely work. Such things seem based in a liberal naivete that, by 2007, takes on a tone of irresponsibility that is either criminal or laughable.
Having said all of that, I would still recommend the book. It's well-written and one of the classics in its genre. My disagreement with its ideas may not be yours.
# posted by goldpython @ 1:33 PM 
