Ursula K. Le Guin, Avenali Chair in the Humanities

Avenali Chair in the Humanities Ursula K. Le Guin in conversation with Professor Michael Lucey (Comparative Literature and French, UC Berkeley).
Ursula K. Le Guin is the author of more than one hundred short stories, four collections of essays, seven volumes of poetry, and nineteen novels. Her best-known fantasy works, the "Earthsea" books, have sold millions of copies and have been translated into sixteen languages. The Left Hand of Darkness, her first major work of science fiction, is considered epoch-making in the field due to its radical investigation of gender roles as well as its moral and literary complexity. Le Guin has received the National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, five Nebula Awards, SFWA's Grand Master, the Kafka Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Howard Vursell Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the L.A. Times Robert Kirsch Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, and the Margaret A. Edwards Award. She has also been a finalist for the American Book Award three times and once for the Pulitzer Prize.
Le Guin was born Ursula Kroeber, and raised in Berkeley, California, the daughter of anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber and writer Theodora Kroeber. She graduated from Radcliffe College and studied at Columbia University. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
Sponsored by the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities
townsendcenter.berkeley.edu/

[@davidwilliambarker]

She's never gone.

[@TauanGGomes]

It's very good to listen to her reading... especially now that she's gone. Love you, Ursula.

[@Sonoluminescencia]

"You always have to defend the imagination against idiots." -Ursula Fucking Le Guin

[@a.j.ponder7029]

My favourite quote of the whole thing. I suspect it doesn't say good things about me, but as a fantasy author and reader, it was pure gold. :)

[@chelseabrowne4904]

I adore how much Michael Lucey adores Ursula K Le Guin.

[@terrylaguardia6838]

Now this is an interviewer who knows how to shed the spotlight on his guest as so many don’t. His questions show deep respect and thoughtfulness. It is clear that his knowledge of literature only enhances his reverence for this great writer he admires.

[@richardportman8912]

always coming home is a book that changed my life. it informs me to this day.

[@terrylaguardia6838]

I so wanted that highly relevant question about empire to be asked - I’m soooo glad it was! And what an answer!

[@manthasagittarius1]

October 21, 2016 Happy Birthday, Ursula! I send the love of a reader to a favorite author for 40 years. My copy of "Words Are My Matter" arrived a few days ago. Looking forward to reading with fall light and a bowl of apples.

[@tehacjusz2010]

my deepest thanks for this one; may the force be with you and stay frosty.

[@teganmiller4248]

Thank you, wonderful!

[@Snackay]

Didn't he say he was going to be brief?

[@kathyhills5391]

Love this

[@sajinirathnayake9285]

She is heaven ❤😂

[@sidesignfurniturerestoration]

I rediscover the writings by Mrs Le Guin. Thanks to KZbin it is still possible to listen to her lectures, inteviews. Which is perfect. Thank you Berkeley for sharing this particular meeting with this lady of thought. Nethertheless I am surprised in a rather unpleasant matter. This lady was 83 at that time. She was a guest at your University, a much aknowledged writer and an Old Person (as she described herself) and I find it quite unkind for the professor (a much younger person) to make her choose the people asking questions. Please forgive me my little self daring critisise a professor though it did strike me as some cultural issue which I don't feel comfortable with. I believe renown universities set the realm of culture to younger generetions. Should it show disrespect to Old and aknowledged?

[@terrylaguardia6838]

Language Arts Yes I had the same feeling. Given that it is very tiresome even for younger people to take questions for so long, she should have been saved the daunting task of coordinating the questions in the Q&A. It would have been more polite, no doubt, though I’m sure the professor meant it differently - as a way of, as he said, staying backstage, most likely to allow for a more spontaneous interaction between LeGuin and her public.

[@michaellucey1752]

Ursula Le Guin wanted to engage with the audience directly and field her own questions, so the disrespect would have been for me to insist on handling that.

[@k.t.5405]

min 14:12 "A woman who is of mixed race..." Huh? Thats a stretch , bud.