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The Dispossessed
I have just finished The Dispossessed (Ursula K. Le Guin). I had forgotten how absorbing Le Guin is, and how skillfully she draws you in, from the first few pages where you are just picking up bits and pieces of the setting to the point where you are wrapped in it, like it's a real place and you can live there. The compare-and-contrast exercise of Annares and Urras is fascinating throughout, and Shevek's drive - or drives, in physics, society and family - become easily as compelling to the reader as they are to him.
As to what to take from this into my own writing (because I am trying to do this, to read on purpose and learn from whatever I read)... it is difficult, to distill simple learning moments out of truly excellent writing. ("who am I", the thought comes, "to try to be this good") But I will try. One point, perhaps, is that as no society is perfect, the interest in writing a fictional one lies in looking at where it is imperfect. Another might be about introducing a wholly speculative setting: I want to reread the beginning chapters, to see how the Cetian world was unfolded into something that felt real. And finally, I find the way she uses languague, subtly differentiating the way that the Annaresti and the Urrasti speak, fascinating; it's a reminder that you can show character and setting right down on a grammatical level. "You can share the handkerchief that I use."
Anyway, I'm glad I finally got around to reading this!
As to what to take from this into my own writing (because I am trying to do this, to read on purpose and learn from whatever I read)... it is difficult, to distill simple learning moments out of truly excellent writing. ("who am I", the thought comes, "to try to be this good") But I will try. One point, perhaps, is that as no society is perfect, the interest in writing a fictional one lies in looking at where it is imperfect. Another might be about introducing a wholly speculative setting: I want to reread the beginning chapters, to see how the Cetian world was unfolded into something that felt real. And finally, I find the way she uses languague, subtly differentiating the way that the Annaresti and the Urrasti speak, fascinating; it's a reminder that you can show character and setting right down on a grammatical level. "You can share the handkerchief that I use."
Anyway, I'm glad I finally got around to reading this!