Science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin has passed away
American science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin passed away on Monday at the age of 88 in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. In addition to children’s books, essays and poetry collections, she is best known for her fantasy and science fiction stories.
Le Guin’s son has confirmed his mother’s death, but has not disclosed a cause of death, The New York Times reported. He did indicate that Le Guin had been struggling with ill health for several months.
One of her best-known science fiction books is The Left Hand of Darkness. This book was published in 1969, when Le Guin was forty years old. The story is about the encounter between different interplanetary cultures. One of the cultures in the story, the inhabitants of the planet Gethen, are hermaphroditic and lack the distinction between men and women. That does not make the job of a male envoy any easier, since he is seen as an outsider.
The author has often used themes such as the influence of gender and gender on culture and society in her stories. In her younger years, Le Guin lost her previous interest in science fiction, partly because of her opinion that many science fiction stories were really just about ‘hardware and soldiers’, where in her view it was often only white men who were going to conquer the universe.
Another well-known science fiction book by Le Guin, which, like The Left Hand of Darkness, is set in the Hainish universe in which humanity is spread over several planets, is The Dispossessed. This story, published in 1974, centers on two different societies: a capitalist society and an anarchist, classless society. The oppression of people is a central theme in this book.
© ANP / Robin Marchant