On the death of Ursula K. LeGuin...
Jan. 24th, 2018 11:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oloriel...which is very sad indeed, I find myself nonetheless sidetracked into a ramble by obits like this:
coming from actual accomplished writers (TM).
If a fellow fan says something like this, my inner reaction is something along the lines of "Yeah, me too, pity there never was a reading/convention near us, or we didn't have the money or time to attend" or something like that. Because sure. As a lowly civilian (i.e. reader), you can't easily meet a big name writer. Legit.
But when it comes from someone who is basically a colleague of the deceased, it feels somehow different and I just want to roll my eyes and go "Well, why didn't you?"
I mean, I'm aware that they don't all hang out in some kind of hip Famour Writers club where everyone is friends with everyone. But if someone like Diane Duane or N.K. Jemisin wanted to meet up Ursula K. LeGuin, I'd think that until a few days ago, it would probably have been possible to, you know, arrange a meeting. Have their agents call her agent. Organise a joint reading or something. Or just meet up for cupcakes and tea and talk shop. You know what I mean.
So when I read "I would have loved to meet her" from, IDK, earthseafan1977 or someone, it feels sincere and sad; but when I read it from someone who (according to my doubtlessly unfair brain) could have accomplished that relatively easily, it causes raised eyebrows.
I have to consciously step back and remind myself that this is not fair. There are probably a dozen good reasons why it never went beyond "I would like to meet her some day". For starters, you rarely actively consider the mortality of someone you admire until it's too late. I wasn't aware that LeGuin was only two years younger than my grandmother, either - she always came across much younger in interviews, or when she accepted that National Book Foundation lifetime achievement award. People like that feel timeless, as if they're going to stay with us forever. So you're not actually aware that time will at some point run out and you should be making that appointment now rather than in five years' time. Sure. It happens. Lots of people never had that conversation about life, the universe and everything with their grandparents that they always meant to have. That may have happened.
Or even accomplished writers (TM) might feel starstruck, and not dare to approach someone who has had such an impact on the genre. In the same way that newbie fanfic writers wouldn't dare to approach what they perceive as a BNF, maybe these writers also felt beneath notice, and would never have considered themselves equals to LeGuin. Or they were terrified that the Grande Dame would have said something along the lines of "Sure, let's meet and discuss your books! You know, I felt that they left a lot to be desired." The anguish! Better not risk it.
In conclusion, of course writers are people, and life happens to them in the same way that it happens to readers. Which is a good thing to be aware of. But I did need to actively make myself aware of it. Because my first reaction was, nonetheless, "Yeah right, then why didn't you!"
Bad Lyra.
(Sad Lyra.)
coming from actual accomplished writers (TM).
If a fellow fan says something like this, my inner reaction is something along the lines of "Yeah, me too, pity there never was a reading/convention near us, or we didn't have the money or time to attend" or something like that. Because sure. As a lowly civilian (i.e. reader), you can't easily meet a big name writer. Legit.
But when it comes from someone who is basically a colleague of the deceased, it feels somehow different and I just want to roll my eyes and go "Well, why didn't you?"
I mean, I'm aware that they don't all hang out in some kind of hip Famour Writers club where everyone is friends with everyone. But if someone like Diane Duane or N.K. Jemisin wanted to meet up Ursula K. LeGuin, I'd think that until a few days ago, it would probably have been possible to, you know, arrange a meeting. Have their agents call her agent. Organise a joint reading or something. Or just meet up for cupcakes and tea and talk shop. You know what I mean.
So when I read "I would have loved to meet her" from, IDK, earthseafan1977 or someone, it feels sincere and sad; but when I read it from someone who (according to my doubtlessly unfair brain) could have accomplished that relatively easily, it causes raised eyebrows.
I have to consciously step back and remind myself that this is not fair. There are probably a dozen good reasons why it never went beyond "I would like to meet her some day". For starters, you rarely actively consider the mortality of someone you admire until it's too late. I wasn't aware that LeGuin was only two years younger than my grandmother, either - she always came across much younger in interviews, or when she accepted that National Book Foundation lifetime achievement award. People like that feel timeless, as if they're going to stay with us forever. So you're not actually aware that time will at some point run out and you should be making that appointment now rather than in five years' time. Sure. It happens. Lots of people never had that conversation about life, the universe and everything with their grandparents that they always meant to have. That may have happened.
Or even accomplished writers (TM) might feel starstruck, and not dare to approach someone who has had such an impact on the genre. In the same way that newbie fanfic writers wouldn't dare to approach what they perceive as a BNF, maybe these writers also felt beneath notice, and would never have considered themselves equals to LeGuin. Or they were terrified that the Grande Dame would have said something along the lines of "Sure, let's meet and discuss your books! You know, I felt that they left a lot to be desired." The anguish! Better not risk it.
In conclusion, of course writers are people, and life happens to them in the same way that it happens to readers. Which is a good thing to be aware of. But I did need to actively make myself aware of it. Because my first reaction was, nonetheless, "Yeah right, then why didn't you!"
Bad Lyra.
(Sad Lyra.)
no subject
Date: 2018-01-24 02:13 pm (UTC)My deceased step-father-in-law was a well-known writer in New Mexico. There were a lot of relatively well-known people writing there over the years and few of them knew one another personally. But he felt like they had things in common, one of which was location (and their distance from the literary hot spots of the world) and, to a lesser degree subject matter or shared influences, so he formed the Writers Cooperative of Santa Fe during the 1980s. He wanted to give them a forum in which to talk about their work, market it at a time when they (many quite successful) felt the ease of publication was declining. they also felt that publishers were not marketing books to the degree they had previously done and they could brainstorm relating to ways in which to publicize they own work. Forming that group and keeping it going consumed a lot of his time in the last decade of his life. I guess what I am trying to say, is that writers can meet one another, but it is not always without a great deal of effort.
I have been acutely aware for years of how important Ursula LeGuin has been been as a woman writer and one who gained prominence in particular in the field of sci-fi/fantasy which before her, and few other women, it was a largely male-dominated genre. But I have not read most of her novels. I still intend to remedy that. I have quoted her non-fiction writing in my scribbling (mainly in the character bios) relating to women writers on the influence of Tolkien on their work. I recall her saying somewhere (no, I am not going to look it up--too lazy and other dogs barking at my heels this morning) that she had learned from JRR Tolkien, "the trick of hinting at a whole background with a few names, so you'd feel situated in a real world, not a fantasy bubble." It's a big hole in my reading that I have not read her fiction. (I have been been a frantic reader all of my life--cannot go to sleep without reading for nearly an hour--even when I have been writing and doing research for most of the day--but I find I still have huge empty spaces and am aware that her work is one of those.)
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Date: 2018-01-25 12:59 am (UTC)As for meeting a Big Name, I no longer have any interest in doing that. No idea why, or anything -- just because, I guess. ::shrugs::
Although I love the idea of meeting other fans someday! Maybe even this year? ::crosses fingers::
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Date: 2018-01-28 05:55 am (UTC)Andre Norton was the exception to that... she was a kind old lady, and I enjoyed speaking with her.
There's this one writer I'd like to meet... she writes these awesome Tolkien fanish bits. Unfortunately, she lives on the other side of a big freakin' ocean....
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Date: 2018-01-28 10:29 am (UTC)Admittedly, the risk of that with Ursula Le Guin was lower than with Tolkien, for instance!
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Date: 2018-01-28 02:29 pm (UTC)I dunno, personally I suspect I could've got along with Tolkien alright, as long as we'd focused on language and botany and didn't drift into politics... I mean, the good thing of meeting an author as a fan or fellow author rather than as a journalist is that you don't have to ask their opinion on recent politics. (And in this case, she was pretty out-spoken about her opinions so one would know what one was getting oneself into!)
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Date: 2018-01-28 02:30 pm (UTC)Oh, you! *blushes*
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Date: 2018-01-28 02:33 pm (UTC)Having no interest is totally legitimate, but it's a completely different thing from saying "oh I wish I could have", since it was a conscious decision not to!
Good luck!
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Date: 2018-01-28 02:52 pm (UTC)That writers' cooperative your step-father-in-law founded sounds like something that should exist a lot more often! I'm sure published writers can benefit from talking shop with people who understand the plight, as well as brainstorming together and teaming up against publishers - just like we fanfic authors tend to thrive in our communities (most of the time). Pff!
I have to admit that I've admired LeGuin for her importance and success while having read only one of her (minor) works, in its German translation - and that didn't resonate with me at all! So that put me off looking into Earthsea or any of the sci-fi novels, although I'm probably going to rectify that at some point. I read her short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" on the day after her death and loved how she played with language and literary tropes there. So yeah, I've probably missed out big time!
I know the quote you mean! Having just snuck into the DTG (German Tolkien Society)'s web editorial team, I got to brainstorm on the official obituary we posted, and of course this was among the things we talked about. :)
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Date: 2018-01-29 04:58 pm (UTC)In the old black and white Moulin Rouge, Lautrec is given the line:One should never meet a person whose work one admires. What they do is always so much better than what they are.
I have found this to be an excellent rule of thumb.
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Date: 2018-01-30 03:23 pm (UTC)But then, the danger of being disappointed by an admired person always exists. One would have to avoid reading interviews, their tweets or blogs if they write any, and potentially every new thing they publish after the one you enjoyed... and pray it never turns out they ever worked with the wrong person! >_>