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Ursula LeGuin puts the publishers in their place
(lemmy.world)
Not really a meme, I know, but I thought this was amazing and worth sharing and I didn't know where else to share it on Lemmy.
Ursula LeGuin was an incredible person and, although she did live a long life, her death was still a huge loss.
Sounds very similar to The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress, one of my favorite books.
Instead, Earth had colonized the moon, and is doing the normal routine of extracting all possible value at all costs. They are shipping ungodly amounts or ice water from the moon's ice caps down to earth, which has left the lunar denizens with little water, and few crops. So they stage a revolution to avoid the impending collapse of their society.
They go into the actual war strategies a moon might take upon a parent planet, and it is fascinating, I highly recommend it.
A bit, but I felt like Heinlein's book was much more 'hit you over the head with the message' than her books ever are. I still really like it, don't get me wrong, but it's much more heavy-handed in terms of messaging. LeGuin lets you mostly figure it out for yourself. You can certainly read her books and not learn a thing if you don't want to (many people, especially her male critics over the years, do so), but if you open your mind to what she's saying...
I'll have to take your word for it on the strength of messaging, as I haven't read LeGuin yet. But it's definitely been added to my reading list.
I like politics/religion/etc as topics well enough, but usually never enough to read about on their own as a book. It just doesn't sit well with me.
But add a bit of science fiction to it? That god damn I'm on board. It's like taking meds with a bit of honey for me. So when I find authors that explore things and have some fun with it, I jump at the chance.