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Ursula K Le Guin Rule
(feddit.uk)
Fiction. There is no help coming.
The Hainish cycle slaps so fuckin hard. God please don't ever let anyone ruin it by trying to adapt any of it to screen. I saw what the younger Miyazaki did to Earthsea.
Kim Stanley Robinson's visions of future liberatory society are great too, Le Guin was his friend and mentor and it shows, but he can't write character very well while she certainly could.
fuuuck what book is this again?
The dispossessed.
Genuinely incredibly read.
Basic premise is an anarchist movement on alien planet got very powerful, and eventually struck a deal with the governments of the planet. Send us to the moon. We will eek out a life on the moon, removed from you and your economic system. The main planet is primarily capitalist, with one Soviet Union analog Nation. There's a balancing act between act, no one can admit the anarchists are successful, none of the anarchists can admit that the planet has a significantly higher standard of living. The MC is the first person to visit the planet in (iirc) a century. The moon is a desert, mostly barren, very hard life, but made bearable by their collectivist system and mutual aid, the planet is a paradise ecologically, and for the MC, made unbearable by their system.
Spoiler below. My spoiler tags don't work. Upside down text instead. Read on at your own risk, I'll keep the spoilers to a minimum/about the same level as the above:
¿llǝɥ uᴉ ǝᴉp noʎ uǝɥʍ oƃ noʎ op ǝɹǝɥM ˙ǝɹǝɥ ǝᴉp oʇ ʇuɐʍ ʇou op I ˙llǝɥ sᴉ sᴉɥ┴
:pɐǝɹ ɹǝʌǝ ǝʌ,I sǝuᴉl lnɟɹǝʍod ʇsoɯ ǝɥʇ ɟo ǝuo sɹǝʌᴉlǝp pu∀ ˙llǝɥ sᴉ ʇǝuɐld sᴉɥʇ ʇɐɥʇ ɹǝɥ sllǝʇ puɐ 'uo ƃuᴉoƃ s,ʇɐɥʍ oʇ sɐ ɹopɐssɐqɯɐ ǝɥʇ oʇ ɥɔǝǝds sᴉɥ sǝʌᴉƃ ǝH ˙spuɐɥ (ʇsᴉlɐʇᴉdɐɔ) ƃuoɹʍ ǝɥʇ oʇuᴉ llɐɟ oʇ ɥɔɹɐǝsǝɹ ɔᴉɟᴉʇuǝᴉɔs sᴉɥ ɹoɟ puɐ 'ǝɟᴉl sᴉɥ ɹoɟ pᴉɐɹɟɐ sᴉ ǝɥ 'oʇuᴉ ʇǝƃ ʇ,uoʍ I suosɐǝɹ ʎɹǝlᴉods ʎɹǝʌ ɹoℲ ˙ʎssɐqɯǝ uɐɹɹǝʇ/ɥʇɹɐǝ ǝɥʇ uᴉ ɯnlʎsɐ ƃuᴉɯᴉɐlɔ ʎlǝʌᴉʇɔǝɟɟǝ ɹǝʇɔɐɹɐɥɔ uᴉɐɯ ǝɥʇ sɐɥ sᴉɥʇ ǝɹoɟǝq ʇsnɾ ʇᴉq ǝɥʇ
For anyone interested it's also part of a larger sci fi universe that a lot of the author's other works take place in. Basically lots of humanoid species that have made their own societies and histories are all descended from the same forerunner species a la Halo lore.
I still haven't managed to get around to any of the others. I started rocannons world, I think it's called, but I didn't get far into it before life got in the way.
Which do you suggest to go with next?
The Left Hand of Darkness. Takes place an inordinate amount of time after Dispossessed, but was written before it. Really cool exploration into gender in a complex androgynous society where a monarchist nation is in conflict with an authoritarian-communist nation, told from the perspective of a Terran (Earthling).
To do a spoiler tag write "This Is My Spoiler Title" on its own line (don't include the quotation marks)
Then put the text you want to hide below it, separated by white space (enter key pressed twice).
Then end the spoiler with another 3 colons, again separated by white space.
And it should work :)
For some reason, the spoiler tags just don't work on my end. Either the normal colon based ones, or the >! Style. I don't know why.
I purposefully made my example not function to demonstrate how it's constructed. If done without the quotation marks, and the is on its own line, it should work and show up in your app.
spoiler Spoiler Test! (Click me)
Ultra sneaksies textings be here >.>
:::
Here's what it looks like before posting on my end:
Second verse, same as the first. I use eternity, and the spoilers just straight up don't work for me :/
> peak population before the collapse was 9 billion
> we‘re on track to reach 9 billion in about 10 years
> we’re currently racing to hit reaching various climate tipping points
we’re fucked aren’t we
Tipping points are the new thing to argue about. Now that we've reached the 1.5 C limit that we kept saying we should avoid (used to be 1 C), we'll argue if each tipping point is really a tipping point, or maybe it's a rough area and we'll be okay if it goes over just a bit. It's amazing that we've known scientifically of the danger, from speculation in the 1800s of heating over centuries via all the coal being burned, to the 1950s documentaries how we might be doing damage to the environment, then more and more confirmation as we got better at seeing it, alarms in the 70s and 80s that we need to stop. We might be the stupidest species on the planet.
Most people have very little agency to change things, as even if they spend time and money they don't have on getting their personal impact to zero, and nearly everyone else does the same, it won't make much difference. There are a handful of people with so much money and influence that they could significantly change things, though, but who only care about further enriching themselves. It's only really that handful of people who are behaving stupidly. The majority of people did not actively decide to create a system that gives the most power to the kind of person with that specific personality trait.
A few rich assholes being extra stupid does not absolve anyone that could do better themselves but not doing it. The meat Industrie is one of the worst polluters and people eat fucking steak while waiting for regulation to fix it. Who will regulate something away that everyone does? Show some signals to the politics that you actually mean it
Steak? Maybe hamburger, if you can still afford that regularly. There are plenty of people who have stopped voluntarily for whatever reasons, others who have due to the cost. Not a fan of victim blaming for those who, as the person you replied to said, were born into this mess. Which is honestly most everyone, and few can dig themselves completely out.
But you are right about doing what you can. Everyone should try to change where they can. Most just have limits on that. Meanwhile the wealthy continue, not really caring what we do as those signals don't even get out of the noise. I can preach about doing the right things while also being apathetic about the results. Do it for yourself, not because it will change the world.
Yes we are
Such a great book, one of my favorites
I've been meaning to re-read it. I wish more science fiction could match it.
The dispossessed is great probably my favorite book actually can't recommend it more.
pEOpLe PrOdUCe mORe ReSoUrCeS tHaN theY conSuMe- dumb fucks who think those resources are infinite and producing them has no other costs
Native Americans produced more than they consumed, they manicured the forests around them to make themselves and the ecosystem thrive.
Then the British came..
You go write a better novel and deal with all the business of negotiating a publishing deal and make it onto a critical, well known success then
I feel you might have misinterpreted their post? I think they were reinforcing Le Guin's point.
I love ursulas writing
this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2026
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