Dancing at the Edge of the World
“I have decided that the trouble with print is, it never changes its mind,” writes Ursula K. Le Guin in her introduction to Dancing at the Edge of the World. But she has, and here is the record of that change in the decade since the publication of her last nonfiction collection, The Language of the Night. And what a mind—strong, supple, disciplined, playful, ranging over the whole field of its concerns, from modern literature to menopause, from utopian thought to rodeos, with an eloquence, wit, and precision that makes for exhilarating reading.
This collection was originally published by Grove Press in 1989.
Praise
“Le Guin at her best: insightful, funny, sharp, occasionally tendentious and nearly always provocative. … This is an important collection of eloquent, elegant pieces by one of our most acclaimed contemporary writers.”
—Elizabeth Hand, The Washington Post
“If you want excess and risk and intelligence … try Le Guin. She has the rare ability to attack and praise simultaneously [with] irreverent impartiality.”
—Mary Mackey, San Francisco Chronicle
“Le Guin is one of the most important American fiction writers working today. … Essential reading for anyone who imagines herself literature and/or socially concerned or who wants to learn what it means to be such.”
“Chronologically arranged, these 33 talks and essays and 17 reviews of books and films, dating from 1976 through 1987, eloquently record Le Guin's responses to ethical and political climates, the transforming effect of certain literary ideas and the changes of a supple, disciplined mind.”
Table of Contents
Introductory Note
“The Space Crone”
“Is Gender Necessary? Redux”
“‘Moral and Ethical Implications of Family Planning’”
“It Was a Dark and Stormy Night”
“Working on ‘The Lathe’”
“Some Thoughts on Narrative”
“World-Making”
“Hunger”
“Places Names”
“The Princess”
“A Non-Euclidean View of California as a Cold Place to Be”
“Facing It”
“Reciprocity of Prose and Poetry”
“Along the Platte”
“Whose Lathe?”
“The Woman Without Answers”
“The Second Report of the Shipwrecked Foreigner to the Kadanh of Derb”
“Room 9, Car 1430”
“Theodora”
“Science Fiction and the Future”
“The Only Good Author?”
“Woman / Wilderness”
“The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction”
“Heroes”
“Prospects for Women in Writing”
“Text, Silence, Performance”
“‘Who is Responsible?’”
“Conflict”
“‘Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?’”
“Over the Hills and a Great Ways Off”
“The Fisherwoman’s Daughter”
REVIEWS
The Dark Tower, by C.S. Lewis
Close Encounters, Star Wars, and the Tertium Quid
Two from Venom
Freddy’s Book and Vlenk, by John Gardner
The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five, by Doris Lessing
Kalila and Dimna, retold by Ramsay Wood
Unfinished Business, by Maggie Scarf
Italian Folktales, by Italo Calvino
Peake’s Progress, by Mervyn Peake
The Sentimental Agents, by Doris Lessing
Difficult Loves, by Italo Calvino
“Forsaking Kingdoms”: Five Poets
Outside the Gates, by Molly Gloss
Golden Days, by Carolyn See
Excerpts
“The Fisherwoman’s Daughter” was excerpted in The New York Times as “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Writes the Book” (22 January 1989)
Reviews and Articles
“Ursula K. Le Guin on Where Ideas Come From, the ‘Secret’ of Great Writing, and the Trap of Marketing Your Work” by Maria Popova, The Marginalian (21 November 2014)
“Dancing Gracefully But Cautiously: Ursula Le Guin's Criticism” by Joan Gordon, Science Fiction Studies (March 1990)
“Father Tongue, Mother Tongue” By Noel Perrin, The New York Times (12 March 1989)
Review at Kirkus Reviews (15 January 1988)