Posted by
Riklaa on July 2, 2009 at 1:05pm
Ursula Le Guin at 80
broadcast 17 Mar 2009, 11:30 on BBC Radio 4.
Writer China Mieville talks to American science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin.
Le Guin was a trailblazer - writing in the 1960s, her series of books about the adventures of a boy wizard, Ged, included characters of every race and colour. Her fiction has been acutely concerned with politics, portraying worlds destroyed by environmental catastrophe that prefigured modern concerns about global warming, and societies without gender just as modern-day feminism began to take off.
Featuring contributions and tributes from Iain Banks and Margaret Atwood.
In a new interview, Le Guin talks about her background, her early experiences as a young woman in the predominantly male science fiction world, her annoyance at writers, publishers and critics who deride the genre without knowing anything about it, and her reaction to the stellar fame of J K Rowling and the success of the Harry Potter books and films.
There are brief readings from some of Le Guin's best-known books, including A Wizard of Earthsea, and she comments bitterly on the recent US TV adaptation.
160/44; 32.1 MB; sound quality excellentdoc 090317 Ursula Le Guin at 80.mp3
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