Wednesday Wordage--Ursula K. LeGuin

So, Ursula K. LeGuin died yesterday.  I've read a handful of her books, and definitely need to read more; the ones that I've read were uniformly excellent and expanding--both literary and imaginative, and challenging.

I am a fan of the notion of "canon."  I like the idea that there can be a body of work that is held in common, that everybody can refer to, and that any idea can be deepened by reference to a line or a character from canon.  I can, for instance, complain that my brother is dumping a lot of responsibility on me with regard to my parents' estate--or I can do the same, and say "am I my brother's keeper" and tie in to the whole business with Cain and Abel and guilt and primogeniture and responsibility and sin.

The idea of canon has become a little bit frayed of late, and with some reason.  Until just a few decades ago, canon was very white and very male and very straight and highly Christian.  And, also, very dead.  Whole new genres are out there--TV, movies, Pop music, propaganda posters--and some things really should be part of everybody's reference.  They're not taught in a culture class in school, though they are getting to the point where maybe they ought to be.  I've been a complete outsider in some conversations because of unfamiliarity with "Star Wars" or the works of Bob Dylan.

Science Fiction is another one of these new genres, and while there is no official canon, you can ask a  hundred fans and there are some books that will be almost universally referenced.  A lot of folks will talk about "golden age" sci-fi; Asimov, Doc Smith, Burroughs, and so on.  Well, since I wasn't taught a canon, I approached science fiction all out of order.  I read a bunch of Ursula K. LeGuin's stuff many years ago, along with some other more modern authors.  That was what I accepted as sci-fi.  Then, just a couple of years ago, I realized that people were getting worked up about "golden age" sci fi, so I decided that if I wanted to have a more complete view of the field, I ought to read it.  So, with the help of the local library and Project Gutenberg, I read a bunch of The Classics.

I have to say that it was kind of a letdown.  I remember thinking, all of the time, "where the women at?"  Yes, there were some adventurous adventures and action-packed action, but if you have the impression that sci-fi has the intellectual and social daring of LeGuin and Lem and Ellison, then most of the Golden Age stuff is just pulpy fluff, and not necessarily all that well written.

So here's a fond ave atque vale to Ursula K. LeGuin, and sincerest thanks for making me believe that genre literature is actually literature, and making me disappointed when it fails to be such.

What should I read next?

Wednesday Wordage Euphemism of the year 2018 Already Decided!

Pegasus Airlines, a low-cost Turkish carrier, said in a statement that the Boeing 737-800 aircraft, flying to Trabzon from Ankara, the capital, “had a runway excursion incident” as it tried to land.

Tuesday Monday Musical Offering

Ok, a day late.  But--here is a radio program that I have found that I like very much:  The Piano Matters, hosted by David Dubal. (Link) Oregon's classical radio station, KWAX, plays it Tuesdays at 5 PM and Saturdays at, I think, 6.  It's on other stations too.  It's an hour of piano lover's delights.

So much of radio programming, not to mention concert programming and CD producing, is geared towards completism and Big Statements:  all the preludes of so and so, the complete scherzi of X, the entire Opus 42 of Y.  This show is mostly miniatures, morceaux de salon, obscurities by one-hit-wonders, or obscurities by big names who just aren't known for little snippets that can be played by talented amateurs.  A space is carved out for one big thing per hour, usually a concerto movement, but the rest is a big box of bijoux that few have heard.

Not only that, but the host is content to play recordings that have sound quality that is...well, the suck.    But if you want to hear Godowski or somebody who studied with Liszt, that's what you're going to get.  And you'll like it.

The host is also worth listening to, because, as is rare these days, he has opinions about what he plays and he freely shares them*.  To be sure, he comes by those opinions honestly, as a piano teacher at Juilliard.  "That was pretty good...Maybe a little lacking in a certain majesty, but stylish in its own way."  "Well played, a charming but negligible piece that is worth hearing, once."  He name-drops, but he's entitled to do so by his own works.  He throws in a few mottoes as spacers, which are sometimes worth thinking over and sometimes merely annoying.  But, all in all, this is one of my absolute favorite shows.  Give it a listen.

*Sean Bianco, of Sacramento's Capitol Public Radio's At the Opera on Saturdays at 8:00 is especially worthy in this regard.

Wednesday Wordage, Utopian Edition

Of course, Utopia was imaginary, situated (by its name) nowhere.  Lately I've been attracted to a couple of modern, well-developed and well-imagined no-places.  One, Night Vale, exists in the desert Southwest, in a parallel dimension; it projects into this dimension via a podcast, every two weeks.  The other, Discworld, exists on the back of four giant elephants astride the back of the giant space turtle A'tuin who swims through the stars in an odd dimension of the universe, and was projected into this world by the late, great Terry Pratchett.

I've been trying to figure out what I find attractive in these imaginary lands.  Neither of them is a paradise; both are haunted, both are plagued by some of the same ills--war, corruption, hatred--that plague our world.  What's more, they are afflicted by demons, monsters, and evil of every sort.  People do stupid, cowardly, or hateful things.  Fate is capricious.  People die (Death himself makes at least a cameo in every Discworld story).

Yet, I really like letting my imagination go to those places.  Ultimately, they both have something that is very right, and that is sadly too rare in this less demon-haunted world.  In both, at the end, there is a certain acceptance of the "other."  People learn.  In Night Vale, the mysterious Glowing cloud that controls human minds (All hail!) and rains animal corpses completes a story arc, and is a member of the school board.  In Discworld, everybody of one species pretty much hates everybody of every other species--dwarves hate trolls, humans hate goblins, everybody hates vampires--but the bustling city of Ankh-Morpork is home to all of them, bumping shoulders but not coming to blows (very often).  It's lovely to spend time in these places, if you feel at all different, or wish this world were more welcoming to the "other."  It has become all the more so, since our government has been seized by a party that, for now, is based largely on demonizing the "other."

So, check them out.  Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast, you can get it where you will.  The Discworld is found in a whole series of, what, thirty-some novels; the first three introduce some recurring characters, but weren't really written with an eye towards establishing a whole series--but read the whole lot, they're good.  Better than the news, for sure.

Monday Musical Offering Tired of Travel Edition

A week on the road, Stockton-LA-LA-Fresno-Davis-Burlingame and home.  Saw and did some wonderful things, reconnected with friends.  Tired, happy to be home with my sweetie.