Comments on: Goodbye Ursula https://habitablezone.com/2018/01/24/goodbye-ursula/ Fri, 03 Apr 2026 22:41:18 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: hank https://habitablezone.com/2018/01/24/goodbye-ursula/#comment-40944 hank Wed, 24 Jan 2018 19:36:29 +0000 https://habitablezone.com/?p=68987#comment-40944 I've read only two of Ursula K Leguin's novels; "The Dispossessed" which disappointed me, and "The Left Hand of Darkness", which moved me deeply. I was particularly touched by her thoughts on prescience, prophecy, and foreknowledge, so much more profound than Frank Herbert's. Le Guin's protagonist learns from the androgynous monks he stays with how pointless it is to be able to predict the future. His hosts have the power, yet they disdain it, they only rarely use it, and its consequences are always a disappointment. I paraphrase, but I distinctly recall "There is only one question about the future that really matters: What happens when we die? And we already know the answer to that." I’ve read only two of Ursula K Leguin’s novels; “The Dispossessed” which disappointed me, and “The Left Hand of Darkness”, which moved me deeply. I was particularly touched by her thoughts on prescience, prophecy, and foreknowledge, so much more profound than Frank Herbert’s.

Le Guin’s protagonist learns from the androgynous monks he stays with how pointless it is to be able to predict the future. His hosts have the power, yet they disdain it, they only rarely use it, and its consequences are always a disappointment. I paraphrase, but I distinctly recall “There is only one question about the future that really matters: What happens when we die? And we already know the answer to that.”

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