#vaster than empires and more slow

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

#short stories #short story #20th century literature #english language literature #american literature #vaster than empires and more slow #ursula k le guin #ursula k. le guin #have you read this short fiction? #book polls #completed polls

[mryndsl]

some days i identify as le guin's silly lil empathic planet in vaster than empires and more slow. still thinking about her. this is that day.

#vaster than empires and more slow #ursula k. le guin

[hans-garden]

quick thoughts on Stranger in Paradise by Isaac Asimov

I'll be reposting some of my notes on stuff I've read/watched here on Tumblr. First up: Stranger in Paradise by Isaac Asimov (wiki page)

As with other old sci-fi stories, there is some amazing potential in this story if it were not for the horrible ideas and imagery surrounding autism. They're not inaccurate for the timeframe, just terribly outdated to a modern audience. Same as Ursula K. Le Guin's Vaster than Empires and More Slow, there is something there I think has the potential to resonate with many autistic people in terms of a sort of detachment from other people, whether that be in terms of a robot like 'Stranger in Paradise or plants like Vaster than Empires. There is absolutely an angle of dehumanization in these stories, one that specifically targets autistic people with high support needs (if only for the reason that that was the only type of autism known at the time)—we mustn't forget that in discussing these stories. Still, there is a decently long tradition of autistic people relating to characters that are robots, aliens, or otherwise not human (such as Data from Star Trek). I think that can be a worthwhile angle to approach these stories from.

#isaac asimov #stranger in paradise #ursula k le guin #vaster than empires and more slow #autistic character #actuallyautistic

[al-kalai]

“It doesn’t think. It isn’t thinking,” Harfex said, lifelessly. “It’s merely a network of processes. The branches, the epiphytic growths, the roots with those nodal junctures between individuals: they must all be capable of transmitting electrochemical impulses. There are no individual plants, then, properly speaking. Even the pollen is part of the linkage, no doubt, a sort of windborne sentience, connecting overseas. But it is not conceivable. That all the biosphere of a planet should be one network of communications, sensitive, irrational, immortal, isolated. . . .”

Vaster Than Empires and More Slow, Ursula K. Le Guin

#ursula k. le guin #vaster than empires and more slow #q

[july-19th-club]

cool texts to receive: five in a row from my brother, research engineer who hasn't read fiction in over a year, gushing over the titles in the copy of "the wind's twelve quarters" he borrowed from me. one small step for metals and polymers tester, one giant step for ursula nation

uncool texts to receive: one from my amorous neighbor, who wants to know my work schedule . if the four months of ignoring you or shutting you down didn't get the point across -

#im going to have to Do Something about the amorous neighbor sooner or later #but the thing is that he is probably not being creepy on purpose. it complicates matters bc i dont think hes like Aware of that #like socially he is not very ept. hes more on the inept side of the scale. but after a certain point that's not an excuse #nor a reassurance #my brother however is really enjoying le guin so far. he's only read the titles . says hes just rolling them around in his brain #his favorite title is 'Vaster Than Empires And More Slow' which is an excellent choice. one of the titles ever #it always reminds me of one of those old-school trek titles that i love #the world is hollow and i have touched the sky. etc #he said he didnt want anything too heavy tho so i started him out on april in paris

[alientitty]

even with nbc hannibal's will graham, urusla leguin got there first

#it's called text to text connection-- #story is “vaster than empires and even more slow”

[tacfarinas]

URSULA

#sorry just read vaster than empires & more slow #and am feeling. VERY emotional #ursula le guin #inquit

[treeroutes]

what's up ! non-exhaustive list of stories featuring weird plants :

The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham

The Night of the Triffids, Simon Clark

In the Tall Grass, Stephen King and Joe Hill

The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig', William Hope Hodgson

The Man Whom the Trees Loved, Algernon Blackwood

The Red Tree, Caitlín R. Kiernan

Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer

The Willows, Algernon Blackwood

The Nature of Balance, Tim Lebbon

'Bloom', John Langan

The Ruins, Scott Smith

The Wise Friend, Ramsey Campbell

'The Green Man of Freetown', The Envious Nothing : A Collection of Literary Ruins, Curtis M. Lawson

The Beauty, Aliya Whiteley

The Ash-Tree, M.R. James

Canavan's Backyard, J.P. Brennan

Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Jack Finney

The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher

'Reaching for Ruins', Crow Shine, Alan Baxter

'Vortex of Horror', Gaylord Sabatini

Hothouse, Brian W. Aldiss

Vaster than Empires and More Slow, Ursula K. Le Guin

Odd Attachment, Ian M. Banks

Deathworld #1, Harry Harrison

The Bridge, John Skipp and Craig Spector

'The Garden of Paris', Eric Williams

Apartment Building E, Malachi King

The Seed from the Sepulchre, Clark Ashton Smith

Rappaccini's Daughter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Nursery, Lewis Mallory

The Other Side of the Mountain, Michel Bernanos

The Vegetarian, Han Kang

Sisyphean, Dempow Torishima

The Root Witch, Debra Castaneda

Semiosis, Sue Burke

The Wolf in Winter, Charlie Parker #12, John Connolly

Perennials, Bryce Gibson

Relic, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Gwen, in Green, Hugh Zachary

The Voice in the Night, William Hope Hodgson

Ordinary Horror, David Searcy

The Family Tree, Sheri S. Tepper

The Book of Koli, Rampart Trilogy #1, M.R. Carey

Seeders, A.J. Colucci

Concrete Jungle, Brett McBean

The Plant, Stephen King

Anthologies/collections :

The Roots of Evil: Weird Stories of Supernatural Plants, edited by Michel Parry

Chlorophobia: An Eco-Horror Anthology, edited by A.R. Ward

Roots of Evil: Beyond the Secret Life of Plants, edited by Carlos Cassaba

The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling

Sylvan Dread: Tales of Pastoral Darkness, Richard Gavin

Evil Roots: Killer Tales of the Botanical Gothic, edited by Daisy Butcher

Weird Woods: Tales From the Haunted Forests of Britain, edited by John Miller

'But fungi aren't plants' :

The Fungus, Harry Adam Knight

Growing Things and Other Stories, Paul Tremblay

The Girl with All the Gifts, M.R. Carey

Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Fruiting Bodies, and Other Fungi, Brian Lumley

'The Black Mould', The Age of Decayed Futurity, Mark Samuels

What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher

The House Without a Summer, DeAnna Knippling

Mungwort, James Noll

Fungi, edited by Orrin Grey and Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Trouble with Lichen, John Wyndham

Notes :

all links lead to the goodreads page of the book, mostly because i like to look at book cover art ;

list features authors/books that i love (T. Kingfisher, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Ursula K. Le Guin, the collections from the British Library Tales of the Weird, etc.), but also a few that i don't like and some that i have not yet read ;

if upon seeing that list the first novel you check out is by Stephen King's you have not understood the assignment ;

not all of those are strictly horror stories, some are 100% science fiction (Brian W. Aldiss' Hothouse for instance).

#text #ramblings #plant tag #botanical horror #last time i posted a list of non-fiction books on the topic. time for some variety

[butchniqabi]

What are your favourite aspects of sci fi? Themes, tropes, specific stories, anything that comes to mind

i love so much about scifi,,,the unique and creative ways people talk about present day problems and institutions, the way people envision futures. i love dystopias i love utopias i love it saur much! as for specific stories, i (unfortunately) really like harlan ellison and ray bradbury (fun fact, my grandma's friend used to drive him around because he hated it himself) also octavia butler despite our adversarial relationship and ursula k le guin, i hate hg wells, philip k dick (previously mentioned friend was his girlfriend for a time), and adolus huxley. i think i spelled his name wrong but i dont care to check the proper spelling. i love holistic critiques, i love when critiques take into account intersectionality and how things like race, gender, ability, and class all interact with one another. less "this white man experiences subjugation despite all odds, isnt that crazy?" those narratives are usually written by white men and i really do not give a fuck anymore. i think a lot of Iconic Sci Fi is just...uninspired and/or ruined by its own limited perspective. sci fi i love involves involved world building that doesnt feel the need to overexplain and kind of throws you into the experience.

some random sci fi media i enjoy: altered carbon, another life, the southern reach trilogy (stan annihilation!), event horizon, the left hand of darkness, vaster than empires and more slow, the ones who walk away from omelas (basically a lot of ursula k le guin...), the veldt, the episode "far beyond the stars" from deep space nine, the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, the spacesuit, moon, -all you zombies-, no one will save you, the girl with all the gifts, special dreams in which you exist, the thing, kindred, and how long til black future month

did you know while i was refreshing my memory and looking up sci fi books, google labeled th white's the once and future king as sci fi? thats so real.

#asks #snuck special dreams in there bc im my favorite author *flips hijab* #lol asdfghjk

[nojaloart]

vegetable love, my finished zine for a scifi project i took this past fall! based off of leguin's vaster than empires and more slow, it's about being autistic, solidarity, the ordeals of understanding, and also the autistic urge to melt away into the forest ground and never return

commission me!

#artists on tumblr #digital art #ursula k. le guin #art tingz #it was a very trying class w all the racism sexism ableism etc etc scifi can offer but i finished with an a. for anyone who cares yipee

[p-isforpoetry]

"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell (read by Richard

Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, Lady, were no crime. We would sit down, and think which way To walk, and pass our long love’s day. Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide Of Humber would complain. I would Love you ten years before the flood: And you should, if you please, refuse Till the conversion of the Jews. My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more slow. An hundred years should go to praise Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze. Two hundred to adore each breast: But thirty thousand to the rest. An age at least to every part, And the last age should show your heart: For, Lady, you deserve this state; Nor would I love at lower rate. But at my back I always hear Time’s wing’ed chariot hurrying near: And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast eternity. Thy beauty shall no more be found; Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound My echoing song: then worms shall try That long preserved virginity: And your quaint honour turn to dust; And into ashes all my lust. The grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. Now, therefore, while the youthful glue Sits on thy skin like morning dew, And while thy willing soul transpires At every pore with instant fires, Now let us sport us while we may; And now, like amorous birds of prey, Rather at once our time devour, Than languish in his slow-chapped power. Let us roll all our strength, and all Our sweetness, up into one ball: And tear our pleasures with rough strife, Thorough the iron grates of life. Thus, though we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Source: Classic Love Poems, 2005

#To His Coy Mistress #Andrew Marvell #Richard Armitage #poem #poetry #p-isforpoetry #audio #youtube #Youtube

[aurpiment]

So I’ve decided I need to read The Left Hand of Darkness after seeing all of your posts about it. Are there any other of Le Guin’s novels that you consider must-reads, or another you’d recommend to start with?

Hell yeah! Well honestly it depends on what you like. Left hand is a great starting point. To people more into fantasy I recommend the earthsea books. The first three are for kids and the fourth one is for adults and they’re all very good and dear to me. To people who like sci fi to happen on earth and are into dreams and daoism, lathe of heaven which is also sci fi but set in regular earth Portland and is like very short at just over 100 pages. To people who are into alternative political systems and math I recommend the dispossessed. If you like Ancient Roman poetry, Lavinia. If you ever wanted to read a 19th century European novel but from a country that didn’t exist, Malafrena. If you want to read a fantasy that will fuck you right up, the western shore series. The third western shore book is my favorite. Oughhhh I can’t tell you anything tho it’s a spoiler but it’s a great story Trust me on this one

Really any of her collections of short stories is also great but I recommend the birthday of the world and the compass rose. But also some of her most famous 60s/70s short stories are in the wind’s twelve quarters. “The author of the acacia seeds” in the compass rose is Such a leguinian story. What if you could translate ant 🐜 poetry. What would it be about. Also “vaster than empires and more slow” is a great short story. I think it’s in the wind’s twelve quarters? It’s so Concept. Tho she doesn’t grok autism. The guy who “used to have autism” definitely still has it it’s just a different flavor.

Oh also the telling is a very good Ekumen novel.

OH also the short story collection changing planes is everything to me. It’s like, Le Guin does Calvino’s invisible cities. The last story in this collection is dear to me because the narrator sounds a lot like (a character similar to the public persona of) Ursula Le Guin having the most insane time anyone has ever had in an airport. I also love the short story from that collection the island of the immortals. I think about it soooo much especially when I get bitten by mosquitoes. In the last place, one of my personal favorites because I can just crawl into it and live there but also a Weird text if you’re not already familiar with Le Guin’s deal—actually also weird if you are—, always coming home

#mt

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

Hi Wendy! I'm looking to start reading Ursula K Le Guin's novels, especially the Hainish and Earthsea ones; but I'm unsure of where to start. The reading order seems on par with that of Discworld. Do you have recommendations, by any chance? And if you have recs for short stories too, I'm all ears! (I'm planning to read at least Omelas) Thank you! 🙏

Disclaimer that as much as I love Le Guin, I have actually...not read that much of her work yet 😔😅 I will tell you what I know, but I will also direct you to vaunted Le Guin Understander @aurpiment.

As far as I know, Earthsea has a fairly straightforward reading order, or at least the main books do: A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, Tales from Earthsea, and The Other Wind. Tales is itself a collection of short stories plus a bit of reference material. As far as I can tell, there are two more short stories outside of Tales: “The Daughter of Odren” and “Firelight.” Of all these, I'm afraid I've only read Wizard and Atuan; I really need to get back to this series.

I'm not sure that there really is a reading order for the Hainish Cycle, unless you really wanted to go in publication order. Of the Hainish works, thus far I've only read The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, plus a handful of short stories (“Winter's King,” “Vaster than Empires and More Slow,” “The Day Before the Revolution,” and “Coming of Age in Karhide,” plus her “pronoun experiments” for TLHOD). I can heartily recommend all of these, though I would start with a book, not a short story, since many of the ones I listed are directly related to TLHOD and The Dispossessed. I do think you, specifically, might enjoy TLHOD.

Thank you for asking!! I really hope you enjoy her work, no matter where you start. Her writing sticks with me in a way that many others do not.

#ursula k. le guin #asks #bookshop-cryptid #i'm like 80% sure i've read omelas at some point but i'm gonna go (re?)read it now to make sure dfdjdhgkl

[dolcissimamiavita]

My vegetable love should grow Vaster than empires, and more slow (Andrew Marvell, 'To His Coy Mistress')

Fauna et flora will flourish after the departure of human beings

#andrew marvell #to his coy mistress #Pripyat #Ukraine #ghost town #abandoned

[clementine-kesh]

read uklg’s vaster than empires and more slow which is great and very much feels like a predecessor of sorts for annihilation

#also the title goes hard

[pinejay]

ugh i've been trying to read vaster than empires and more slow but honestly it's kinda hard to get thru the mild racism (specifically anti east asian) and ableism like ok white woman keep using these caricatures as props for your point that this crew is obnoxiously socially inept + also throw in unironic casual racism for funsies? the japanese woman is straight up described as a prude bc "her terran [earth] subculture, east asian, was a puritanical one" (direct quote + the usage of puritanical is hilariously ironic). the autistic character is horribly antisocial and calls the japanese woman a "yellow bitch" to demonstrate that he's unpleasant, and he's purportedly had the autism trained out of him in a psychological experiment that turned him into an empath. except he's still obviously stereotypically autistic in all his mannerisms. like i can't even tell if this is satire or some contrived social critique. it honestly just feels like le guin's kind of oppressive social beliefs at the time shining through.

#AAAAAAH WHITE WOMEN... #i guess she never imagined a probably autistic yellow bitch reading this decades after she wrote it #the white writer's imagined audience is always the default random person which in a white person's mind is always white #it's like when white ppl only describe nonwhite ppl's races or ethnic features bc to them being white is the default