"Ursula K. LeGuin - The Telling" - читать интересную книгу автора (Le Guin Ursula K)

Le Guin is brilliant at this sort of thing, and while the story is quite simple and takes a while to catch
fire, the denouement is moving, engaging and illuminating. I still think she has a penchant for somewhat
cold and distant, even a bit sterile, characters, but that detracts only a bit from this tale.
It's not as adventurous as "Left Hand," not as detailed in its world-building as "The Dispossessed,"
and lacking the action of "...World is Forest," but it's still a thoughtful, entertaining read.
"The Telling" is a meditation on cultural decimation, fundamentalism, colonialism and even gay rights,
Earthly issues, that just happens to be played out on a distant world. --This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.
A Good Book, May 28, 2001
Reviewer:


Le Guin is a major American writer. Two of her novels, The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of
Darkness, are among the best novels written in this country in past half century. She has written also
some very good novels, like The Word for World is Forest and The Lathe of Heaven, as well several
fine short stories and some outstanding children's books. The Telling is not her best work. It returns to
the Hainish universe, a future history is which our part of the galaxy was settled millenia ago by colonists
from the planet Hain. Following an interstellar catastrophe, Hain is gradually recovering contact with the
human settled worlds and incorporating them into a benign information sharing order, The Ekumen. The
Telling takes place on a recently rediscovered world, Aka. It uses familiar themes and devices. There is
the Terran envoy discovering the complexities of a foreign world, as in the Left Hand of Darkness. There
is the catastrophic impact of aggressive Terran culture on a native society, as in The Word for World is
Forest. One of the characters was essentially abandoned as a child by his mother, similar to the hero of
The Dispossessed. For readers familar with Le Guin, this book lacks the originality of her previous
works. It lacks also the powerful writing that characterizes Le Guin's best work. There is little in The
Telling that can match the best scenes of The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness, the Earthsea
books, or her best short stories. It is not that this book lacks artistry. For example, the heroine of this tale
is a woman of Hindu descent named Sutty. This is likely a reference to the Hindu practice of immolating
widows after their husband's deaths; suttee. Sutty has essentially been widowed by a catatrophe on Earth
and then leaves everything behind her by the long relativistically sundering journey to Aka. A
metaphorical reincarnation, also a reference to Hinduism. Despite these touches, The Telling is not Le
Guin's second tier works, let alone major works such as The Dispossessed. --This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.
All Customer Reviews
Avg. Customer Review:
Dreary and Boring, May 27, 2003
Reviewer:

Reading back-to-back with The Left Hand of Darkness, it would appear that in the last thirty-odd
years Ms. Le Guin has moved backwards in style and presentation even with similar settings: long
arduous treks through rugged wildernesses, sociocultural conflicts, sexual politics, bla bla.
But the worst failing of this work is that it fails to entertain. The author is so caught up with grinding the
axe of how awful religious tyranny is, how communist-fascist states destroy real culture, and how
wonderful homosexual unions are, that she fails to tell a decent story or even adhere to classic dramatic
forms that are classic for good reason.
Bo-ring! There is nothing fun about this travelogue through pseudo-Tibetan or -Nepalese culture,
about being dragged through miserable upbringings and traumatic upheavals, or having to learn yet
another stupid set of pseudo-linguistic honorifics and sound-concepts. I finished this story feeling let
down, anti-entertained, and irritated at the waste of time spent waiting for it to get good.
The Right Wing would accuse Ms. Le Guin of lesbo-feminist leanings, which would be unfair except