io9 offers an account of a conversation between Ursula Le Guin and Margaret Atwood-- before a Portland audience of 2000 people. Claire L. Evans writes:
Pairing Margaret Atwood with Ursula K. Le Guin was smart: they come from similar backgrounds, both attended Radcliffe in the pre-Second Wave years, both are very prolific writers of indefinable genre fiction, and they've evidently been friends for years. Seated on little divans in front of over 2,000 people (yes, "only in Portland," I know), they seemed like two old school chums swapping gossip even when they were deconstructing modern realism and debating whether or not the human race is doomed. The effect was intimate, convivial — Le Guin giggling uncontrollably, for example, when Atwood discussed how writing is like building a boudoir for the reader. Atwood making endless Twitter jokes.But apparently one of their topics of discussion was the shortcomings of realism and-- you guessed it-- how to characterize the kind of (non-realist) fiction they write.
The second conversation is one reported by Tibor Moricz for From Bar to Bar, with Gwyneth Jones, whom he characterizes as "The White Queen." (Not the Red Queen, though that might be more appropriate, given the Lewis Carrollian vision he conjures up.
Hmmm. I wasn't there, but I question Ms. Evans's suggestion that Ursula Le Guin was giggling uncontrollably. Yes, Ms. Le Guin giggles upon occasion, but I have always felt that, if an emergency arose, she could stop.
ReplyDeleteRed Queen? Tibor Moricz's interview style is certainly bizarre, and alarming, but i have to point out that "White Queen" already is, and always was, a Carrollian reference. If you know your Alice, the White Queen was the one who cried before she was hurt: she felt the pain and fear before the trauma arrived. That's why Braemar Wilson's secret anit-aliens resistance group was called "White Queen"
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