Book News: Ursula K. Le Guin Steals The Show At The National Book Awards : The Two-Way : NPR

[Becky Lindroos]

Ursula K. Le Guin gave a scorching speech at the National Book Awards on Wednesday, calling out Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and saying of capitalism "its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.”

This is her speech - it’s short and it may not be the whole thing but … it’s excellent!   
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/nov/20/ursula-k-le-guin-national-book-awards-speech

I agree with Le Guin that sci-fi & fantasy has been too long neglected.  But it’s on the upswing again although primarily in YA and dystopian fiction - look at Murakami,  Mitchell,  Gibson,  others published this year. Station Eleven (Emily St. John Mandel) is future dystopian fiction and it was on the National Book Award shortlist.  

But I wonder if Le Guin is not also a bit more popular with the authors in that league because of her stand on the Amazon and other publishing issues - charging libraries.   Being outspoken about these ideas would definitely be seen as a “contribution to American letters.”  This is the same award Stephen King got several years ago - his “contribution to American letters”  has definitely been huge.  This award is NOT for one book or even for an oeuvre - in his case it was for working with new authors,  with new technology (the internet), new formats (serials),  etc.  

http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2014/11/ursula_k_le_guin_questions_cap.html
 
Bekah 

> On Nov 21, 2014, at 2:57 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
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> 
> http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/11/20/365434149/book-news-ursula-k-le-guin-steals-the-show-at-the-national-book-awards
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad-
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

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