Review - Cheek By Jowl
I love Ursula Le Guin's non-fiction -- her thoughts on writing, her thoughts about the genre. Her prose is generally easy to read, even when she's talking about something people are more likely to consider dusty, and she has a sense of humour that would probably make just about anything delightful. The only problem I have with Cheek By Jowl is more or less that I wish there was more of it. She has things to say about the importance of fantasy, and the way that fantasy is cheapened and used nowadays, and morality in fantasy and children reading fantasy and the timelessness of fantasy. I kind of want to run out and buy every book she discussed in her essays.
But I wish there was more. I came to the end and thought, yes, okay, but she could say more. I guess I might wish it was a volume more like The Wave In The Mind, eclectic and full of surprises, whereas these were all pretty close in theme. Or that it was just longer.
None of it exactly came as a surprise to me, either: I know Le Guin and her thoughts on fantasy reasonably well. Still, she says some important things -- particularly in "Assumptions About Fantasy" -- and she should be listened to, for many reasons. In fact, I know several people whose faces I kind of want to rub in it, just to make it quite clear that they're not the only wonderfully enlightened people in the world. But that's petty.
But I wish there was more. I came to the end and thought, yes, okay, but she could say more. I guess I might wish it was a volume more like The Wave In The Mind, eclectic and full of surprises, whereas these were all pretty close in theme. Or that it was just longer.
None of it exactly came as a surprise to me, either: I know Le Guin and her thoughts on fantasy reasonably well. Still, she says some important things -- particularly in "Assumptions About Fantasy" -- and she should be listened to, for many reasons. In fact, I know several people whose faces I kind of want to rub in it, just to make it quite clear that they're not the only wonderfully enlightened people in the world. But that's petty.