The Dispossessed

“Another Le Guin book. How could I not? Tackling themes that will always be relevant. More and more, sadly.”

“I went into a local bookstore looking for anything nonfiction from Ursula K. Le Guin and all they had was this book. Little did I know how immediately I'd be sucked in. A thought experiment on possession, freedom, scarcity/abundance, community... perhaps my favorite dystopian novel. Just WOW. Forever changed.”

“I thought I wasn’t a “science fiction person” until I read this. I enjoyed being challenged by and experiencing discomfort through the lens of Shevek (a scientist visiting from an anarchic planet), the everyday luxuries of a capitalist society that we often don’t think about, like tap water that keeps running until you turn it off or “clothes that you wear while sleeping, while swimming, while playing games, while at an afternoon party, while at an evening party, while at a party in the country, while traveling […] acres of luxuries, acres of excrement”, and yet we want more. And now I want to read more(!) of Le Guin’s books, which luckily for us are numerous.”

“Definitely on the heavier side, but so optimistic, and I found it impossible to put down. I like Le Guin’s fantasy, but this blew my mind. Lovely writing, wonderful characterization, so thoughtful and human and hopeful.”

“Best and most important work of science fiction and it isn’t even CLOSE. Le Guin runs circles around every other sci-fi writer and actually knows what it means to be human”

“When people say we are living in unprecedented times, I’m going to send them to this book (from 1974)”

“You've heard of plenty of books that have won both the Hugo and the Nebula (e.g., Dune, Ender's Game, Ringworld, American Gods). Now you've heard of another: My seventh-favorite book, The Dispossessed, Le Guin's exploration of what an anarchist utopia might look like.”

“troubled physicist raised on a moon colonized by anarchists travels to the decadent planet of the capitalists to advance his personal theories and learns about himself and his culture in the process”

““If you can see a thing whole,” he said, “it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives. . . . But close up, a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon. The way to see how beautiful life is, is from the vantage point of death.””

“a classic for a reason!”