The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story. ---Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin is a renowned science fiction writer who passed away in 2018...today she would have turned 93. I've read her Earthsea fantasy series as well as her acclaimed novel The Left Hand of Darkness...not to mention a number of short stories. Le Guin's above quote reminded me of the time in my eleventh grade English class when a poet paid a visit. He said that although he may have been thinking along a certain thread when writing a poem, it's always what the reader or listener gets from it that makes it all legitimate. I think that goes for music and lyrics as well...once the creator releases his or her product for others to share, it becomes a property of the world to interact with. Her opening words "The unread story is not a story" bother me: how many books are out of print and have never been digitalized...or ever will be available for others to read? Yet with music I can get digitalized copies of some of the most obscure, out-of-print recordings...why are books lagging so far behind in this? It's true that we do have the mega-corporation Amazon and some other sites to dig up hard copies of some long-gone novels and collections, but their prices are often inflated if they are available at all...
If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know that I like to read. I go at it with Ursula K. Le Guin's philosophy that my reaction and take from a story is just as essential as the writer's original intent was. I also write this blog with the presumption that whoever reads it will naturally apply their own background and interpretation to it... that's what makes it all interesting and worthwhile, after all...
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