I can remember the exact moment I started weeping in Left Hand of Darkness--that's what really opened me to LeGuin's work. I really like the short, recent books that are interviews and talks about craft.
The Youtuber Folding Ideas has a wonderful (and deliciously long) video essay about the rise of "Director's Editions" and "definitive" re-releases and reworkings of previously released films, which often involve removing not just artistic assertions, but removals of material that is now objectionable or wouldn't pass muster under modern eyes. The attempt to rewrite the past in order to align with the standards of the present is a nasty erasure of history that makes it harder for us to own our own growth or to put it within a context -- and on a broader level, it makes it very difficult to study history. History, it turns out, isn't just written by the victors -- we are all made losers by time, but when we revise our past work we try to cast ourselves as having always been victorious and right.
I certainly wish I could go back and rewrite all of my books -- the moment a manuscript is done and printed I find about a hundred things wrong with it, and I've changed so much in the interim there's a ton I want to revise. But of course finished is better than perfect, and the progression of ideas from one work to the next is probably helpful to a lot of people on similar journeys. I love the idea of releasing a prior work all-marked-up with my modern-day commentary and tongue-thrashings of myself, though, as an alternative. I'll have to check out Le Guin's essay and her own commentary on it. I'm a sucker for marginalia and endless footnotes and ideas that spiral off from the original point...
I agree! and yeah the permanence of a book is stressing me out, if/when I publish one I will probably be like, pls take this way from me I never want to look at it again 🥹 I do wonder how the internet affects this historical understanding of writing you’re talking about, bc it makes it really difficult for readers to have a sense of time? Like you can usually tell a book is old when you’re looking at it bc the design is outdated and the pages are yellow and it smells kinda old, so you’re like oh, maybe the author has changed since this, I should check their new work.. but online everything often looks the same and it’s so easy to miss the tiny date on a post, so i think it can feel like everything written online is happening right now? Like how news stories from 5 years ago will go viral sometimes and ppl don’t notice it’s old. TikTok is the worst about this, it’s so hard to find a date on posts and it just feels like this timeless endless void..
I also love a book that’s full of footnotes!!! I don’t really see them printed on the same page as the main text that often anymore but I think it can be so interesting when it is bc you can kinda jump around through the writers ideas in a very meta way as you’re reading
Yeah I think the timelessness and forever-regurgitation of the internet really fucks with people's understanding of time and change and fallibility, really. Context collapse hurts us in so many ways...
I'm saving this to read again, it's so rich. Thank you.
My new fav ballcap is emblazoned with “Failure is an option” and I need this message so badly. Maybe it will diffuse into my brain this way?? lol
it always nice to be reminded of my own nonlinear-ness but I really needed this right now.
I can remember the exact moment I started weeping in Left Hand of Darkness--that's what really opened me to LeGuin's work. I really like the short, recent books that are interviews and talks about craft.
wow, that Ursula Le Guin quote.
The Youtuber Folding Ideas has a wonderful (and deliciously long) video essay about the rise of "Director's Editions" and "definitive" re-releases and reworkings of previously released films, which often involve removing not just artistic assertions, but removals of material that is now objectionable or wouldn't pass muster under modern eyes. The attempt to rewrite the past in order to align with the standards of the present is a nasty erasure of history that makes it harder for us to own our own growth or to put it within a context -- and on a broader level, it makes it very difficult to study history. History, it turns out, isn't just written by the victors -- we are all made losers by time, but when we revise our past work we try to cast ourselves as having always been victorious and right.
I certainly wish I could go back and rewrite all of my books -- the moment a manuscript is done and printed I find about a hundred things wrong with it, and I've changed so much in the interim there's a ton I want to revise. But of course finished is better than perfect, and the progression of ideas from one work to the next is probably helpful to a lot of people on similar journeys. I love the idea of releasing a prior work all-marked-up with my modern-day commentary and tongue-thrashings of myself, though, as an alternative. I'll have to check out Le Guin's essay and her own commentary on it. I'm a sucker for marginalia and endless footnotes and ideas that spiral off from the original point...
I agree! and yeah the permanence of a book is stressing me out, if/when I publish one I will probably be like, pls take this way from me I never want to look at it again 🥹 I do wonder how the internet affects this historical understanding of writing you’re talking about, bc it makes it really difficult for readers to have a sense of time? Like you can usually tell a book is old when you’re looking at it bc the design is outdated and the pages are yellow and it smells kinda old, so you’re like oh, maybe the author has changed since this, I should check their new work.. but online everything often looks the same and it’s so easy to miss the tiny date on a post, so i think it can feel like everything written online is happening right now? Like how news stories from 5 years ago will go viral sometimes and ppl don’t notice it’s old. TikTok is the worst about this, it’s so hard to find a date on posts and it just feels like this timeless endless void..
I also love a book that’s full of footnotes!!! I don’t really see them printed on the same page as the main text that often anymore but I think it can be so interesting when it is bc you can kinda jump around through the writers ideas in a very meta way as you’re reading
Yeah I think the timelessness and forever-regurgitation of the internet really fucks with people's understanding of time and change and fallibility, really. Context collapse hurts us in so many ways...
That Ursula le Guin essay was a Turning Point for me too, go and look it up everyone
just realized I didn't name the title! it's called "Is Gender Necessary? Redux"