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macnchz's review against another edition
4.0
This is a short story collection based on the premise that being bored in an airport allows you to change planes - that is, reality planes. The different alternate realities/dimensions presented in this book are colorful and interesting. I quite liked it!
timtimtim's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
medium-paced
5.0
alpal2020's review against another edition
3.0
A very strange and bewildering book... Which I think it was meant to be. Solidly done, Le Guin!
novella42's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I read this for the 2023 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge, for the entry "read your favorite author's favorite book," because I was able to find an interview with Becky Chambers in which she raved about this collection. I can see what drew her to it, though I'm sad that an author I consider to be really good at disability representation didn't have the same experience I had with this book.
For the record, I did really enjoy The Silence of the Asonu, Seasons of the Ansarac, and Social Dreaming of the Frin.
I have adored LeGuin since I was a teenager, but the more work I do around disability justice the more I find myself noticing the ableism woven into some of her stories and essays. I'd say it detracted from the experience, but more, it is just truly disheartening to learn that a role model you've looked up to for years might have thought or felt some awful things about your disabled body and presence in society.
I know this book was published in 2003 and at least six of the stories date back to 1998, 2000, etc. Likewise, I know if I had read these stories at that time, my own internalized ableism was so entrenched—I wouldn't even learn the word "ableism" until 2018, in spite of having experienced it all my life—that I probably wouldn't have said anything about it. I probably would've felt uncomfortable but in that wordless way when you don't have the vocabulary to explain what feels off.
Some of the moments of ableism seem to come down to vocabulary. Some go deeper into the speculative fiction trope of using a body horror lens on disability to demonstrate the perils of technology/magic.
I'm putting some spoiler-level details behind the cut, if you want them, or you think I'm being oversensitive / unduly harsh on the author.
From The Nna Mmoy Language:
"Like everybody else, I found their language so difficult that they probably thought me retarded."
"I suspect they heard my language as a noise made by an idiot... They recognized me as a human being, but as a defective one. I couldn't talk. I couldn't make the connections."
From The Flyers of Gy:
"[When 1 in 1000 people grow wings in their culture, it is] something every parent and every adolescent dreads: a rare but fearful deformity, a curse, a death sentence... Among the urbanized Gyr, that dread is mitigated to some degree, since the winged ones are treated... with tolerance and even sympathy, as people with a most unfortunate handicap."
"'I wasn't going to let this business eat up my whole life. To me the wings are simply excrescences. Growths. Impediments to walking, dancing, sitting in a civilized manner on a normal chair, wearing decent clothing. I refused to let something like that get in the way of my education, my life... I was fortunate enough to meet a beautiful woman who refused to let my handicap frighten her. In fact she won't let me call it that. She insists that all this'—he indicated his wings with a slight gesture of his head—'was what she first saw in me.'"
Wake Island spends a lot of time with a culture that denigrates people with intellectual disabilities in the pursuit of genetically developing intelligence by inducing sleeplessness. There's a lot of medical trauma and sexual violence in this one, plus some anti-Autism sentiment. (If this is a topic you're interested in, I'd cautiously recommend the 1991 novel Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress, which may or may not have aged well, but I do remember the super-intelligent sleepless characters depicted in far more humanizing ways.)
I'm not going to quote from The Island of the Immortals, but the horror of it is going to haunt me for a long time.
For the record, I did really enjoy The Silence of the Asonu, Seasons of the Ansarac, and Social Dreaming of the Frin.
I have adored LeGuin since I was a teenager, but the more work I do around disability justice the more I find myself noticing the ableism woven into some of her stories and essays. I'd say it detracted from the experience, but more, it is just truly disheartening to learn that a role model you've looked up to for years might have thought or felt some awful things about your disabled body and presence in society.
I know this book was published in 2003 and at least six of the stories date back to 1998, 2000, etc. Likewise, I know if I had read these stories at that time, my own internalized ableism was so entrenched—I wouldn't even learn the word "ableism" until 2018, in spite of having experienced it all my life—that I probably wouldn't have said anything about it. I probably would've felt uncomfortable but in that wordless way when you don't have the vocabulary to explain what feels off.
Some of the moments of ableism seem to come down to vocabulary. Some go deeper into the speculative fiction trope of using a body horror lens on disability to demonstrate the perils of technology/magic.
I'm putting some spoiler-level details behind the cut, if you want them, or you think I'm being oversensitive / unduly harsh on the author.
From The Nna Mmoy Language:
"Like everybody else, I found their language so difficult that they probably thought me retarded."
"I suspect they heard my language as a noise made by an idiot... They recognized me as a human being, but as a defective one. I couldn't talk. I couldn't make the connections."
From The Flyers of Gy:
"[When 1 in 1000 people grow wings in their culture, it is] something every parent and every adolescent dreads: a rare but fearful deformity, a curse, a death sentence... Among the urbanized Gyr, that dread is mitigated to some degree, since the winged ones are treated... with tolerance and even sympathy, as people with a most unfortunate handicap."
"'I wasn't going to let this business eat up my whole life. To me the wings are simply excrescences. Growths. Impediments to walking, dancing, sitting in a civilized manner on a normal chair, wearing decent clothing. I refused to let something like that get in the way of my education, my life... I was fortunate enough to meet a beautiful woman who refused to let my handicap frighten her. In fact she won't let me call it that. She insists that all this'—he indicated his wings with a slight gesture of his head—'was what she first saw in me.'"
Wake Island spends a lot of time with a culture that denigrates people with intellectual disabilities in the pursuit of genetically developing intelligence by inducing sleeplessness. There's a lot of medical trauma and sexual violence in this one, plus some anti-Autism sentiment. (If this is a topic you're interested in, I'd cautiously recommend the 1991 novel Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress, which may or may not have aged well, but I do remember the super-intelligent sleepless characters depicted in far more humanizing ways.)
I'm not going to quote from The Island of the Immortals, but the horror of it is going to haunt me for a long time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Torture, Classism, Colonisation, Body horror, Chronic illness, Ableism, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Death, Racism, Genocide, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Mental illness, and War
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic and Pregnancy
sjmancini's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
i love you ursula k le guin
beckielee0214's review against another edition
5.0
All world building, so I realize it's not for everyone. I wish all fantasy authors would take note of this book. I don't just want to know why people behave the way they do, I want a full anthropological study.
It was written just like the field notes or journal of an anthropologist. Some of them were fascinating, and one or two were really hard to stomach. I read it as a part of a reading challenge as a book my local high school reads as part of a class. Bow I really want to hear the lecture and be part of their discussion!
It was written just like the field notes or journal of an anthropologist. Some of them were fascinating, and one or two were really hard to stomach. I read it as a part of a reading challenge as a book my local high school reads as part of a class. Bow I really want to hear the lecture and be part of their discussion!
crowaii's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
emglange's review against another edition
5.0
I have often remarked that I found Le Guin’s strength to be in worldbuilding first and foremost. While her characters and plots are often interesting, I find myself sinking into her worlds more readily. She approaches her fictions like an anthropologist, and even an anthropologist aware of Eurocentric/Western preconceptions. Changing Planes celebrates her worldbuilding strengths.
The collection of short stories is based around the idea that a woman from Cincinnati discovers a method of visiting other planes of existence, but only when you’re in an airport. The individual stories are accounts of some of these planes and the ways of life that have formed and continue to grow there.
It’s difficult to pick a favorite story from amongst the collection; despite being so different, Le Guin’s voice ties them together into a sense of wholeness. I can say that I was particularly intrigued by The Nna Mmoy Language, where translation falls apart and this fictional language takes into account all the could be said before or after something spoken in order to craft its meaning. The fact that I’m still thinking about what that sort of language might be like is a clue to how this collection has stuck with my thoughts.
The collection of short stories is based around the idea that a woman from Cincinnati discovers a method of visiting other planes of existence, but only when you’re in an airport. The individual stories are accounts of some of these planes and the ways of life that have formed and continue to grow there.
It’s difficult to pick a favorite story from amongst the collection; despite being so different, Le Guin’s voice ties them together into a sense of wholeness. I can say that I was particularly intrigued by The Nna Mmoy Language, where translation falls apart and this fictional language takes into account all the could be said before or after something spoken in order to craft its meaning. The fact that I’m still thinking about what that sort of language might be like is a clue to how this collection has stuck with my thoughts.
chelseareads's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape, Violence, War, and Sexual violence
sunimret's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0