I remember thinking it was a really good book when I read this for my Science Fiction class in 2002, but I’ve since forgotten every single thing that happens in it–only the prophetic androgyny (“ambisexuality”) stuck with me, a few character names came back to me but the plot? I didn’t remember SHIT.

And Good lord does Ursula K. dive into these mere 213 pages hardcore. She starts throwing whole novae and extrapolations at you FAST and you’ve got to really be on your toes and start assimilating all the stuff that’s happening in the book and what factions/regions of the book’s fictional planet are angry with each other and why and PAY FUCKING ATTENTION BRUH.

Part of my reason for re-reading this is because a longtime online friend of mine dove into LeGuin after ignoring her for decades and now he’s totally obsessed with her and is reading all her stuff. All I read was this book (which, again, I’d forgotten most of) and her short story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” which really stuck with me, perhaps the best five-page story I’ve ever read (it’s likely just an allegory for Vietnam-era white guilt, but it really works wonders for something so short.) If this book works a spell on me again I will try to read some of her other stuff (the friend says that The Dispossessed is now his favorite piece of media in any format.)

Kim Fowley - Christgau sez: “Fowley is such a gigantic shuck he ought to be preserved in a time machine.” George seemed to have some ugly stuff to say about Fowley too when he reviewed Nuggets which had a couple Fowley tunes on it. I like your Trump/Epstein metaphor. Fowley was played by a particularly nasty Michael Shannon in The Runaways some years back, where my primary memory of him is screaming “DOG SHIT!!!!!!!!!” at the girls when they first rehearse.