sense of doubt

Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.

Friday, March 15, 2024

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3314 - The Dangerous Philosophy of Ursula K. LeGuin

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3314 - The Dangerous Philosophy of Ursula K. LeGuin

One of my heroes: LeGuin.

Really in the hammertime of final grading.

Just this share today.

Thanks for tuning in.

https://damiengwalter.medium.com/the-dangerous-philosophy-of-ursula-le-guin-a7b4f382898a

The dangerous philosophy of Ursula Le Guin

When wise people really want to influence the world, they tell stories

Damien Walter

2 min read

Sep 16, 2023

The “canon” of philosophy really is an old boys club. Literally.

There are reasons of course. Millenia of oppressive patriarchy among them.

But I like the reasoning of Clarissa Pinkola Estes that women pass wisdom forward, not as a bunch of dry propositions, but as stories.

You can take every philosopher from Socrates to Schopenhauer, add every word written by Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and Habermas. Less than 1% of people have a clue what any of them are on about.

Philosophy is futile. But a good story, well told, can reach the hearts and minds of millions.

So when wise people really want to influence the world, they tell stories.

Ursula Le Guin was, I think, a person of that kind of wisdom. One in a long line of wise storytellers, of philosopher poets, many of whose names are now forgotten, but whose stories live on.

This is one of the most intellectually challenging essays I’ve ever written, and one of the most complex videos I’ve produced. I wanted to explore Le Guin’s ideas and the philosophy encoded in the symbols and metaphors of her stories. That’s taken two years of reading and a month of intense labour.

What I see in Le Guin’s storytelling is a powerful philosophy conceived to achieve revolutionary social change, by challenging the very root ideas of what we believe to be “real” or “fantasy”.

With that power is also a danger, which I think Le Guin was aware of and fought with as she grew intellectually and creatively.

The video essay focusses on Le Guin’s most productive period from 1968–74 and touches on her Hainish and Earthsea novels. There will also be a long form commentary on the podcast feed to follow.

Watch the full video essay on YouTube

The dangerous philosophy of Ursula Le Guin

Science Fiction with Damien Walter

LOW POWER MODE: I sometimes put the blog in what I call LOW POWER MODE. If you see this note, the blog is operating like a sleeping computer, maintaining static memory, but making no new computations. If I am in low power mode, it's because I do not have time to do much that's inventive, original, or even substantive on the blog. This means I am posting straight shares, limited content posts, reprints, often something qualifying for the THAT ONE THING category and other easy to make posts to keep me daily. That's the deal. Thanks for reading.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2403.15 - 10:10

- Days ago = 3178 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

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SENSE OF DOUBT STATUS AS OF 0705.04 - 16:45

Sense of Doubt is not currently dedicated to any themes or special interest. The subject matter is mine and may range from comic books to ultimate or from Baseball to feminist-centered media criticism. Until I feel I have enough content for multiple blogs, or until I am seized with a desire to create multiple blogs, this is it, and appropriately so. "Sense of Doubt" came about in Bowie’s Berlin period and the dark, ambient collaborations with Brian Eno. Like the Bowie of 1978, I have my own darkness that steals over me and through me, infecting everything. At the risk of sounding far too melodramatically obsessed with my own self-flagellations, this blog dedicates itself to that darkness, that infection. But it’s fun, too. Hey, I can be amusing? Or not. It’s the way of the [w]rench. Neurosis compelling action in insecure double-checking and misunderstanding evasions. It is my way.

More from the original description text that needed editing in 2015: Furthermore, Sense of Doubt is dedicated to the random. The theme is no theme. Just questions, doubt, and uncertainty. Feel the power of not knowing the answer. So dedicated on the last day of July 2006 by the Galactic Monkey Wrench.

The Galactic Monkey Wrench

This is the logo of the Galactic Monkey Wrench. I was given the nickname Galactic Monkey Wrench in college by a friend of mine who felt that I threw the monkey wrench into the cosmos at every available opportunity. Later, in discussions with my best friend, who is the Lord of Chaos (the Loc), he asked for my title and when I told him, without thinking, he blurted out "the gmr!" Since this was random and we appreciate randomness, I became the gmr, even though technically I should be the gmw. But gmw sounds like a car or some industrial manufacturing firm that makes a strange widget of which one has never heard. This acronym fetish may make no sense to anyone else, but my friend and I are quite driven to provide acronyms for many things. At the very least, it allows us to keep our conversations obscure and often private as no one knows about what we're talking.

Monkey Wrench Books

Chris's books

A Feast for Crows

by George R.R. Martin

This book is a little slower than the others. But if you become invested in this series, it provides key information about the history of Westeros and the lands across the Narrow Sea. It may not contain chapters with my favorite characters ...

A Game of Thrones

by George R.R. Martin

Do I really need to review this book? It's one of the best books I have ever read. Martin is a great writer. All the books are great, and I am loving my time rereading them. If you have not checked out these books, start here and get ready ...

The Golden City

by John Twelve Hawks

These books are immensely entertaining. Treat yourself to some strong writing, great action, compelling characters, and a mix of metaphysics and theology. The ending of this third book, which is presumably the last, is anti-climactic and so...

Pathfinder

by Orson Scott Card

This was a fun book. Not OSC's best but very good OSC nonetheless. The best thing about is the time travel, slowing, and speeding powers of the characters and how OSC engages the reader in discussion of causality and time paradox. For fans ...

Swamplandia!

by Karen Russell

This book came to me via my wife Liesel who discovered it and urged me to read it. Beautifully written with compelling characters and a sense of the magical (yet realistic, somewhat). Funny yet full of the pathos that marks a good if not gr...

Hey, Mom! The Explanation.