dangerous philosophy of le guin
The dangerous philosophy of Ursula Le Guin – 37 min video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRC0cK_MSA0] by damien walter @damiengwalter
ursula le guin.. the dispossessed.. word for world is forest
via museum of care fb post
notes/quotes:
a philosophy that shows us how art of words can change world.. human imagination.. have power to shape reality..
6 min – on influence of cold equations of reality
graeber violence/quantification law
7 min – reality as a machine that does not care
8 min – on time that ruled out fem sci fi and only allowed pure scientific sci fi
9 min – in left hand of darkness she writes ‘strictly extrapolative works of sci fi generally arrive about where the club of rome arrives: somewhere between the gradual extinction of human liberty and the total extinction of terrestrial life.. this may explain why many people who do not read sci fi describe it as ‘escapist’ but when questioned further, admit they don’t read it because ‘it’s so depressing”
10 min – only moral path to resist.. so clash of philosophies.. came down to .. campbellian sci fi: any problem fixed by building bigger/better machines (materialism, realism, naturalism) vs le guin’s alt philosophy.. that human world is shaped by human thinking .. universe and everything in it is product of human thinking.. (idealism_
le guin ‘i think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives.. can see thru our fear stricken society and its obsessive techs to other ways of being.. we will need writers who can remember freedom.. the realists of a larger reality‘..t
11 min – the left hand of darkness explores gender.. equation of reality: women as 2nd class citizens
13 min – 7 novels in hannis sequence.. the dispossessed most radical of le guin’s novels.. imagines a world run under single ideology.. anarchism..t outcome is .. as in her subtitle: an ambiguous utopia..
utopia ness.. the dispossessed.. anarch\ism
14 min – anarchism is political ideology built on idealist philosophy.. asserts that humans are not products of nature driven by greed and fight for survival.. rather.. peace fundamental to human existence..
15 min – anarchism has roots w/idealist philosophers like rousseau who believed.. ‘people in natural state basically good’.. remove unjust social structures like kings/govts and human goodness would flourish..t inspired french/american revolutions.. fought in name of ideas.. like liberty/freedom/equality.. if ambiguous because real world anarchies are too
16 min – dispossessed goes even deeper than politics.. ie: concept of time itself.. faster than light communication.. t ‘time has 2 aspects.. the arrow, the running river.. w/o which there is no change/progress/direction/creation.. and .. the circle/cycle.. w/o which there is chaos..a meaningless succession of instants, a world w/o clocks/seasons/promises’ .. le guin, the dispossessed
need & now have means for listening via infinitesimal structures approaching the limit of structureless\ness and/or vice versa .. aka: ginorm/small ness
17 min – le guin’s concept of time in kant ness.. ‘space and time are framework w/in which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality’ immanuel kant
immanuel kant.. writing against time.. time\ing\ness..
kant: humans could only perceive reality thru structures of mind.. reality beyond these structures.. the thing itself.. could never be known
graeber can’t know law et al
18 min – later philosophers asked.. answer that revolutionized philosophy: structures of mind formed by language.. shaped by the language we speak.. t
language as control/enclosure et al.. oi.. need to free up idiosyncratic jargon ness..
need means (nonjudgmental expo labeling) to undo hierarchical listening as global detox
languages as a power that can shape reality are central to le guin’s philosophies.. need to look beyond conscious mind.. ‘the unconscious mind is coextensive with the universe’ le guin, the dispossessed.. magic practiced thru language.. knowing name of a thing gives you power over the thing
rather.. to me.. kills the thing.. label(s) et al
19 min – ‘ged had neither lost nor won but, naming the shadow of his death w his own name had made hinself whole: a man.. who knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself..’ le guin, the wizard of earthsea – shadow ness via jung
20 min – w his mentor freud.. study of unconscious.. deeper jung swam into unconscious more unescapable idealism became.. jung claims to have discovered structures of the unconscious mind..
21 min – le guin adopts these ideas of the unconscious to rewrite the narrative of fantasy.. war between dark and good replaced w quest for self knowledge.. evil we must defeat is not out there.. but inside our own selves..
to me.. not so much self knowledge.. as listening to heart.. not to know things.. but to be the you we all need to dance the dance..
23 min – power of magic is to rewrite reality
david on magic ness
25 min – philosophy means love of wisdom.. women pass wisdom down thru stories..
28 min – most fundamental question: if human will power can reshape reality.. who’s will le guin: on daoism ‘do things by not doing things.. all attempt to do and set things right and make things happen.. eventually backfires’..t
no agenda ness.. norton productivity law.. millman never nothing law et al
faster than light (timeless) communication can only happen when no agenda..
legit freedom will only happen if it’s all of us.. and in order to be all of us.. has to be sans any form of m\a\p
29 min – lave of heaven w its failed experiments in reshaping social order.. is le guins most complex thought experiment on question of is better world.. and what if new world doesn’t turn out better.. on utopianism..
30 min – hegel: history had a shape and by understanding that shape could progress to end of history where better world is possible.. marx.. inspired by this
oi.. history ness et al
31 min – time and again.. these utopian thinkings not for workers.. but for elite..
32 min – lave of heaven metaphor for human will to power.. but who’s dreams/imaginations will be made real.. who’s will has the power
33 min – to make a better world.. (le guin) .. we need to understand inner world of imagination that shapes dreams.. she was finding new ways herself to express those ideas..
34 min – might call her’s radical idealism.. 1\ mind creates reality 2\ power in knowing true names at root of reality 3\ control over root concepts of reality should serve radical social change
35 min – danger: 1\ who’s reality.. if those who win are strongest will but least wisdom 2\ power rests on controlling the narrative.. happened in past by those in power..
has to be all of us ..
36 min – le guin’s philosophy is dangerous because it awakens the once powerless to potential of our own power.. those who cling to unjust power over others might find that very dangerous indeed..
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be you. 