Snappy

I first wrote this entry four months ago, but then it got lost in the upload and I didn’t have the energy to do it all over again. Given the July prompt for  #LBB7 was “Make it snappy!” (i.e. short stories) my response has been anything but.

I chose a late collection of Ursula Le Guin’s stories, Changing Planes, one of her last publications before her death and one that I hadn’t got around to reading yet. 

The connecting theme is the discovery of a means to enter and navigate parallel worlds while in the state of ennui achieved while waiting to change planes at airports. That is, there is a means to change planes (of existence) while changing planes. Each story explores a different world.

Given the short form, what we get is a series of worldbuilding sketches, all a response to “what if there was a world where…” Le Guin is an expert worldbuilder in novel form but she doesn’t really give herself much of an opportunity to fill things out here. I think the collection is best seen as a book of playful ideas. She explores many of her familiar themes around ecology and society, and but also shows how her thinking was always moving forward.

Thanks once again to @squatbetty for setting the theme and for convening Love Blippin’ Books.

For my image I have continued the playfulness of the title of the book by introducing yet more planes.