Speak Stiltedly and Wear a Yellow Shirt

The title is from a Guardian interview with Ursula K. Le Guin. Thanks to an old rasfcer for the link and the HP quote:

Q: Nicholas Lezard has written ‘Rowling can type, but Le Guin can write.’ What do you make of this comment in the light of the phenomenal success of the Potter books? I’d like to hear your opinion of JK Rowling’s writing style
UKL: I have no great opinion of it. When so many adult critics were carrying on about the “incredible originality” of the first Harry Potter book, I read it to find out what the fuss was about, and remained somewhat puzzled; it seemed a lively kid’s fantasy crossed with a “school novel”, good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited.

Most of the interview is about her own work, including that seminal work of mpreg, The Left Hand of Darkness.

Today’s belated entry is a random link from my current collection: Why Men Follow Masters. The article meanders, but one bit struck me - this quote from Lysander Spooner about voting:

[H]e is allowed one voice out of millions in deciding what he may do with his own person and his own property, and […] he is permitted to have the same voice in robbing, enslaving, and murdering others, that others have in robbing, enslaving, and murdering himself.

So if you’re in one of those states that Just Don’t Count towards the Democratic (or any other) primaries, there’s no reason to feel guilty for not showing up at the polls. The farce will go on without you, as will the robbing, enslaving, and murdering.