The Birthday of the World and Other Stories (2001)

Another collection of short stories I enjoyed. None of them stuck in my head as clearly as "Things" from "The Wind's Twelve Quarters" did, though. ( )

I love Le Guin's crusty old loners. ( )

Entrancing, enthralling, visionary. ( )

The Birthday of the World is a good book, as were Le Guin's last several. In the present volume, Le Guin explores themes clustered around questions of right action and right being, and explores narrators' and protagonists' relationships to culture, the idea of home, and conscious or unconscious cultural imperatives. And there is a focus on varieties of sex, by which I mean gender, sexuality, sexual acts, and sex as violence. We meet more Hainish, Werelians and Yeoweans (and are reacquainted with some we already know), and Gethenians. We learn more about sedoretu and many other complex interpersonal arrangements that humans experience as natural and compelling. We see anthropologist Geertz's "thick description" in action. I recommend reading or re-reading at least Four Ways to Forgiveness and A Fisherman of the Inland Sea in conjunction with this volume. ( )

I had read about half the short stories in this collection already - they'd all made it to the Year's Best collection that I read faithfully - but I wanted to see the ones I hadn't yet come across, and I was not disappointed. "Coming of Age in Karhide" is probably my favorite short story ever, and while the rest of these don't eclipse it, they're also worthwhile musings on love and relationships and the cultural and social pressures that shape them. ( )