大象传媒

Truth teller, space crone, world builder, wit - the American science-fiction writer Ursula K Le Guin (1929-2018) conjured entire galaxies through the magic of words.

But as she transported readers across space and through time, she opened portals into our own society and pointed to a fundamental truth: 鈥淭here are different ways to do almost everything, there isn鈥檛 just one right way. And God did not ordain it to be such, and so, forever鈥�. We hear archive recordings of Le Guin herself alongside interviews with people who knew, loved or were inspired by her.

Afterwords looks back over Le Guin鈥檚 life to ask why she felt moved to ask those questions, and re-examines some of them to glean what we can learn from her writing today. Many of her worlds were built around fundamental questions: what if we removed gender imbalances from society? What if we removed ownership? What if we treated the environment, and other people, with respect? What if we valued different aspects of our being? How would that change society?

With contributions from the writers Katherine Rundell and So Mayer, anthropologist and drag artist Cheddar Gorgeous, collaborator, friend and musician Todd Barton, and Ursula's youngest child, Theo Downes-Le Guin.

Including sound archive from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, The Nation, UC Berkley's Townsend Center for the Humanities, Thurston Community Library, Portland Community College and the National Book Foundation.

Produced by Redzi Bernard
A Falling Tree production for 大象传媒 Radio Three