It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Fantasy is not antirational, but pararational; not realistic but surrealistic, a heightening of reality. In Freud's terminology, it employs primary not secondary process thinking. It employs archetypes which, as Jung warned us, are dangerous things. Fantasy is nearer to poetry, to mysticism, and to insanity than naturalistic fiction is. It is a wilderness, and those who go there should not feel too safe.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fantasy transcends rational thought, elevating reality into a more profound and often unsettling realm.
This quote by Ursula K. Le Guin elaborates on the nature of fantasy as an artistic expression that goes beyond mere realism to explore deeper, more complex psychological and emotional terrains. It connects fantasy to poetry and mysticism, suggesting that while it can reveal profound truths, it also holds the potential for danger and instability, akin to how a wilderness can be both beautiful and treacherous.
Themes
FantasyArtImaginationRealitySurrealismPsychology
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of fantasy in literature, I might quote Le Guin to highlight the depth of this genre.
More from Ursula K. Le Guin
All quotes →In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find - if it's a good novel - that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have changed a little... But it's very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Reason is a faculty far larger than mere objective force. When either the political or the scientific discourse announces itself as the voice of reason, it is playing God, and should be spanked and stood in the corner.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
When he found that the administrators were upset, he laughed. “Do they expect students not to be anarchists?” he said. “What else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
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