It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Virginity is now a mere preamble or waiting room to be got out of as soon as possible; it is without significance. Old age is similarly a waiting room, where you go after life's over and wait for cancer or a stroke. The years before and after the menstrual years are vestigial: the only meaningful condition left to women is that of fruitfulness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques societal views on virginity and old age, suggesting they are merely transitional phases lacking significance.
Ursula K. Le Guin's quote provocatively addresses the trivialization of virginity and old age, framing both as conditions that society views as waiting periods rather than meaningful states. She argues that the societal focus on women's fruitfulness overshadows the complexity of their lives before and after certain biological milestones, emphasizing that worth should not be relegated to reproductive capabilities alone.
Themes
VirginityOld AgeFruitfulnessSocietySignificance
In practice
Example use cases
During a women's empowerment seminar, the quote can be used to challenge perceptions of women's roles in society.
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.
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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.
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The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
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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.
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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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