Ursua LeGuin's The Telling
Jul. 14th, 2004 09:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
memelainaA couple months ago LeGuin's The Telling was the topic of discussion for our SF group. Unfortunately it happened to be a Friday when I was busy in the kitchen preparing for an SCA event I needed to feed the next day, and I only got to hear bits and pieces of what was going on in the living room. Seems though that those discussing the book found it flat and rather boring - a book that didn't say much and didn't necessarily go anywhere. I on the other hand had found it one of the best books I read last year and a very compelling story.
I'm not sure who was doing the discussing, but it occurs to me to wonder now if it was not mostly men, and if perhaps the interest in this book tends to fall along gender lines.
When visiting DC last month, a girlfriend was discussing the (fairly far past) break up of a relationship and she commented that she felt she and the guy were still close friends because they had allowed themselves time and contact to "tell" the story of their breakup to each other until they both "told" the same story. We talked about how events are shaped by the way we "tell" them to each other, and how it's a fairly common way - for women at least - to decide on or frame reality. It all made perfect sense to me, and brought back my reading of LeGuin's book.
So I wondered first if men also "form" their reality by telling it repetitively to others, and second, if they don't, if perhaps that might be why the book was less well received by the SF group than by other women I have talked to who found it as interesting as I did.
I'm not sure who was doing the discussing, but it occurs to me to wonder now if it was not mostly men, and if perhaps the interest in this book tends to fall along gender lines.
When visiting DC last month, a girlfriend was discussing the (fairly far past) break up of a relationship and she commented that she felt she and the guy were still close friends because they had allowed themselves time and contact to "tell" the story of their breakup to each other until they both "told" the same story. We talked about how events are shaped by the way we "tell" them to each other, and how it's a fairly common way - for women at least - to decide on or frame reality. It all made perfect sense to me, and brought back my reading of LeGuin's book.
So I wondered first if men also "form" their reality by telling it repetitively to others, and second, if they don't, if perhaps that might be why the book was less well received by the SF group than by other women I have talked to who found it as interesting as I did.
