Letters

Begin the Le Guin

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Virginia Moffat’s excellent overview of Ursula Le Guin’s work (PN 2672) had me searching my bookshelves to see if any of the anthologies there have the short stories she mentioned.

I’d add two points. Firstly, Le Guin is very funny when she wants to be: dry, arch and only slightly world(s)-weary.

Secondly, I’d recommend The Lathe of Heaven, a novel from the early 1970s.

A man goes to a psychiatrist, fearing for his sanity. The psychiatrist soon deduces that what his patient thinks is a delusion – that his dreams control the future – is in fact true.

The psychiatrist hopes to get rich and famous by manipulating his patient.

One interesting feature is that, although the dreams can be guided in some directions, there is one unalterable factor – the steady climb in carbon dioxide concentrations and the consequences for the world’s climate.

Le Guin was, typically, decades ahead of her time.

Marc Hudson, Stone

Wishing you well

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I very much hope you will consider taking measures to expand your readership and outreach by encouraging more common action with other peace campaigners, including CND, the Gandhi Foundation, Religions for Peace, Quaker Peace and Social Witness, Pax Christi, Stop the War Coalition as well of course as the Peace Pledge Union.

I have been reading PN since 1969, from the time Roger Moody was a co-editor and Harry Mister was manager of Housmans Bookshop.

I very much value Milan’s articles and analysis of important peace issues and Gabriel’s reviews, and especially your inspiring coverage of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

I frequently buy extra copies of PN at Housmans and pass them on to friends and other peace-minded people.

I would so much like the circulation of PN to increase in the broader peace movement.

I wish you all the very best in your future plans.

Feargus O’Connor, member of the Gandhi Foundation and the Unitarian Peace Fellowship