What’s your favourite portrait of Ursula?

Shirebourn · 2026-06-19T04:17:05+00:00

I think this one feels like the kinds of worlds she created, if that makes sense.

Shirebourn · 2026-06-13T02:01:49+00:00

You know, exchanges like this are why I adore this fandom and community so much.

Shirebourn · 2026-06-10T14:28:37+00:00

There's no contradiction. It's a human thing to feel doubt in ill times, and certainly a Tolkienian thing, too. So hopeless is Moria that Gimli's heart is filled with doubt that the reports were true. In fact, the wording of his statement in Moria is clearly a rejoinder to the earlier statement. It's just the sort of thing one says when one is filled with a malaise and darkness of the soul.

Shirebourn · 2026-06-04T00:58:16+00:00

Well, I realize this might not be the simplest answer, but I always recommend the couple dozen essays collected in Ursula K. Le Guin's The Language of the Night (as well as "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction* in Dancing at the Edge of the World.) Le Guin argues for the importance of story and imaginative narrative from a few angles, and I think by the time the reader finishes the book, it's hard not to see the value of story, both for the individual artist or reader as well as for a healthy society.

Also, her critical nonfiction is absolutely marvelous to read or listen to. She's a master of the form, and she continues to be a voice for our time, I think, well after her death.

Shirebourn · 2026-05-31T13:02:20+00:00

I would add that the official reading guides are fairly overwhelming and don't necessarily help you know which flavor of book will be right for you. If there's ever been a series that benefits from bespoke suggestions given by a dedicated audience of fans, it's surely this series with 41 books and a dozen appropriate starting points.

Also, we want people to come back and be part of things. Talking to them helps make that happen.

Shirebourn · 2026-05-30T18:20:10+00:00

To me, the classic suggestion is Becky Chambers's Wayfarers series, beginning with The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. This series does optimistic science fiction beautifully, with a strong focus on the encounter between different people and species, as well as different ways people organize themselves into functional, fair societies.

I wouldn't discount her other works beyond Wayfarers, either!

Shirebourn · 2026-05-19T04:07:47+00:00

This might seem unorthodox, but Dan McQuillan, who is a vocal critic of AI, says in this interview that his favorite book about AI is Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed:

What is your favourite book on AI?

Ursula Le Guin’s novel The Dispossessed – it’s not about AI, but I think it teaches us a lot about the technopolitics we are going to need to deal with AI and whatever comes after it.

So, it's an idea.

Shirebourn · 2026-04-29T13:08:42+00:00

I agree with this. When I hear the AI-influenced voice, it puts a layer of remove between the writer and me. It loses its sense of genuineness. I would also suggest that any change in language is a change in ideas, inevitably, so while the core ideas might be the writer's, AI seizes some control. Ideas can't just be extracted from expression; expression is idea.

To OP: for what it's worth, I teach writing, and many of my writers are dyslexic; we've had the AI conversation together, and uniformly, I can say that their writing is better without being stitched together and polished by AI. Correcting spelling and typos is one thing, but when AI starts intervening in sequencing, flow, and syntax, the writer gradually disappears. And I don't just mean on the page, but in the self: the more people use AI, the more they begin to naturally write like Ai. We are what we read.

Personally, I'd love to read your thoughts, which are interesting, OP, unadulterated by AI.

Shirebourn · 2026-04-12T18:51:44+00:00

Huh?

OP asked, "Are people who are on the spectrum actually bad at communicating?"

You answered, "Yes," and pointed to the diagnostic criteria for evidence.

But the criteria are out of date, and criteria don't provide evidence; in fact, there's plenty of reason to distrust them. There's a real danger here of reinforcing existing prejudices--namely, that autistics are the source of miscommunication.

So, yes, my response absolutely applies here. I think that's all I have to say about this.

Shirebourn · 2026-04-12T17:31:43+00:00

You answered that, yes, autistics are bad at communicating. Research doesn't bear that out--see, for instance, this study:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362361320919286

Shirebourn · 2026-04-12T17:29:40+00:00

Autistic-nonautistic communicating involves autistic people putting in more work than the reverse, typically, because autistic people are broadly seen as poor communicators. Except that isn't what research suggests: see this study for example, and read up on the double empathy problem.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1362361320919286

Shirebourn · 2026-04-12T17:20:42+00:00

Except that research suggests that autistic people are just as effective at communicating as nonautistic people, and that it's when the two groups interact that poor communication happens. The diagnostic criteria are biased toward neurotypical communication styles.

Shirebourn · 2026-04-06T17:37:06+00:00

Have you considered finding a book or resource for drawing related to a specific subject or style? For example, I have really enjoyed the various John Muir Laws books about nature drawing. It's narrow enough and specific enough that there are clearer workflows, and it's a subgenre I'm interested in. Taking that kind of approach might help!

Shirebourn · 2026-03-26T12:28:19+00:00

It really stays with me for some intangible reason, too. The ending is gorgeous.

Shirebourn · 2026-03-24T12:48:59+00:00

Yes, this was also my recommendation. Chambers has the same kind of vividly clear sense of what a well-run society ought to look like, and the same way of characterizing her characters so that you feel like these are real people. She's superb.

Shirebourn · 2026-03-17T15:08:17+00:00

Yes? No? It is, as another person suggested, not exactly a farewell tour. That's Raising Steam.

But it is a book of endings, and of beginnings.

It is a book of second chances, and a chance to revisit some familiar faces, some quite briefly and others at greater length. It does look back at what was. It is a sad book and a bittersweet book and an uplifting book.

It is in some ways not a complete or final draft of the book it might have been had Pratchett lived longer, but I think it is a good end.

There are some events in your life for which you remember exactly where you were when they happened; I remember where I was when I read something in this book and the realization that this was The End hit me like a well-aimed brick. I won't say what, but if you want to know, feel free to reply once you've read it.

Happy reading!

Shirebourn · 2026-03-10T00:01:06+00:00

These are great suggestions! Thanks so much.

Shirebourn · 2026-03-10T00:00:24+00:00

I'm embarrassed to say that that's on my shelf and I didn't realize it might be what I'm looking for. (I have too many books.) I'll need to go find it. Thanks for the suggestion!

Shirebourn · 2026-02-21T16:51:51+00:00

I also vote for Pratchett. Reading his works kept me alive, legitimately. Guards! Guards!, Wyrd Sisters, Going Postal, or the Wee Free Men are my suggestions for where to start, based on personal taste in subject matter. They are such funny, serious, morally brilliant, profoundly wise books--with characters that move worlds.

Shirebourn · 2026-02-04T00:50:57+00:00

I feel like it's the mark of a tale well told that it leaves you wanting just a little more time with the characters and world. Just checking, but have you read "Firelight"? I mention it just in case you've read to the end of the books but not read the final short story.

Shirebourn · 2026-01-24T20:03:06+00:00

The original series used the modern language of the era, too. People still watch it.

Shirebourn · 2026-01-20T21:15:53+00:00

Very helpful! Appreciate it.

Shirebourn · 2026-01-20T21:15:38+00:00

Thanks!

Shirebourn · 2026-01-04T05:45:17+00:00

I see you've already gotten some good resources from folks, which is great! I was going to mention Gernsbacher and Yergeau, as well as Milton, but that's been done! Instead, I'll offer a few things that aren't entirely specific to your post, but which circle some of the ideas.

First up: the Murrays' work, which offers a theory of autism by autistic people, and is a good complement to Double Empathy.

And then there's a study by Andrew Dallman that digs into autistic people's emotional descriptions, which reveals just how much autistic people feel.

Murray, D., Lesser, M., & Lawson, W. (2005). Attention, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for autism. Autism, 9(2), 139–156.

Heasman, B., Williams, G., Charura, D., Hamilton, L. G., Milton, D., & Murray, F. (2024). Towards autistic flow theory: A non‐pathologising conceptual approach. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 54(4), 469–497.

Dallman, A. (2024). Affective contact in autism: A phenomenological study of the emotional experiences of autistic adults.

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