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The Wave in the Mind
Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination
Ursula K. Le Guin
Shambhala, 2004
304 pages
Reviewed by Christy Risser-Milne
In the tradition of C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, and Madeleine L’Engle, Ursula K. Le Guin has turned her fine skills as a fantasy writer to writing about this world. The Wave in the Mind collects some thirty essays (some of which are actually lectures that have been tweaked for written presentation) that range from a technical assessment of poetry and prose to a pondering on the nature of fantasy and the role of the writer in society.
As is true of many essay collections, some are better-crafted than others. Picked apart one by one, it is easy to say that Le Guin’s understanding of Christianity does not involve serious study of the Bible. But more important, it is a simple matter to hold in perplexed wonder her love of the minutiae in the rhythm of poetry and prose over the centuries. To laugh loudly at her wondering of what it means to be a man. To stand in amazement that she read the whole of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy out loud to each of her three children (yes, that means she read the whole aloud three separate times!). Taken together, these essays provide a long view into the mind and workings of one of the best writers of our time.
Le Guin reads a lot, thinks a lot, and writes a lot. Anyone who wants to be a writer should look to this book as a paradigm of a writer’s life. One cannot craft an art out of thin air; it takes tremendous amounts of time and dedication, both of which Le Guin lavishes on her work. Reading this collection of essays helps one to understand why her works of fiction are as good as they are.
This lengthy volume invites one to take a leisurely approach, to read slowly, sporadically through the essays. Within the broad sections there is some cohesion, but one may jump hither and yon through the essays and not lose the thread of the whole. While I find many of the essays on writing to be tedious and overly-technical forays into what made my English professors in university weak in the knees, the essays on both the “Personal Matters” and “On Writing” are fascinating.
Worthy of any library of Le Guin’s writings, even readers who do not care for her fantasies will find insight into the mind of a woman for whom language is genuinely a gift to be savored and treasured, not merely read.
Christy Risser-Milne is a freelance writer and photographer living in Boston, Massachusetts.
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