Descriptions of the Nondescript

Ursula K le Guin on The Future of Capitalism

Black and white photo of Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. le Guin is a top science fiction writer and has been for decades. This article on her call for sci-fi writers to write more about alternatives to capitalism caught my eye.

Precisely! We live in the age where we must adapt our traditions for new realities that appear as a result of those traditions. Adapting is what humans do. But sometimes we also do wars and other stupid stuff before we finally do adapt. Let's not do that stupid stuff. Let's just adapt when the time comes, shall we?

My stories to this point all include, as a central theme, a world run by alternatives to capitalism, although capitalism is what gets my first book's characters into their life-long struggle. I am writing more. I hope someday to inspire someone to do something positive in the real world - not because my vision was accurate, but because it led them to think about what the accurate vision would be.