I’ve Seen The Ursula K LeGuin Quote About Capitalism Going Around, But To Really Appreciate It You

I’ve seen the Ursula K LeGuin quote about capitalism going around, but to really appreciate it you have to know the context.

The year is 2014. She has been given a lifetime achievement award from the National Book Awards. Neil Gaiman puts it on her neck in front of a crowd of booksellers who bankrolled the event, and it’s time to make a standard “thank you for this award, insert story here, something about diversity, blah blah blah” speech. She starts off doing just that, thanking her friends and fellow authors. All is well.

Then this old lady from Oregon looks her audience of executives dead in the eye, and says “Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximize corporate profit and advertising revenue is not the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship.”

She rails against the reduction of her art to a commodity produced only for profit. She denounces publishers who overcharge libraries for their products and censor writers in favor of something “more profitable”. She specifically denounces Amazon and its business practices, knowing full well that her audience is filled with Amazon employees. And to cap it off, she warns them: “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”

Ursula K LeGuin got up in front of an audience of some of the most powerful people in publishing, was expected to give a trite and politically safe argument about literature, and instead told them directly “Your empire will fall. And I will help it along.”

More Posts from Taynbowswift and Others

3 years ago
taynbowswift - a display of color
5 years ago

Body language 101 his feet are pointing away from her...my fiancé better be pointing his feet at me on our wedding day y’all, just saying 🌈

“This Wedding Brought To You By Dior. For All Of The Milestone Moments Of Your Life.”

“This wedding brought to you by Dior. For all of the milestone moments of your life.”


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1 year ago

i'm actually so fucking sick of zionists using phrases such as "Was it worth it, Hamas?" cause literally what the fuck are y'all yapping about??? Israel has been indiscriminately bombing gaza in front of our eyes since last October, Israel has murdered more than 30 thousands Palestinians within 5 months, Israel is forcefully starving gaza, Israel is the one committing war crimes everyday, Israel is continuing genocide and ethnic cleansing. Israel. is. illegally. occupying. Palestine.

we all know who are the perpetrators here. and zionists can't gaslight people into "hamas started it" bullshit anymore. everyone is actually sick of Israel's dumb colonialism propaganda where they just repeat same old tactics “how dare you palestinians resist us, after we have your stolen land, freedom, human rights and subjugated your people under fascist colonial regime.”

Israel carry out atrocities in broad daylight and then go ahead blame Palestinian resistance for the said act of savagery they've performed, "O their audacity!" indeed!

4 years ago

So my immediate thought when watching the interview with Colbert, is that I feel like the bit about “hey Stephen” being about him, and there being all this evidence (as a bit) and her denying it, is like a parallel to all of the gaylor/kaylor evidence and then everyone (including Taylor via her pr narrative) denying it.

She says to him that if she were going to write a song about him she wouldn’t name it after him, that would be too obvious. She says songwriting “is in the details”. She even lists things that she would say about him like him being on tv, on the daily show, being 5’11” etc. when she said “I love you on the tv” it immediately made me think of “you’re a queen selling dreams, selling make up and magazines”.

At another point she describes where his exact location is in New York, which immediately made me think of “you’re the west village”. Another detail that shows the truth of a song.

The basic take away of too-obvious titles, and the truth being in the details of the song, is so LOUD. It reinforces the falseness of all of the anachronisms that we’ve been pointing out in her last four albums. Songs said to be about toe, but whose details only actually work with Karlie. Or songs that are said to be about straight relationships, but whose details seem to clearly suggest a wlw relationship. For instance, Cardigan referencing “high heels on cobblestones” and James in Betty singing “I was walking home on broken cobblestones”. The truth is in the details

Also the comment about too-obvious titles vs details made me cackle about London Boy 😂 it really is Blank Space 2.0

God there are so many other examples... “looking out the window like I’m not your favorite town/I’m New York City/I still do it for you baby” when joe has stated New York is definitely not his favorite city, but a certain lady loves it. “I’m so mystified by how this city screams your name”, etc.

She keeps giving us entire albums that are the equivalent of lyrical mood boards, covered in photos of Karlie (plus some of Emily and Sue, and other sapphic icons/characters) and then says “no I don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s from a male perspective”. And it’s so obvious that it’s a joke, just like this bit. It also stood out to me that there was audible laughter from the crew members in the studio(s). Which felt like it echoed all of us, watching Taylor pull gayer and gayer songs, themes, imagery with each album, then saying “where?” with a semi straight face, just redirecting the gps attention. And us sitting back in astonishment and delirious laughter asking “how can they not see it??”

4 years ago
4.17.21. Brooklyn Center, MN
4.17.21. Brooklyn Center, MN
4.17.21. Brooklyn Center, MN
4.17.21. Brooklyn Center, MN
4.17.21. Brooklyn Center, MN
4.17.21. Brooklyn Center, MN
4.17.21. Brooklyn Center, MN
4.17.21. Brooklyn Center, MN
4.17.21. Brooklyn Center, MN
4.17.21. Brooklyn Center, MN

4.17.21. Brooklyn Center, MN

Police dispersed a protest shortly into the night, then forced all journalists to surrender and consent to photographs of their faces, credentials, and IDs. Police also arrested marked medics for being present.

A local church opened to injured protestors the night before, and dozens of police responded by surrounding the church the following day.

Police are the acting arm of fascism.

1 year ago

Nooh IG: @nooh.xp celebrating a huge win after acquiring 25 kilos of flour. Just look at the excitement of the possiblity of eating bread again after 3 long, devastating months ‼️‼️

2 years ago

Midnight album cover is her sparking a lighter - getting ready to burn it down…she gave us a heads up for what’s to come.

The breakup was obvious from the album and timing, Joe the Beard did his work and can be let go now as she moves into the next phase.

I see this PR strategy with Matty as the next step in this era. It almost feels to me like when Miley went wild to shatter her association with Hannah Montana.

Is Taylor stepping out with Matty akin to this…a clear message to the fans that she’s not concerned about their opinions as she once was, by “dating” someone as controversial as Matty?? Is Taylor stunting with Matty the equivalent of Miley’s beige clad ass disaster of a twerk??

After all - Midnight is the technical end of the day, or - the end of the era. Al the clock imagery…time’s up on the former TS brand???

I say, this is just the beginning.

I’m somewhat surprised Matty’s involved, but leads me to believe they are scheming something BIG.

They’ve been baiting us. There are parallels in their work for years (Paris and Paris, Happiness and Happiness). Recently, Being Funny in a Foreign Language and Midnight came out SAME month. Both have seventies motifs - I noticed the similarities instantly. And then of course, the 02 performance in London.

What’s going on here?? Secret best friends with vigilante plans?? Or, are they truly in love? I’ve wondered for years if they’ve secretly been together, that the bearding was for them and not actually Karlie.

What are the two genius pop stars up to?

Let’s wait and watch and look for the clues. My Tatty instincts say things are about to get fun.

And my guess - this stunt lasts a few months at best. Taylor is knowingly tarnishing her reputation by letting herself be seen with Matty. Let the public slander her for that, and when there’s a messy breakup around the end of summer…

Maybe she’s setting the stage for an undoing of the brand she’s built in the last 20 years 🤔🤔

Who really knows, probably not even our girl. 🤡

I do hope Tay’s team is looking after Joe rn

Never a dull moment and I’m here for it 🤗❤️


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5 years ago

🌈

Nope. No. You’re Wrong. Color Photos Have Been Around Since The Late 1800s There Are A Bunch Of Full

Nope. No. You’re wrong. Color photos have been around since the late 1800s there are a bunch of full color photos of MLK. The us govt and educational system just doesn’t show us because they want us to push back the civil rights movement and distance institutionalized racism from today’s society.

Nope. No. You’re Wrong. Color Photos Have Been Around Since The Late 1800s There Are A Bunch Of Full
Nope. No. You’re Wrong. Color Photos Have Been Around Since The Late 1800s There Are A Bunch Of Full
Nope. No. You’re Wrong. Color Photos Have Been Around Since The Late 1800s There Are A Bunch Of Full
Nope. No. You’re Wrong. Color Photos Have Been Around Since The Late 1800s There Are A Bunch Of Full
Nope. No. You’re Wrong. Color Photos Have Been Around Since The Late 1800s There Are A Bunch Of Full
Nope. No. You’re Wrong. Color Photos Have Been Around Since The Late 1800s There Are A Bunch Of Full
Nope. No. You’re Wrong. Color Photos Have Been Around Since The Late 1800s There Are A Bunch Of Full
Nope. No. You’re Wrong. Color Photos Have Been Around Since The Late 1800s There Are A Bunch Of Full
Nope. No. You’re Wrong. Color Photos Have Been Around Since The Late 1800s There Are A Bunch Of Full

Here are just a few of many photos of MLK in FULL color. This wasn’t that long ago. This is RECENT history. Segregation, the terrorizing of black communities, the brutality isn’t old - it is still present.

When my dad was a little boy, my grandfather was one of the ministers who marched with MLK on Washington. He grew up hearing stories about the great Dr. king and the differences he made BUT he still saw the blatant discrimination against black folks and other people of color (hell he experienced it himself). My dad was a kid watching MLK. My DAD. My grandfather who only passed away about six years ago MARCHED with him. This isn’t twelve generations ago. THIS IS RECENT HISTORY.

5 years ago

🥰🌈👏🏽

starting to realize that the lyric “like a rainbow with all of the colors” is because a message of this album is that love isn’t always easy, sometimes it’s red (passionate), orange (playful), yellow (happy), green (jealous), blue (sad), and purple (magical). but all the colors together is what makes love beautiful. and each color in the house represents a different part of being in love.

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taynbowswift - a display of color
a display of color

achieving homo luminous with tay

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