And there's lots of mud in Le Guin. Dust, dirt, earth, mud, clay.
I'm pretty sure she talks directly about it in Wave of the Mind - her lastest books of essays etc.
Yes - and what luck it's online:
from Being Taken for Granite
"If I am stone, I am some kind of shoddy crumbly stuff like sandstone or serpentine, or maybe schist. Or not even stone but clay, or not even clay but mud. And I wish that those who take me for granite would once in a while treat me like mud.
Being mud is really different from being granite and should be treated differently. Mud lies around being wet and heavy and oozy and generative. Mud is underfoot. People make footprints in mud. As mud I accept feet. I accept weight. I try to be supportive, I like to be obliging. Those who take me for granite say this is not so but they haven't been looking where they put their feet. That's why the house is all dirty and tracked up."
There's a short story that brings imperfect people and dirt into a clean sterile space ship too. It's called "Newton's Sleep", in "A Fisherman of an Inland Sea"
Re: yes!
I'm pretty sure she talks directly about it in Wave of the Mind - her lastest books of essays etc.
Yes - and what luck it's online:
from Being Taken for Granite
"If I am stone, I am some kind of shoddy crumbly stuff like sandstone or serpentine, or maybe schist. Or not even stone but clay, or not even clay but mud. And I wish that those who take me for granite would once in a while treat me like mud.
Being mud is really different from being granite and should be treated differently. Mud lies around being wet and heavy and oozy and generative. Mud is underfoot. People make footprints in mud. As mud I accept feet. I accept weight. I try to be supportive, I like to be obliging. Those who take me for granite say this is not so but they haven't been looking where they put their feet. That's why the house is all dirty and tracked up."
The longer excerpt is here:
http://www.shambhala.com/html/catalog/items/isbn/1-59030-006-8.cfm?selectedText=EXCERPT_CHAPTER
There's a short story that brings imperfect people and dirt into a clean sterile space ship too. It's called "Newton's Sleep", in "A Fisherman of an Inland Sea"