You may not like it, but this is peak performance.
Actually, you probably would like it.
4 to 5 hours of work, ladys and gentlemen.
That's actually close to a regular working day. 4-5h of core work, 2h of correspondence (e. g. Zoom meetings, bullshit emails), 1h of various breaks, e. g. lunch. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
The difference is that she is doing something she most likely enjoys and most of the rest of us chums are prostituting our time for money 💰💰💰
But the important difference is that she did the work uninterrupted by the bullshit...
If one of the best speculative fiction authors to live only needs 5 hours of work a day to create The Left Hand of Darkness and the Earthsea series, then maybe it's something worth exploring.
Most of us work 8 hours a day and probably produce nothing "valuable" except shareholder profits so...
For most of those 8 hours, we are not productive to begin with and just procrastinate over small tasks, because it's not humanly possible to be hyperfocused for 8 hours straight.
Someone told me recently, that no good thoughts happen after 8 pm. I took note of this and it is surprisingly accurate. After 8:00 I find myself very edgy, and prone to negative thinking/anxiety.
I think this depends heavily on your circadian type. For me, very little of use happens before around 3pm. This is independent of waking routine.
I'm in a very similar boat. Luckily, I have a great boss who understands that I'm most productive starting around 13:00, and I work a schedule that reflects that
Even though I am in my 30s already, I still get my best programming flow after 9 pm
That's them. All my best thoughts happen at night.
Okay, I've been convinced. Which of her books should I start with?
Dispossessed is amazing. The first chapter is a prank to filter out the weak of heart tho lol
The Ones Who ~~Left for~~ Walk Away From Omelas. A 19-20 page short story about what a "utopia" truly is. (Yes, yes, "we live in an society")
Her non-fiction essays on writing, and reflecting on her body of work are also very good. She was an incredibly forward thinking writer, and one of my favourite authors of all time.
The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas*. Not to be pedantic, but that completely changes the message of the story.
Omg not pedantic AT ALL, you're right! Embarrassing mistake, thank you for the correction!
Earth sea. I haven't read it yet, but it's at the top of my list
Personally, I wouldn't start with Wizard of Earthsea, that book was published in 1968 and definitely has the prose and flow modern readers are not as used to, especially for the fantasy genre.
I read Left Hand of Darkness for school, but it was The Dispossessed plus her non-fiction essays that got me into her. Omelas is also a good short story starting point, and I think it's only 20 pages.
I'm not super versed in modern Fantasy, in what ways does Earthsea flow different? I always thought the first book was a very accessible Hero's Journey deal and a good jumping off point
Oh the story itself is very accessible, I agree, and foundational for a lot of "magician's journey"-type storytelling we see today. The issue is that the writing itself is very...not dry per se... but definitely almost academic. It's closer to Tolkien's Two Towers than any of the Song of Ice and Fire series, to make a basic comparison.
Even reading the first chapter of Wizards, you see a lot of exposition and sentence structures that aren't as popular in modern writing today. For example, we have the author talk to us (the reader) directly, instead of through Sparrowhawk. That really isn't used anymore nowadays unless for comedic effect. Sparrowhawk himself is also kind of distant to us readers. We're reading his journey as a tale, but we're not necessarily experiencing it with him, if that makes sense.
If you're used to reading older sci-fi/fantasy, you'll be fine with most of this. If you've grown up in the Harry Potter/Percy Jackson/Song of Ice and Fire/ era, this will be incredibly jarring. I would actually say that Tombs of Atuan (the second book) is a better entry point to the series for these readers.
None of this means Wizards is badly written by the way. It is intentionally written like a "modern" (1960s) saga akin to the Poetic Edda, and it works extremely well in that sense. For me personally, the Earthsea Cycle is probably my favourite fantasy series of all time, and nothing (sorry Tolkienites, not even LotR) comes close to the experience I had reading for the first time. But I can't recommend Wizards of Earthsea as the entry point to le Guin without asking whether or not you read the Silmarillion by yourself front to back of your own volition, lol.
But if you read Atuan first you miss the experience of going
Minor Tombs of Atuan spoiler
oh shit that's my boy
I think a good way to counteract the dryness is by listening to an audiobook. That way it feels more like a story being told to you
LOL
Don't worry, I actually originally started with Atuan first (just what my grandma had on the shelf), and then went back to the first book. I still had that moment like a chapter into Wizards.
Lathe of Heaven is short and what I started with in highschool. The Left Hand Of Darkness is fantastic as well.
The Left Hand of Darkness
I liked The Dispossessed a lot, aside from one scene. The book overall really made me think.
The ones who walk away from omelas is uhh apropos nowadays and a very short story.
Intracom in very funny and the read by the author version is cozy
The lathe of heaven is a good un that always leaves me feeling discombobulated
Gwailans harp is the b-side of the read by the author lp that has intracom on it and is also quite nice.
The Earthsea books are probably what all ya fantasy should try to be.
I'm a fan for yet another reason? Yeah. That checks out.
You lost me at thinking but won me back with breakfast (lots)
...ok? I don't get it, at all
I think the idea is: OP wakes up, spends an hour in traffic, sits at a desk for 8 hours, spends another hour in traffic, and then sits in front of the TV until they pass out. And they're amazed that not everyone lives that way.
That kind of makes sense -- except that she died in 2018. I wonder if they don't know that somehow?
Plot twist: OP can communicate with the afterlife.
Maybe that’s what OP does eight hours a day.
Yeah, what?
She had the most interesting childhood too. The “K” in her name stands for Kroeber, after her father, a famous anthropologist who is known for letting Ishi, the last living member of his tribe, live in their backyard. It really helps her work and perspective make sense when you know she is a dyed in the wool anthropologist.
This seems similar to Hunter Thompson's schedule except with way less cocaine
This isn’t just a meme! Lots of writers do this. If you find yourself in the position of trying this lifestyle I recommend giving it a go! It just sounds amazing to me. I tried it quite a bit during university and it was incredible for studying and focusing deeply when the world is quiet and nobody else is around.
God I wish I could stick to a schedule
I don’t know why but I read this thinking it was about the the witch Ursula in the kid’s movie Ariel and was wondering a lot of weird takes.
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