Changing planes
[stories]
by Ursula K. Le Guin · first published 2003
6mentions
2recommended by
6HN commenters
2016–2022first – last mentioned
33% recommend67% neutral
The misery of waiting for a connecting flight at an airport leads to the accidental discovery of alighting on other planes--not airplanes but planes of existence. Ursula Le Guin's premise frames a series of travel accounts by the tourist-narrator who describes bizarre societies and cultures that sometimes mirror our own, and sometimes open puzzling doors into the alien.
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I haven't read this series but if you want a good introduction to Le Guin you might try Changing Planes, a 2005 book of short stories. Fairly light reading, but some stories are pretty mind-bending in an anthropological sense. It's pretty hard to say why some stories click with some readers. I found some…
on “Ursula K. Le Guin, “the emissary from Orsinia,” challenges expectations” ↗Or go dip into her novellas. There's a collected edition out now ('The Found and the Lost'). I think my favorite stuff of hers is in there. Or, if you just want fun, 'Changing Planes' is a delightful romp inspired by the misery of sitting in airports.
on “Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?” ↗Or how about this, from the introduction to Ursula K. Le Guin's collection Changing Planes: > If both you and your plane are on time, the airport is merely a diffuse, short, miserable prelude to the intense, long, miserable plane trip. But what if there's five hours between your arrival and…
on “Airports make the indignities inherent to air travel cohere with its fantasies” ↗In Ursula Le Guin's book "Changing Planes", there's a story called "The Island of the Immortals." Spoiler alert: living forever is no fun.
on “Nvidia Research Turns 2D Photos into 3D Scenes” ↗Reminds me of a story from Ursula Le Guin's Changing Planes short story collection - Porridge on Islac.
on “CRISPR Editing in Primates” ↗Reminiscent of "The War for the Alon" in Ursula Le Guin's Changing Planes.
on “The Drowned Lands of the Wallkill” ↗