The language of the night
essays on fantasy and science fiction
by Ursula K. Le Guin · first published 1979
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A collection of twenty-four essays concerned with writing in general, the field of fantasy and science fiction, and with the author's own writing.
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Le Guin's precepts on how to write fantasy are in "The Language of the Night".[1] It's hard to get, but an excellent book. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Language_of_the_Night
on “The Le Guin Precepts” ↗> The language of the night, essays by Ursula Le Guin That sounds really cool! I love Ursula Le Guin but had never heard of this book.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗…Away from Omelas" is perhaps her most biting short story. It's not one of the Orsinian tales, although it could have been set in that world. Anyone who writes fantasy should read her essays in "The Language of the Night". (Also Poul Anderson's "On Thud and Blunder".)
on “Ursula K. Le Guin, “the emissary from Orsinia,” challenges expectations” ↗LeGuin had a great essay called The Stalin in The Soul regarding Zamyatin and We, I first read it in her book The Language of The Night about 40 years ago https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Language_of_the_Night Haven't found it online, but did find this description of it http://jesseabrahamlucas.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-stalin-in-...…
on “How Yevgeny Zamyatin shaped dystopian fiction” ↗> Ursula K. Le Guin pulls off the rare trick of being an incredible writer _and_ critic. Yes. Read her "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", in "The Language of the Night", where she discusses what makes fantasy read like fantasy.
on “Ursula Le Guin on Star Trek: TNG (1994)” ↗The classic essay on this subject is "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" in "The Language of the Night", by Ursula LeGuin.
on “Stories We’ve Seen Too Often” ↗…little direct speech, and only mentions what's important. The Silmarillion is basically Elder Edda Pastiche. Le Guin talks about the need for linguistic distancing in fantasy in one of her essays in The Language of The Night, that is to say language that sounds too close to our world is unsatisfying in Fantasy (by which of course she does means fantasy that is a completely other world, like Earthsea, LOTR, or similar) because…
on “The Heroic Industry of the Brothers Grimm” ↗I was recently reading through Ursula K. Le Guin's The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, and she has so many great quotes that are directly relevant to this situation. Here's a shorter one: > “The use of imaginative fiction is to deepen your understanding…
on “Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025” ↗Currently reading Katabasis by RF Kuang - magicians from Oxford go to hell on purpose And, meatier The language of the night, essays by Ursula Le Guin
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗…Tagomi from The Man in The High Castle, the other being D-503 from Zamyatin's We (IIRC) of course it has been nearly 4 decades since I read the essay, and I have a hard time finding an ebook version of The Language Of The Night (which is where I encountered the essay) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Language_of_the_Night that I can pay for. on edit: grammar, moving text
on “Ben Stiller’s New Series Is a Sci-Fi Take on Office Space” ↗