Well, those playing Global Polycrisis at "Beginner Level" certainly think so. Meanwhile, Cyclone Gabrielle and the increasing seasonal floods on the South Island would both like a word...

(The megarich also think, post-"The Event," that they can control people via shock collars... As recently spotlighted by Douglas Rushkoff, the megarich are actually fuckwits, and as brutal and inhumane as they are profoundly unwise -- clever, yes, I met so many clever people when I worked in Silicon Valley, good at embracing the zeitgeist, good at making money... but clever is so very different from wise... And the rest of this century is one huge monkey trap...)

I still find it hilarious that it was a Father’s Day selection for Oprah’s Book Club. I mean, the epitome of interns making a recommendation based on the synopsis, without reading the book. Conceptually I get it: it’s a father protecting his child. But I have to imagine an awkward gathering of book club ladies silently staring into their wine glasses, wondering how many others in the discussion group Did Not Finish.

That said, the novel contains magically lyrical passages about being a parent in a dangerous world. There’s no writer like McCarthy.

One of my favorite books. My twin brother and I were strongly influenced by this book, it led to us both being environmental activists for many years. I always felt, however, that Le Guin sort of "copped out" regarding the conflict between the Kesh and the Condor People: personally, I thought the Condors would conquer the Kesh, as they had other peoples in that far-future setting. I never really accepted Le Guin's pat assurance -- via Pandora -- that, eventually, the Condors would implode, due to their own toxic culture. Thirteen-year-old me always wanted to add, "... But only after they've destroyed the Kesh!" I think it was because I felt like a Kesh in a world dominated by a culture like the Condor People, and I desperately wanted to know how the Kesh managed to survive.

Nice to see discussion of Le Guin with (at this point) 80 or so comments.

Years ago, I wrote my college undergraduate thesis on Nietzsche. This is an excellent succinct answer. Well done!

It is a haunting memoir.