Sitting in the tea room today (drinking coffee) I flicked through a recent issue of the Spiritual Growth Ministries journal Refresh and saw this article – Spirituality and the Science Fiction Atheist by Adrienne Thompson. (SGM Journal Refresh Vol. 5 No. 2 (Summer 2005-6), 14-17).
It’s a brief reflection on the writing of Ursula Le Guin and has a nice quote in it about stories. LeGuin says,
What you get out of that story, in the way of understanding or perception or emotion, is partly up to me—because, of course, the story is passionately meaningful to me (even if I only find out what it’s about after I’ve told it). But it’s also up to you, the reader. Reading is a passionate act. If you read a story not just with your head, but also with your body and feelings and soul, the way you dance or listen to music, then it becomes your story. And it can mean infinitely more than any message. It can offer beauty. It can take you through pain. It can signify freedom. And it can mean something different every time you reread it.
(from interview at CBC Magazine: Meet the Author/Illustrator: Ursula LeGuin)
Thompson’s article didn’t transfer well to the web – some formatting is lost – but the content’s all there.
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