The local literary supernova brought the book world to its feet with an acceptance speech that censured Amazon and sparked an international frenzy.
Ursula K Le Guin accepts the the 2014 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from fantasy best-seller Neil Gaiman
After accepting the 2014 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at last night's National Book Awards, Portland writer Ursula K. Le Guin deployed a speech that lanced Amazon, her own publisher, and other “commodity profiteers” who “sell us like deodorant.” It went off like a bomb, bringing the entire room to its feet.
“The speech started out as a smattering of applause, but by the end she got a standing ovation,” said Theo Downes-Le Guin, Le Guin's son who also runs contemporary art gallery Upfor on NW Flanders. We caught up with him this morning by phone as he assisted his mother through New York airport security on their way home (he also escorted her onstage last night). “I was incredibly proud of her. She made me cry.”
But those moved by Le Guin’s speech went far beyond attendees at the black-tie Manhattan event.
Overnight, Le Guin blew up web editions of the Los Angeles Times, Guardian, New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, and more. National Public Radio ran Le Guin’s anti-capitalist critique as breaking news last night and again for morning commuters. The hashtag #nbawards is almost entirely devoted to frothy Le Guin tweets (including one from fantasy titan Neil Gaiman, who introduced Le Guin prior to awarding her medal).
Theo Townes-Le Guin escorts his mother, Ursula Le Guin, on stage
What prompted the adoration? Statements like those below from the 85-year-old author (read the full transcript here).
On the commodification of art:
Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximize corporate profit and advertising revenue is not quite the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship. Yet I see sales departments given control over editorial. I see my own publishers in a silly panic of ignorance and greed, charging public libraries for an ebook six or seven times more than they charge customers.
On Amazon’s recent attempt to undercut the imprint Hachette:
We just saw a profiteer try to punish a publisher for disobedience and writers threatened by corporate fatwa, and I see a lot of us, the producers who write the books, and make the books, accepting this.
On power:
We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words.
On her fellow authors of fantasy and science fiction:
I think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies. We will need writers who can remember freedom. Poets, visionaries—the realists of a larger reality.
Who isn’t happy about Le Guin’s speech? The contingent from Amazon, who—according to NPR’s Petra Mayer—“notably had no comment on Le Guin's speech or the ribbing they endured throughout the night.”
Downes-Le Guin says his mom “challenged the status quo in a room not only full of writers but also book publishers.”
We couldn’t be more proud.
What do you think? View her speech below:
No comments:
Post a Comment