The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin
179 pages
Published 1978
Read December 7
Rating: ★★★½ out of 5
A small but beautiful book on the importance as well as the limits of nonviolent resistance. Through much of its length I mused on the naiveté of the dream of nonviolent triumph and nonparticipation; in a culture and a world squeezed by late-stage capitalism, with cops trained to bust up passive resistance and nowhere left to run off to, the thought that the tactics of Gandhi and King could flourish into a science fiction future was a sweet but sad and futile fantasy. I should have known Le Guin better than that, of course. Out of all the authors who have attempted utopian visions, Le Guin seems to have the best grasp of human failings, our cultural blinders, our sheer propensity to fuck everything up. Which makes the ending especially bittersweet and poignant, described as it is with Le Guin's gentle, deft beauty. We must all of us keep marching -- but on this planet, we've nowhere left to go.
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