No Time To Spare | Ursula Le Guin
Some writers have an extremely distinguishable literary voice. Some have great range. Some can disappear, letting the work erase them and stand on its own. Ursula, in various works, achieves all of these things—coming in or out of focus as the work demands. In this collection of essays, she is front and center. In her 80s at time of publication, she offers what I consider to be a rare perspective—that of the elder woman.
Ursula does not skirt around her age—she centers it and manages to offer the full breadth and depth of her lived experience without too often falling into the sort of disdain and dismissal some elders are prone to. She is also, mercifully, very funny. There is a wisdom and intellect to her writing that I think could border on the insufferable if she didn’t have essays titled, “Would You Please Fucking Stop?”
This book is one I come back to, I recommend, and in the last few years, pieces of it have felt relevant to the point of urgency. Three themes I would call out are deeply related: human connectedness, capitalism, and time.
There are a few topics she touches that have particular relevance given our current circumstances (*gestures broadly, sobs*). The first of these is the idea of human connectedness—specifically individualism versus collectivism. The “I don’t owe anyone anything crowd may want to skip this one (or read closely with a highlighter and a deep sense of shame).
She brings her years of lived experience to bear here, recalling past leaders imploring Americans to go without to support their fellow man in the wake of the World Wars. Her recollection points to our culture of individualism and consumerism as a poison that makes us selfish—with one another, even with our future selves, a culture that, if anything, has become even further ingrained. The longer we are selfish, she implies, the higher the stakes become.
“Americans…tend to regard moral behavior as a personal decision, above rules, and often above laws.”
When I read the quote above, I knew I was dealing with a person who would be unsurprised about our current state of events and glad to be missing them.
Relatedly, she also speaks at great length on capitalism—she condemns it, unequivocally as an unsustainable, demonstrably destructive system. She has clearly lived long enough to see various alarms raised and ignored in service of capitalist gain, has watched opportunities to do better slip through our collective grasp. She is tired, and I feel seen, if not saved by her analysis.
Her perspective is clear eyed, unflinching, and optimistic all at once, and at her big age, I appreciate that she hasn’t given up on us and everything. It is unclear if she believes we can save one another and ourselves (identical endeavors) but what is clear is that she believes nihilism is both unseemly and self indulgent—she won’t tolerate it.
Finally, she deals with the topic that informed the title of her book—spare time. She examines it and finds it to be a fraught concept, steeped in capitalist notions of productivity. No time, in her eyes, is spare. Or all of it is, but that isn’t to imply that it is useless. Living, feeling, thinking, being, she asserts, is a fine and full enough use of ones time.
So is it good and who is it for? Both the essay (with its variety and ability to be picked up and put down easily) as a format and Le Guin as an author have much to offer. Maybe you are grappling with the existential plight of existence, aging, living in an unnecessarily protracted pandemic. Maybe you are a creator (even better if you are a writer!) Maybe you just enjoy witty, observant, beautifully written musings on topics ranging from the political, to the personal, to the feline.
The most central message of this collection is that time is precious and that we are more than connected—we are bound together, dependent upon one another, to our collective chagrin.
Whether you agree with the conclusions she draws, the journey she takes you on through observation, description, and unambiguous judgement, is worthwhile. If you decide to read this one, shoot me a note and let me know what you thought!
Quotes & Other Gems
“Stability or growth—choose one, you can’t have both.”
On secret desires: “I have none—my desires are flagrant.”
If I’m 90 and believe I’m 45, I headed for a very bad time trying to get out of the bathtub.”
"Escape is always in the direction of freedom, so when we criticize escapism, what is it that we are criticizing exactly?"