The Language of the Night

In this series of essays, Ursula LeGuin, renowned fantasy writer, reveals many of her most subtle insights into the art of creating stories. Drawing on Jungian psychology, she describes the twin processes of writing and reading. Most surprising are her descriptions of the inner life of the child, how, in a sense, children are more advanced than adults in their ability to tap into the collective reservoir of archetypes that we all share.

I especially liked her adoring essay on J R R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trilogy. If you are a fan of those works, you will not want to miss her sense of the interrelationships among four key characters of Tolkien's, how they in fact collectively constitute a sort of meta-character. Reading LeGuin's essay reinforced my belief that the Trilogy is one of the great works of the last century.

Reading can be a joy but can be a dangerous, exhilarating adventure as well. As LeGuin says, when we open up a novel and enter its unique universe, we agree to go insane for awhile, to think and exist by the precepts of the book we are reading. I can imagine no better way of being in this crazy state than getting between the covers of 'The Language of the Night.' I hope you like it.