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susan curry's avatar

After reading, doesn't every human make up a cosmology - a personalized interpretation of the relationships between all things perceived, an ordering, a compendium of what reality is and how to relate to it? If the universe is perceiving itself through each version of a mind/body, then it would have gadzillions of points of view.

LeGuinn was speaking about those who assign themselves the project of writing down a divergent cosmology from the conventional one (i.e. science fiction)-- a "what if" kind of sharing with others. Who knows where their creativity comes from -- perhaps they are tuning into a parallel coexisting universe.

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Starborne's avatar

An omnicentric, gadzillion points of view universe does seem like what we're working with, Susan—thanks for sharing these stirring thoughts!

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Oceana Sawyer's avatar

I've read this essay by Le Guin a couple times in the past 6 months and I don't quite see the connection to what Swimme is doing is his latest book. Help me understand.

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Starborne's avatar

That's a great question, Oceana. While I can't speak for Swimme himself, I would imagine that he might consider the form of fiction Le Guin espouses as a continuation of cosmic creativity in the sphere of art, particularly given that she recommends a careful attention to the world and an actual understanding of science in the speculative fabulation of other worlds.

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