{"id":8523,"date":"2025-08-07T00:03:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T05:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/?p=8523"},"modified":"2025-07-20T21:58:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T02:58:33","slug":"the-day-before-the-revolution-ursula-k-le-guin-story-a-prequel-to-her-prometheus-winning-the-dispossessed-recommended-by-reactor-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/the-day-before-the-revolution-ursula-k-le-guin-story-a-prequel-to-her-prometheus-winning-the-dispossessed-recommended-by-reactor-magazine\/","title":{"rendered":"The Day Before the Revolution: Ursula K. Le Guin story, a prequel to her Prometheus-winning The Dispossessed, recommended by Reactor Magazine\u2028"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg<\/a><\/p>\n

Ursula K. Le Guin\u2019s The Day Before the Revolution<\/i> has been highlighted and recommended by Reactor Magazine among \u201cfive SF stories in which hope survives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The story, available in the Le Guin short-story collection The Wind’s Twelve Quarters<\/em>, should be of interested to LFS members and other freedom-loving SF\/fantasy fans because it\u2019s considered a sequel to Le Guin\u2019s classic novel The Dispossessed, <\/i>an early Prometheus Hall of Fame winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cScience fiction has the power to remind us that hope is valuable, and necessary,\u201d James Davis Nicoll wrote in the Reactor column.<\/a><\/p>\n

That insight, and sentiment, rings true to Prometheus Awards voters and fans. After all, our award in part aims to recognize worthy works of speculative fiction that in many cases do remind us that even amid troubled times and authoritarian societies, better and freer futures remain possible.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Le Guin\u2019s story was published in 1974, the same year as The Dispossessed,<\/a><\/i> which was inducted into the Prometheus Hall of Fame in 1993 after several years of debate and controversy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is how Nicoll describes the story:<\/p>\n

\u201cLaia lives on a distant, isolated world populated by humans (of a lightly furred sort). She believes passionately in Odonianism, an anarchist political philosophy akin to the teachings of Earth\u2019s Kropotkin<\/a> or Goldman<\/a>. The society around her does not find Odo persuasive. The government hasn\u2019t either. Laia has often been a political prisoner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHer fellow Odonians revere Laia, which she finds disconcerting. Following a leader is not consistent with Odo\u2019s teachings. But there is some hope: news arrives of successful revolution in distant Thu. Not every society is deaf to Odo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicoll, who wrote the then TOR.com (now Reactor) <\/i>story in 2019 celebrating the \u201cremarkable\u201d and \u201crewarding\u201d range of Prometheus Awards winners on its 40th anniversary, is known for his insightful TOR\/Reactor commentary on science fiction and fantasy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ursula K. Le Guin (Creative Commons license)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thus, it\u2019s not surprising to read Nicoll\u2019s apt and penetrating analysis of The Dispossessed, and how it fits in so well with The Day Before the Revolution.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201c(The Dispossessed)<\/i> is set partially on an Odonian moon colony, partially in Thu. It\u2019s very clear that Anarres, the moon society, hasn\u2019t turned out quite as Laia or Odo had hoped. Hence the novel\u2019s subtitle, \u201can ambiguous utopia.\u201d Nevertheless, the novel makes it clear that Anarres is a much better place to be poor (as everyone there is by Thuvian standards) than is Thu. Laia\u2019s hopes have been to great extent fulfilled,\u201d Nicoll writes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The other four SF works that Nicoll selected to highlight include Lisa Goldstein\u2019s A Mask for the General, <\/i>Norman Spinrad\u2019s Child of Fortune,<\/i> Pat Murphy\u2019s The City, Not Long Afte<\/i>r and Carrie Vaughn\u2019s Bannerless.<\/i><\/p>\n

Spinrad, by the way, has been nominated three times for a Prometheus Award – including for Best Novel, both in 1982, for A World Between<\/i> and Song From the Stars; <\/i>and for the Prometheus Hall of Fame for Best Classic Fiction in the 1990s for Agent of Chaos <\/i>(an anti-state, anarchistic novel that might be due for re-examination and renomination.)<\/p>\n

* Read the Prometheus Blog Appreciation essay-review<\/a> of The Dispossessed.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE PROMETHEUS AWARDS:<\/b><\/p>\n

* Prometheus winners:\u00a0<\/b>For the full list of Prometheus winners, finalists and nominees \u2013 including the annual Best Novel and Best Classic Fiction (Hall of Fame) categories and occasional Special Awards \u2013 visit the enhanced\u00a0Prometheus Awards page<\/a>\u00a0on the LFS website, which now includes convenient links to all published essay-reviews in our Appreciation series explaining why each of more than 100 past winners since 1979 fits the awards\u2019 distinctive dual focus on both quality and liberty.<\/p>\n

* Read \u201cThe Libertarian History of Science Fiction,\u201d<\/a> an essay in the international magazine\u00a0Quillette<\/i>\u00a0that favorably highlights the Prometheus Awards, the Libertarian Futurist Society and the significant element of libertarian sf\/fantasy in the evolution of the modern genre.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Watch videos of past Prometheus Awards ceremonies (including the recent 2023 ceremony<\/a> with inspiring and amusing speeches by Prometheus-winning authors Dave Freer<\/a> and Sarah Hoyt)<\/a>, Libertarian Futurist Society panel discussions with noted sf authors and leading libertarian writers, and other LFS programs on the Prometheus Blog\u2019s\u00a0Video page.<\/a><\/p>\n

* Check out the Libertarian Futurist Society\u2019s Facebook page<\/a> for comments, updates and links to Prometheus Blog posts.<\/p>\n

*\u00a0Join us!<\/b> To help sustain the Prometheus Awards and support a cultural and literary strategy to appreciate and honor freedom-loving fiction, \u00a0join<\/a> the Libertarian Futurist Society, a non-profit all-volunteer association of freedom-loving sf\/fantasy fans.<\/p>\n

Libertarian futurists believe that culture matters. We understand that the arts and literature can be vital in envisioning a freer and better future – and in some ways can be even more powerful than politics in the long run, by imagining better visions of the future incorporating peace, prosperity, progress, tolerance, justice, positive social change, and mutual respect for each other\u2019s rights, human dignity, individuality and peaceful choices.<\/p>\n

Through recognizing the literature of liberty and the many different but complementary visions of a free future via the Prometheus Awards, the LFS hopes to help spread ideas, humane ideals and ethical principles that help humanity overcome tyranny, end slavery, reduce the threat of war, repeal or constrain other abuses of coercive power and achieve universal liberty, respect for human rights and a better world (perhaps ultimately, worlds) for all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michael Grossberg Ursula K. Le Guin\u2019s The Day Before the Revolution has been highlighted and recommended by Reactor Magazine among \u201cfive SF stories in which hope survives.\u201d The story, available in the Le Guin short-story collection The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, should be of interested to LFS members and other freedom-loving SF\/fantasy fans because it\u2019s … Continue reading The Day Before the Revolution: Ursula K. Le Guin story, a prequel to her Prometheus-winning The Dispossessed, recommended by Reactor Magazine\u2028<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2353,1585,8,2605,2561],"tags":[2536,236,268,2535,2534,794,2533],"class_list":["post-8523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-fiction-in-the-news","category-review","category-sequels","category-ursula-k-le-guin","tag-james-nicoll","tag-prequel","tag-prometheus-hall-of-fame","tag-reactor-magazine","tag-the-day-before-the-revolution","tag-the-dispossessed","tag-ursula-k-le-guin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe8nGl-2dt","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8523"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8531,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8523\/revisions\/8531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lfs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}