A question about ALWAYS COMING HOME by Ursula K LeGuin

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A question about ALWAYS COMING HOME by Ursula K LeGuin

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1Truett
Modifié : Sep 1, 2018, 9:17 pm

Dear DCloyce Smith: I know LeGuin contributed new material for the LOA edition of ALWAYS COMING HOME (which is fantastic). But given that the original release (wish I would've held onto mine, bookclub edition or not) had a cassette tape that accompanied it (to complete the full sensory experience), will LOA be doing any sort of "special" edition of ALWAYS COMING HOME that will include the "music of the Kesh" which LeGuin helped write?

For anyone interested, this link includes an audio "sampling" of 20-plus songs (and, I believe, poetry readings, etc.), that were included on the original cassette.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/mar/27/ursula-k-le-guins-electr...

2uru
Août 23, 2018, 9:47 am

Freedom To Spend records recently pressed this music on vinyl and CD:

http://www.freedomtospend.org/catalog/fts009

3elenchus
Août 23, 2018, 11:07 am

>2 uru:

That looks to be a wonderful supplement to the LOA edition. I'm tempted to purchase and read both the book and the recording for the immersive experience, though I'm more drawn to other Le Guin titles based on plot or premise.

4Podras.
Août 23, 2018, 11:45 am

Le Guin clearly intended the text and the audio recording to go together. I very much doubt that that changed when she wrote the new material. I know that LOA isn't in the audio recording business, and providing the audio portion of Le Guin's work would be awkward (though not impossible). Not doing so in this case puts a significant portion of Le Guin's legacy at risk of becoming lost.

5Truett
Août 23, 2018, 6:24 pm

Podras: as you stated, LOA isn't in the audio recording and selling biz. I'm sure LeGuin gave that plenty of thought when putting the extra work into updating (with the complete writings of the Kesh,, etc.) ALWAYS COMING HOME in preparation for publication next year. Perhaps she had a chance to work out something -- with a local or friendly audio distributor? online, perhaps? (it IS the way things are done now, I have to keep reminding myself -- that will make it easy for those purchasing the book to access/purchase the audio recording as well. Or maybe LOA has thought of that (an online download or something).

What I SHOULD have written to Mr. DCLOYCE SMITH was:
Does the Library of America KNOW if anyone will be making the Audio Recording portion of the original ALWAYS COMING HOME publication available online or otherwise?

I'm still gonna get the book either way (I'll just be kicking myself in the posterior for not holding tight to that slipcased book club edition I picked up in my youth).


6amanda4242
Août 23, 2018, 10:15 pm

The audio portion is available on Bandcamp.

7DCloyceSmith
Août 24, 2018, 1:00 pm

We are looking into what (if anything) we can license. Right now (as noted above), Freedom to Spend offers the album on vinyl, on CD, and as a digital download ($8.99 on iTunes).

But it seems the entire album is also available to stream for free on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/2SqMNBICFMW65sTgFRnOAq (log in required).

-- David

8Truett
Sep 1, 2018, 9:15 pm

ANOTHER QUESTION about ALWAYS COMING HOME for DCloyce Smith:

"Locus", a magazine that strives to be the center of info regarding all things science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction/nonfiction/film/media-related, has a listing for two LOA books by LeGuin in Feburary 2019.

ALWAYS COMING HOME, and...DANGEROUS PEOPLE.
Given that LeGuin expanded (and completed) the length of that "novel by one of the Kesh" -- which is found in the body of ALWAYS COMING HOME -- for publication in 2019, did LOA decide to publish a separate edition of DANGEROUS PEOPLE? Just asking, because I know that quite often the pre-publication info offered up in "Locus" magazine can change or (cough) be outright wrong.

9Podras.
Sep 2, 2018, 1:47 pm

>8 Truett: A check with Amazon shows Dangerous People, coming Feb. 5, 2019, as a discrete publication from LOA in Kindle format, so Amazon agrees with Locus. Though I haven't seen many announcements from LOA about Kindle editions of their publications (haven't been looking either), I've occasionally spotted Kindle books from them that contain a work that was originally a subset of a main series volume. LOA has done the same thing with paperback editions for years.

10elenchus
Sep 4, 2018, 10:29 am

>9 Podras.:

And there have been various eBook extractions from other LOA volumes, too. I suspect Dangerous People is an extraction from the Always Coming Home volume, though this begs the question of whether the expanded version of Dangerous People is included here.

I've not read either title. When Le Guin expanded / completed the text, when was that? Was the expanded text published separately from the novel, or did she revise the full novel including the Dangerous People portion of it?

11Dr_Flanders
Sep 4, 2018, 12:31 pm

I found the following text on Amazon's description on their presale page.

"...the original text of the novel is supplemented in this definitive new edition with never-before-published additional texts Le Guin 'translated' from the Kesh just before her death, including for the first time the complete text of the short novel-within-a-novel, Dangerous People. Also here are 100 pages of Le Guin's essays on the extraordinary composition of Always Coming Home, and all 100 of Margaret Chodos's original drawings."

I take this to mean that the revisions and expansions including the full text of Dangerous People will see their first publication in the upcoming LOA volume.

12Podras.
Sep 4, 2018, 12:48 pm

>10 elenchus: This is from LOA's announcement about the volume:
"This fourth volume in the Library of America edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s work presents her most ambitious novel, Always Coming Home (1985), in a newly expanded version prepared with Le Guin shortly before her death earlier this year. ... It is presented here with sixty-five pages of never-before-published additional material, including the complete novel-within-a-novel Dangerous People, ..."
It seems most likely that with Le Guin's assistance, LOA is including material original written for Always Coming Home that, for whatever reason, wasn't in the previously published version versus being newly written material.

David?

13DCloyceSmith
Sep 4, 2018, 2:34 pm

When Le Guin went through her files while preparing for the LOA volume, she remembered that she had written (and kept) a complete manuscript for Dangerous People, even though she decided to include only an excerpt in "Always Coming Home."

So she agreed to let us include the entire novella (Dangerous People) as an appendix to our edition of Always Coming Home. After further discussion, we agreed to issue Dangerous People separately, as a e-book.

--David

14Podras.
Sep 5, 2018, 1:58 pm

>13 DCloyceSmith: Thanks David. That clears things up nice.