14.i.08 FVC relating topics to ACH

LeGuin's Always Coming Home is a work of broad scope. Many of the topics identified by students as of special interest are touched upon in some way. The page references are to the U California P edition of 2001.

Mythology, certainly, is to be found here in profusion, so also primitive wilderness survival skills are at least hinted at. "Natural" medicine (see 471 ff), organic farming, and whole food cooking (437 ff) are here.

Coffee is not, but love is (see 493 to start); jazz music is not, but music in general is (see 444 ff); the creation of language is hinted at, and those interested in language should check out 494-523. While James Bond-style espionage is not a feature of ACH, surely Stone Telling's escape from the Dayao counts for something, and 377-386 is worth considering as example of information gathering and use.

Sadly, the difference between film and digital cameras -- whether film or digital is better -- is not represented in ACH; however, philosophically one could find some connections to the attitudes of the Kesh in the idea that film is better. See 314-317, for example; 168, bottom, through 172 (having read 149-153) might be useful. Video games, again, and rock music are not going to be found here. But if you ask what the FUNCTION of video games and rock music may be, you might find something to relate to in ACH. "Playing" is dealt with 480-482, and it's worth examining.

As to Dinosaurs, well... think about this in a BIG way: what can we know about dinosaurs, really? We can extrapolate about their lives through analogy. We may suppose (sometimes quite wrongly -- think of misinterpretations of oviraptor behavior) based upon fossil evidence this or that about dinosaurs, but truthfully we must confess ignorance on many basic points. What LeGuin points out about the difficulties and possibilities of imagination of the future are just as applicable to the study of dinosaurs, which while not ultimately (I think) imaginary, are still very much imaginary beings to us today.

Yellowstone is of interest as the first national park on Earth (1872; formal opening 1890); the notion of control of land, whether by and individual or a community, is touched upon at a number of points in ACH, beginning on 3: "what on earth did they need a wall for?" See 33 ff, the discussion of the location of the bridge. The Serpentine Codex might be worth a look.

When we consider the importance of Israel, again, if we think BIG we might find some connection to the material in ACH. Incidentally, a great treatment of the concept of Israel (as Land, as People, as Law, as God) is found in To Be A Jew by Hayim Halevy Donin (Basic, 1972). There is in this a possibility of play between the attachment to the Valley felt by Stone Telling -- the dramatic tension of her desire to discover something else, to be powerful, and to connect with her father and her desire to connect with the Valley and the culture of the people there -- and the monotheism of the Dayao (Condor people). The Dayao, to me, are reminiscent of desert peoples of Arabia and Syria, like the Arabs and the Jews.

Music's effect on people -- well, there is certainly material here in ACH. The descriptions of the Wakwa (especially of the Moon 242 ff) offer examples. The discussion of Kesh musical instruments (444 ff) is useful as well. While ACH won't give a history of Anarchism (I don't think you'll see anything about the Paris Commune or the Wobblies), it does present some problems anarchists should be thinking of. For example, how can an essentially anarchistic community (see 33 ff for example of the "anarchism" of the Valley) defend itself against a directed, technologically superior assault (see 352 ff, for example)?

Some of the concerns of existentialism versus nihilism I think are explored in the section "How to Die in the Valley", but also in the romantic tale "The Brave Man", in "The Third Child's Story" (275 ff) and "The Visionary" (282 ff).

The Kesh approach to sexuality, marriage, and gender relations may be described as "utopian", although it seems to me to be fairly much in keeping with those observed in actual "primitive" societies. "Gay bashing homophobes" would not do well amongst the Kesh. Consider, for example, the description of Obsidian of Ounmalin on p 35. See also "Kinfolk" in The Back of the Book.

Abortion is mentioned at several points in ACH (notably 349; see also "Some Notes on Medical Practices" in The Back of the Book).

While our terms punk, goth, emo, chic, and so on are not present in ACH, LeGuin does offer some discussion of social labelling and sub-cultural groups (the Lamb Lodge and the Warriors being the chief among them in ACH). See especially 184 ff and Stone Telling's reflections upon the culture of the Dayao in the third section of the novel.

For martial arts there is very little directly; maybe 14: Corruption's use of the paddle.