Perth’s Queer Book Club has picked The Dispossessed by legendary writer Ursula K. Le Guin as their book of the month for May.
The sci-fi book is one of only three titles to win the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards, three of the top accolades in speculative fiction. Released in 1974 it touches on themes of anarchism, revolution, capitalism, as well as individualism and collectivism.
The book is set in the fictional worlds of Anarres and Urras, twin planets in the Tau Ceti system where we find several different types of societies and systems of government. Each chapter of the book takes place on one of the planet, mostly the even-numbered chapters are set on Anarres, while the odd-numbered chapters share a story of what’s occurring on Urras.
Le Guin published her first work in 1959 and her career spanned more nearly sixty years. She wrote over 20 novels, hundreds of short stories, plus poetry and children’s books too. The author passed away in 2018 at the age of 88.
Perth’s Queer Book Club is an initiative of GRAI: GLBTI Rights in Ageing, and was established after years of members of Perth’s LGBTIQA+ communities expressing a desire for a book club.
Each month a group of people turns up to the discussion, and it’s a welcoming space where people aren’t compelled to speak if they don’t want to.
It starts off with everyone introducing themselves and sharing their pronouns, and everyone is asked to describe the book in just one word. Then a moderator starts the discussion with a few provocations, and you can chime in with your thoughts, or just listen to what everyone else has to say.
At the end of the session everyone rates the book using a unicorn scoring system, one unicorn means you weren’t a fan, while five unicorns shows some serious love.
The Queer Book Club will meet on Wednesday 27 May from 6.00pm at the Pride Centre in the Northbridge Piazza at 142 James Street, Northbridge.
Find out more about the group at their Facebook page.
