Changing Planes

Lighter than most Le Guin I’ve read, Changing Planes is a Gulliver’s Travels for the present era, the social satire made possible through interdimensional travel. (When you’re stuck in a dismal airport between planes, well, you’re already between planes, right?)

Some chapters are told first person as the narrator explores a new reality (sometimes sticking to the tourist spots, sometimes going off the beaten path). Others read more like magazine articles or encyclopedia entries. Still others mix first- and second-hand accounts with the narrator’s reactions to them.

There’s a lot of whimsy, humor and sarcasm. It’s not particularly deep (especially compared to her major works), but it does give you a lot to think about.

(Cross-posted from my website.)

An amusing set of shorts based on the conceit of being able to change planes in airports...planes of existence that is. Many of these are more by way of reports on the cultures of strange and alien lands and peoples than conventional narratives, but the doses of amusing satire prevent them becoming dull, and this sort of thing plays to Le Guin's strengths, what with her family background in anthropology and all.