The Great Political Fictions: The Dispossessed

About this episode

David explores Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, discussing its themes of anarchism and political freedom in the context of historical influences.

Today’s great political fiction is a path-breaking work of science fiction: David explores Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed (1974), which imagines a world without the need for government or coercive authority. What makes this the most realistic of all utopias? How was Le Guin’s vision of anarchism shaped by nineteenth-century Russia and twentieth-century Israel? Why was her imagined version of political freedom so coloured by the Cold War? And where does Oppenheimer fit in? Out tomorrow on PPF+: a bonus episode in which David talks to Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse, about whether and how Le Guin’s vision of a stateless world matches his own. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Join us on Friday 19th June at the Regent Street Cinema in London for the final film in our current season: a screening of Never Let Me Go followed by a live podcast recording with geneticist and science writer Adam Rutherford. Tickets available now https://bit.ly/4x641XC You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes…

People in this episode

Host: David Runciman

Guest: Luke Kemp

Topics covered

• political fiction
• science fiction
• anarchism
• utopia
• Cold War
• Oppenheimer

Keywords

• Ursula Le Guin
• The Dispossessed
• anarchism
• political freedom
• Cold War
• science fiction
• utopia

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Dispossessed, Goliath’s Curse, Never Let Me Go

Places: Russia, Israel, London

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