Exploring Ursula K. Le Guin's Cartographic Imagination
A new publication and accompanying exhibition cast a spotlight on the extensive collection of hand-drawn maps created by the renowned science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin. Housed within her archive at the University of Oregon, these cartographic works range from simple sketches on standard paper to intricate compositions spanning multiple sheets. While incorporating familiar elements such as compass roses, mountains, and rivers, Le Guin's maps transcend traditional geography by integrating mythical symbols, including instructions for drawing dragons and valleys defined by the placement of magical artifacts.
Inspired by these captivating maps, Sarah Shin and co-editor So Mayer have brought forth 'The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K Le Guin.' Scheduled for publication in 2025 by Silver Press and AA Publications, this book was developed in conjunction with a 2025 exhibition at the AA School in London. The project illuminates Le Guin's cartographic ponderings, employing her maps as a starting point for a broader inquiry into the nature of maps and their implications for our understanding of the world. Through contributions from philosophers, poets, and Le Guin's own son, the work explores the intricate connection between internal and external realities.
Shin, in an interview with designboom, expressed her long-standing admiration for Le Guin, citing a profound impact from reading 'The Dispossessed' during her youth. She highlighted Le Guin's unique approach to world-building, emphasizing how the author crafted settings that allowed for the exploration of concepts governed by the internal logic of those worlds, rather than being constrained by real-world conventions like patriarchy. This artistic freedom, Shin noted, is a key aspect of Le Guin's enduring appeal.
The title of the book, 'The Word for World,' is derived from Le Guin's 1972 novel, 'The Word for World Is Forest,' which explores the colonization of the Athshean people. Shin explained that in Athshean culture, the terms for 'forest' and 'world' are synonymous, reflecting a deep psycho-cosmological connection between the landscape and the psyche. This relationship between external environments and internal experience is a recurring theme throughout Le Guin's literary works.
This profound interplay between mapping and territory, between depiction and actuality, forms the central theme of 'The Word for World.' Theo Downes-Le Guin, in his essay 'The Geography of Imagination,' explores his mother's nuanced perspective on abstraction. Shin elaborated on this, suggesting that Le Guin viewed abstraction with suspicion when it served capitalistic and profit-driven motives. She aimed to dismantle the rational mindset that reduces everything to quantifiable measurements, as evidenced in her essay 'A Non-Euclidean View of California as a Cold Place to Be.' In contrast, Le Guin's maps adopted different metrics for scale, particularly illustrated by her talismanic map, which embodies her unique philosophical direction. This approach re-establishes the connection between reality and its representation, a bond often severed by conventional abstraction, by allowing landforms to dictate the axes of her maps.
Downes-Le Guin ultimately views his mother's map-making as a form of imaginative expression, acknowledging the necessary informational gaps inherent in such creations. He noted that cartography was a symbolic abstraction that resonated with her. Shin reflected on how studying these maps unveiled a lesser-known aspect of Le Guin's creative process, a cherished hobby. She drew parallels between Le Guin's view of writing as a form of translation—seeking an original text—and her map-making, which served to visualize underlying ideas, like "the deep sea where ideas swim."
The collected works in the book reveal a new dimension of Le Guin's artistic endeavors, showcasing a terrain where her imaginative concepts were actively developed and explored. Shin emphasized the role of dreams in these maps, acting as a counterpoint to the logical function typically associated with cartography. This fusion of conscious and unconscious thought, made visible through the maps, also highlights what remains unseen, underscoring the fluidity, transformation, and natural essence that define Le Guin's worlds, where even a dream or narrative can function as a map.