The Language of the Night

The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction is a collection of essays written by Ursula K. Le Guin. Susan Wood edited the book. It was first published in 1979. A new and different edition was published in 1992. The 24 essays in the book come from many sources, including journals, book introductions, and award-acceptance speeches. Le Guin was well known as a fantasy and science fiction author. But her criticism was not easy to find before this collection. "The Language of the Night" has [Le Guin]'s most important ideas about writing. It is about topics such as Americans' attitudes towards fantasy fiction, the strengths and weaknesses of science fiction, and how children's literature is special. She also discusses the background of her major works such as "A Wizard of Earthsea" and "The Left Hand of Darkness". However, some critics complained that "The Language of the Night" has both more important and less important writing. The collection was nominated for a Hugo for Best Related Non-Fiction Book category in 1980. The title comes from Le Guin's description of fantasy literature. She said, "We like to think we live in daylight, but half the world is always dark; and fantasy, like poetry, speaks the language of the night."