Dancing at the Edge of the World is a 1989 nonfiction collection by Ursula K. Le Guin.
The works are divided into two categories: talks and essays, and book and movie reviews. Within the categories, the works are organized chronologically, and are further marked by what Le Guin calls the Guide Ursuline -- a system of symbols denoting the main theme of the works. The four themes with which she categorizes the essays are feminism, social responsibility, literature and travel.
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Famous quotes containing the words the world, dancing, edge and/or world:
“In the course of the world, a man must very often put on an easy, frank countenance, upon very disagreeable occasions; he must seem pleased, when he is very much otherwise; he must be able to accost and receive with smiles, those whom he would much rather meet with swords.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Our culture, therefore, must not omit the arming of the man. Let him hear in season, that he is born into the state of war, and that the commonwealth and his own well-being require that he should not go dancing in the weeds of peace, but warned, self- collected, and neither defying nor dreading the thunder, let him take both reputation and life in his hand, and, with perfect urbanity, dare the gibbet and the mob by the absolute truth of his speech, and the rectitude of his behaviour.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“A lonely man is a lonesome thing, a stone, a bone, a stick, a receptacle for Gilbey’s gin, a stooped figure sitting at the edge of a hotel bed, heaving copious sighs like the autumn wind.”
—John Cheever (1912–1982)
“The principle of avoiding the unnecessary expenditure of energy has enabled the species to survive in a world full of stimuli; but it prevents the survival of the aristocracy.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)