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Prediction is the business of prophets, clairvoyants, and futurologists. It is not the business of novelists. A novelist__ business is lying. The weather bureau will tell you what next Tuesday will be like, and the Rand Corporation will tell you what the twenty-first century will be like. I don__ recommend that you turn to the writers of fiction for such information. It__ none of their business. All they__e trying to do is tell you what they__e like, and what you__e like -- what__ going on -- what the weather is now, today, this moment, the rain, the sunlight, look! Open your eyes; listen, listen. That is what the novelists say. But they don__ tell you what you will see and hear. All they can tell you is what they have seen and heard, in their time in this world, a third of it spent in sleep and dreaming another third of it spent in telling lies. [Introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness]
Ursula K. Le Guin The Left Hand of Darkness
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Prediction is the business of prophets, clairvoyants, and futurologists. It is not the business of novelists. A novelist__ business is lying. The weather bureau will tell you what next Tuesday will be like, and the Rand Corporation will tell you what the twenty-first century will be like. I don__ recommend that you turn to the writers of fiction for such information. It__ none of their business. All they__e trying to do is tell you what they__e like, and what you__e like -- what__ going on -- what the weather is now, today, this moment, the rain, the sunlight, look! Open your eyes; listen, listen. That is what the novelists say. But they don__ tell you what you will see and hear. All they can tell you is what they have seen and heard, in their time in this world, a third of it spent in sleep and dreaming another third of it spent in telling lies. [Introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness]
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Ursula K. Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness

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