Paradises Lost

Paradises Lost is a novella by Ursula K. Le Guin. It was originally published in her collection 2002 The Birthday of the World and Other Stories. 'Paradises Lost' is a generation ship story.

In the forward of the collection, Le Guin writes of the story's genesis:

I always wanted to write about people who truly lived out the journey, the middle generations knowing neither departure nor arrival. I tried several times. I never could get the story, until a religious theme began to entwine itself with the idea of the sealed ship in the dead vacuum of space, like a cocoon, full of transformation, transmutation, invisible life: the pupa body, the winged soul. ^[1]

Publications

• ↑ The Birthday of the World and Other Stories (2002)

Adaptations

'Paradises Lost' is being adapted into an opera by Stephen Andrew Taylor^[2]. Extracts were first performed in 2006 by the University of Illinois New Music Ensemble; further extracts have been performed at the New York City Opera festival in 2006, by American Opera Projects in 2007, with further instrumental extracts premiered in 2008^[3].

External links

• Review: Paradises Lost by Ursula Le Guin by Jing Heng Fong
• ↑ [http://www.stephenandrewtaylor.net/paradiseslost.html Paradises Lost}} the opera
• ↑ Stephen Andrew Taylor - list of works
• Excerpts from The Birthday of the World