Carrier Bag Theory
A reframing of what stories are for, proposed by Ursula K. Le Guin in her 1986 essay “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction.”
The Argument
The dominant story of humanity is the Hero narrative: a man with a weapon goes out, kills something big, and returns triumphant. The spear, the arrow, the sword — these are the tools that matter. The story has a clear arc: departure, confrontation, victory, return.
Le Guin proposes an alternative origin story. Before the spear, there was the bag. The basket. The sling. The container that lets you carry more than your hands can hold.
“We’ve heard it, we’ve all heard all about all the sticks and spears and swords… But we have not heard about the thing to put things in, the container for the thing contained.”
The gatherer’s work is different from the hunter’s. It’s accumulation, not conquest. Arrangement, not domination. The story doesn’t climax — it accretes.
Why It Matters
The Hero narrative shapes how we think about:
- Problems — as enemies to defeat
- Solutions — as weapons to wield
- Progress — as a journey toward triumph
- Technology — as tools of power
Carrier bag thinking suggests:
- Problems — as conditions to navigate
- Solutions — as containers to hold complexity
- Progress — as accumulation of useful things
- Technology — as vessels for gathering
At Thistlebridge
The documentation system is a carrier bag. Voice notes, observations, photos — fragments gathered without knowing which will prove useful.
The knowledge base is a carrier bag. Ideas collected, connected, rearranged.
This arboretum is a carrier bag. Seeds from different places, planted together, growing into something unpredictable.
The project itself refuses hero narrative. There’s no quest, no enemy, no triumphant conclusion. Just patient gathering of what might work.
The Full Quote
“It is a strange realism, but it is a strange reality.”
Connections
- Ursula K. Le Guin — originator
- appropriate-technology — tools as containers, not weapons
- selective-technology — choosing what to gather
- mutual-aid — collective gathering vs. individual conquest
Source
“The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” (1986), collected in Dancing at the Edge of the World (1989)