13. Lao TzuTao Te Ching (translated by Ursula K. Le Guin)

My husband saw this on a list of books compiled by the electronic musician Laurel Halo. We don’t know who wrote Tao Te Ching. It’s supposed to be a man in ancient China, but nobody really knows. I like the mystery. I tried other translations out of curiosity and they didn’t speak to me as much. Le Guin made it non-binary, which is a breakthrough. She really narrows it down to the essence.

I wrote the last song on the album, ‘Unknowing’, before starting to think about City Of Clowns as an album and before reading Surveillance Capitalism, but the song’s title is a reference to the Tao. Le Guin translated a chapter as “Unknowing”. You could also say “unlearning”. And that’s what Unknowing is about: unlearning, to come back to your own self.