Recent reading
Jul. 14th, 2015 06:41 pmTehanu, Tales From Earthsea, and The Other Wind, by Ursula K Le Guin
Tehanu is a difficult book, as![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
espresso_addict put it. It makes the inequality between men and women painfully visible but doesn't fix anything. It's striking that Tenar needs help/rescue from men repeatedly: from Lebannen when Handy is after her, from Ged when she's attacked at Oak Farm, from Kalessin at the end (well, okay, Kalessin isn't exactly a man, and Tehanu calls him, but still). Though Ged is often helpless as well, having lost his magery. I guess Tehanu herself is the one who points forward. I remember reading this book as a kid and being all "ewwww" when Ged and Tenar had sex. *g* That did not happen this time around--I liked their relationship.
Tales From Earthsea is much more...retconny, almost. I mean, there's lesbian witch marriages, locally democratic village/island organizing, and Roke being founded by mostly women. Or if you want to be more generous, you could say that the first trilogy doesn't say that these things don't exist, it's just that it didn't see them. But I thoroughly enjoyed it! I enjoyed The Other Wind as well. Lebannen/Seserakh didn't get the space it needed for me to really feel it would work, but then it's not the main thread of the story. I do like the resolution, though I'm curious as to how magic and names will work now. I'd love to read more about that.
Tehanu is a difficult book, as
espresso_addict put it. It makes the inequality between men and women painfully visible but doesn't fix anything. It's striking that Tenar needs help/rescue from men repeatedly: from Lebannen when Handy is after her, from Ged when she's attacked at Oak Farm, from Kalessin at the end (well, okay, Kalessin isn't exactly a man, and Tehanu calls him, but still). Though Ged is often helpless as well, having lost his magery. I guess Tehanu herself is the one who points forward. I remember reading this book as a kid and being all "ewwww" when Ged and Tenar had sex. *g* That did not happen this time around--I liked their relationship. Tales From Earthsea is much more...retconny, almost. I mean, there's lesbian witch marriages, locally democratic village/island organizing, and Roke being founded by mostly women. Or if you want to be more generous, you could say that the first trilogy doesn't say that these things don't exist, it's just that it didn't see them. But I thoroughly enjoyed it! I enjoyed The Other Wind as well. Lebannen/Seserakh didn't get the space it needed for me to really feel it would work, but then it's not the main thread of the story. I do like the resolution, though I'm curious as to how magic and names will work now. I'd love to read more about that.
