Wallowing in summer + recent reading

[luzula]

I've spent a week at an activist tree climbing camp in the south of Sweden, and now I'm up north doing a botany inventory. I love that it's summer and I get to spend all day being outside doing physical stuff. I love using my brain to figure out the best way to solve a climbing problem. And I love improving my botany skills and contributing to science. In short: I am happy.

***

A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Reread, though it's been a long time and I've only read them in Swedish before. I found them gripping and not at all tarnished by the suck fairy (not that I would've expected that from Le Guin). That said, there are things here I didn't notice when I was younger--I can see why Le Guin wanted to revisit this world with feminist glasses on. Not just the obvious of all wizards being men--it struck me that the masters of Roke are shown as wise men in accord, but in Atuan there's infighting and power struggles among the leading priestesses. Also, the monarchism grated on me a bit. I dunno, perhaps I'm taking this too literally? Maybe I should go and reread Jo Walton's thoughts on seeing monarchy in fantasy as saying something about family writ large. Anyway. I would've liked to see some of Le Guin's anarchism, is what I'm saying. *craves anarchist fantasy books*

It's interesting how Lebannen's feelings for Ged are described as "falling in love", "romantic". Why does she choose those words, which are usually reserved for other kinds of relationships? *ponders*

An incomplete list of things I enjoy about the books:
- the idea of language/words as magic
- the language used in the books themselves
- the way that magic isn't a grand system that is the same everywhere, but varies from place to place
- the resolution of the first book
- Arha's underground world, the way that she's circumscribed and yet free in some ways.

On to Tehanu, I guess! It'll be interesting to read all these books in one go.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

The Earthsea books really do hold up very well, and as her idea of the world changed the longer she explored it, there are some incredibly interesting additions and changes to the whole setup that dovetail very neatly with the first three books, yet add so many new dimensions.

I can heartily recommend all the books, including the new collections of short stories and a novella that came out just a few years ago.

Tehanu is fanTASTIC and so is The Other Wind. The Other Wind could have been twice as long; it's a master class in condensing an epic plot into just the critical scenes and arcs. I seriously would have read an expanded version, no question.

I love these books so much. I read them for the first time at about age 11 and they have stayed with me ever since. I really want a poster sized map of the Archipelago! I should go looking for one.

My 15-year-old, who is a huge fantasy fan, devoured them all and was so very sad there were no more books in the series. He really slowed down for the final volume to prolong the wonder.

All Le Guin's work is fantastic. If you haven't read her anarchist SF novel yet, you are in for a treat. But you probably know it.

Thanks for the post.

[skygiants]

Thanks for reminding me that I've been meaning to reread this books for numerous years!

[espresso_addict]

I didn't like Tehanu when I first read it (when it first came out), and I still think it's a rather difficult novel -- for me, it made the sexist message of the earlier books (which I hadn't particularly noticed as a child) overt, without doing anything significant about it. I love the works collected in Tales from Earthsea, particularly for the darker, more complex view of Roke. Very interested to read what you think of them on reread in order.

ETA: On the monarchism, I consider the original trilogy to be a response/critique/rewriting of The Lord of the Rings, so I think that's where she's coming from with the return of the king.

[isis]

Sounds like the ideal summer!

[kabal42]

Oh that sounds like a lovely summer!

And you are making me want to reread the Earthsea books now :) (I've only ever read them in Danish!)

[luzula]

I've read all the books before, but at long intervals, so it's interesting reading them all at once, especially because of the changes in her view of the world.

(And yes, I love her anarchist SF!)

[luzula]

Glad to remind you! It's hard to find a good balance between rereading books and reading new books--if I reread a book I know I'll love it, but OTOH I could discover something new when I read new books. I think I'm doing less rereading now than when I was younger--I think I'm more aware now of just how many potentially good books there are that I haven't read.

[luzula]

I read Tehanu too young--I was all "ew, they're having sex!". So it'll be interesting to see what I think of it as an adult.

I dunno, "rewriting" of LotR seems a bit strong to me. But I'll think about that further...I guess I could see the resolution of the first book as a critique of the "evil has to be destroyed" theme in LotR.

[luzula]

It is! And now I have a few inbetween days when I have nothing planned. *ponders what to do* I think I'll take the bus up to the mountains.

[luzula]

Oh, it is!

They are lovely in English--I love Le Guin's language.

[espresso_addict]

I guess I could see the resolution of the first book as a critique of the "evil has to be destroyed" theme in LotR.

Yes. And Tehanu is all about Ged never getting his magic back and learning to live as an ordinary human, while Frodo gets to sail away into the dimension of the gods to be healed.

I used to have a long list of parallels/antiparallels between the series, but I lost it a few computers back. A couple that stuck: the Ring of Erreth-Akbe being remade not destroyed; Lebannen carrying Ged over the mountains of Pain, like Sam carrying Frodo in Mordor. And surely using tolk for rock/pebble, as one of the first words Ged teaches Tenar, has got to be pointing up an influence?

[dragonfly]

LOVE the Earthsea books. I love that most of the main characters (Arha excepted) have dark skin and the whit-skinned race are the sort-of bad guys.

The Tombs of Atuan haunted my teenage years. (Alongside the Deryni books by Katherine Kurtz, but that's another story. Er, literally.)

[luzula]

I think the dark-skinned-ness passed me by as a kid--I can't remember if I didn't notice, or if I noticed and didn't think about it. Hmm. I did notice it now.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, as a kid I'm not sure I noticed. There wasn't much visual about the reading experience. Since then, though, I read an interview with LeGuin where she said her choices of skin color were a deliberate attempt to be subversive. She complained that when the books were made into a mini-series, they ignored that, and, as she said, they cast "some honky" to play Ged.

[desireearmfeldt]

While on vacation this week I read The Left Hand of Darkness for the first time, and was struck by how she likely might have used different conventions for conveying what she was trying to convey (the monosexual alien describing the bi/hermaphroditic culture) if she were writing it today. (I feel like I read her writing about that idea somewhere, probably in the intro to some other book.)

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you saw this link to the effects of global warming on the glaciers at Mt. Rainier (http://www.thenewstribune.com/static/pages/rainier/) so I'll impose it on you in a comment just for the heck of it.

I keep wishing someone would put lines up into my oak trees; this time of year there's all sorts of sound and movement up there and I'd love a way to get a better look.

Julia, glad ytou're doing what you find fulfilling, still.

[luzula]

Yeah, I've read her saying that, too--I can't remember where. Would you be interested in my long Yuletide story for The Left Hand of Darkness? : )

[desireearmfeldt]

I'll put it on my list of "Things To Think About...Later" -- i.e. when I'm slightly less squashed by deadline. :)

(Unlike you, I'm usually an instant-gratification reader; I have a really hard time shelving interesting-looking fiction for later. My stack of unread interesting-looking non-fiction, on the other hand, is...depressingly large and stationary.)

[luzula]

*opens in tab* Thanks!

I bet the canopies of your oak trees would be fascinating. I found lichens up in the oak trees that I climbed which I've never seen from the ground.

I've seen your recent posts but didn't get around to commenting--I wish you the best, weather-wise and otherwise.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

It's finally cooled down, so my brain is working a bit more reliably, but we had four days when the smoke from the BC fires rolled down and filled the whole Puget Sound basin and everything still reeks of burning balsam fir.

I has my sister and BIL let the cattle down the hill last night, so I'm going out to whack back the big roses a bit and feed the bloomed-out canes to the cattle. It was so hot and dry that the flowers dried hard on the branches, so I expect it'll be accepted as the best kind of cow candy.

Julia, and I guess one of the Thompkins King apple trees has lost half its crown from drought stress, damn.