LeGuin

[vaneramos]

Two quotes from The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. LeGuin:

The Earth is beautiful, and bright, and kindly, but that is not all. The Earth is also terrible, and dark, and cruel. The rabbit shrieks dying in the green meadows. The mountains clench their great hands full of hidden fire. There are sharks in the sea; and there is cruelty in men's eyes. And where men worship these things and abase themselves before them, there evil breeds.

Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upwards towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.

Comments

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this quote. I love Ursula. Hope I can get round to the library at some point to check out a copy of A Wizard of Earthsea; sounds like the perfect reading for the season. I remember Tombs as a more intense book, at times positively gloomy.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

The austere religious order and the labyrinth create a dark and brooding atmosphere. I didn't find the book depressing though. The writing style is more personal. I appreciated how Tenar/Ahra had difficulty facing her freedom after she left the Place of the Tombs. It reminded me of my own emotional and spiritual journey since coming out of the closet and abandoning fundamentalist Christianity. LeGuin avoided simplistic idealism.

favorite authors

[queenmomcat.livejournal.com]

LeGuin is one of my favorite authors, and the Earthsea books in particular, not least because she created a world in which non-whites are the civilized donimant cultures...but never made a big deal of color.

Just to make me crazy, my mom dropped a bombshell on me the last time we were out in Portland: "OH! I didn't know you liked LeGuin's work...did you know [family friend of many years] is quite good friends with her? Maybe we could prevail upon [family friend] to invite her over for tea the next time you visit.

Re: favorite authors

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

That's awesome, she's one of my favourites, too. I'm rereading the Earthsea Trilogy for the first time in many years.

Re: favorite authors

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I'm rereading the Earthsea Trilogy for the first time in many years.

I did that last year[1], to refresh my memory before reading Tales of Earthsea and The Other Wind. If I had control over life and death, I'd arrange for LeGuin to live (and write) forever.


[1] I had to get The Farthest Shore and Tehanu[2] out of the library, because I couldn't find my copies. Tehanu turned up in Gloucester, but to this day I have not succeeded in finding my copy of The Farthest Shore, and I don't understand why it wasn't with the first two.

[2] Interesting that we still refer to the "Earthsea Trilogy" even though there are more than three books. Or did you mean that you were only intending to read the original three?

Re: favorite authors

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I read Tehanu much more recently than the original trilogy, but still a few years ago and I don't remember it at all. I see it's still on my shelf. Maybe I'll reread it, too. The others I have never read.

Re: favorite authors

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend them. And you'll be all primed -- you won't have to go back and read the old books to refresh your memory. It's really interesting to see what she's "learned" about Earthsea in the last decade or two.

The stories in Tales from Earthsea illuminate the world from a number of different angles, including an account of how the school on Roke came to exist. The Other Wind tells us new and remarkable things about the "land of the dead", not to mention dragons.

[lotuspoet.livejournal.com]

I read that whole series...I love Ursula!!! Did you know that she is a Taoist and translated the Tao Te Ching? And have you ever read The Left hand of Darkness?

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

The Left Hand of Darkness was an amazing, visionary book. Back in the early Eighties, I stumbled upon a small book of short stories by her, The Compass Rose. I still remember being deeply moved by one... I believe Atlantis was in the title... that, looking back, seems prophetic of the times in which we live now.

[vaneramos.livejournal.com]

I read The Left Hand of Darkness when I was a teenager, but have forgotten it entirely. Time for a reread, if I can get my hands on a copy.

I don't know much about Taoism except from a little discussion on a message board more than a year ago, but it sounds like an interesting philosophy.