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katsarisPlayed enough Yahoo! Chess to boost my rating up to the high 1400s, where it had been a while ago, though whenever I play when sleepy it has the tendency to fall to the low 1400s or even mid-1300s. Also played enough Yahoo! Go to know that I still suck at it. :-)
Anyway, here's with the first book review:
A while back, in an earlier post I had said about Ursula Le Guin's earthesea stories:
And so it was, though I now think I'd describe it a bit different. It was all about Ursula Le Guin building grander and grander pictures and leaving the little details uncarved. It seemed to me as if she felt she always had to outdid the scope of what she had written previously:
- The first Earthsea story, "A Wizard of Earthsea" was a story about a young man and his personal nemesis. Kingdoms and powers and dragons and empires all intervened, but those were incidental to that basic story.
- The second story (and my personal favourite), "The Tombs of Atuan" -- in which Ursula Le Guin seems to want to write about priesthoods and a ring that will restore peace to the kingdoms and so forth -- See? The scope's increasing. But the ring's still just a gimmick, the core of the story is still just two people, Ged and Tenar, and the "ring of peace" (or whatever) is nicely ignorable except as a plot device mentioned a couple times: and that's why that story is my favourite one.
- In the third story, it feels as if she wants to outdo herself again with the scope of what's at stake. Now the question is a matter of life and death about the whole of humanity everywhere and the whole of magic everywhere, indeed it's a question about the nature of death itself.
- In the fourth story, "Tehanu", Le Guin finds that questioning death and life itself isn't enough, so she writes a story about the nature of humankind and dragonkind, and mankind and womankind.
It was kinda ... exponential this tactic. But like going from 1 to 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 to 32, you kinda start wondering, what about 3, 5, 6, 10, 14 and 27? Don't they count for anything? Pun not intended.
The nature of names, and the gender politics that are only aggravatingly only dealt with in the last story (and there they feel just a tad heavy-handed), and magic, and dragonkind... They all felt to me touched-upon, not delved into. Their lack was a hole in my understanding (and thus enjoyment) of the universe.
It wasn't even like what Tolkien did with the First Age background he occasionally sprinkled throughout his Third Age stories. That was done in a different way: When first reading Lord of the Rings we may not have had a clear idea of what Valinor was or who was Beren, but we did get a pretty good idea of what Rohan and Gondor and the Shire were in the Third Age.
Anyway -- the point I'm reaching is this: the things I felt I'd been missing from Earthsea, the things that I saw as holes in the fabric of that universe, the things that were lacking to make that world seem real -- I found them all in a collection of Earthsea short stories by Le Guin, "Tales from Earthsea".
The origin and nature of the School at Roke -- there. Stories involving names (using them, tricking people out of them, being dissatisfied with them) -- there. Gender and sexual politics -- there, and in a natural style, not the random discussions of Tehanu. The Old Powers -- there. And most of the stories being small and *personal* stories about people, not about one earth-shaking event after nature (though ha! there's a story about a *literally* earth-shaking event :-).
There was even one significant plot discrepancy between Tehanu and the previous story (concerning the Summoner, and whether he returned from death or not) that was patched up in one of the stories.
And all of the stories -- lovely and beautiful. Even the appendices were lovely.
*g* All the things that I'd felt to be not-delved-enough in the first four Earthsea stories, now I feel them completed -- except one, namely more things about dragons, and I have every reason to believe this'll be hugely the topic of the new book of Ursula Le Guin "The Other Wind".
This whole commentary was written when half-asleep, so if any sentence doesn't make sense you'll have to forgive me for it, until I see it and correct it tomorrow. Cheers.
Anyway, here's with the first book review:
A while back, in an earlier post I had said about Ursula Le Guin's earthesea stories:
My impression of it, and my first impression of Ursula Le Guin's plotting as a whole: A crescendo who's climax falls just a tiny bit short. The most interesting elements of the story are the ones she never really delves into. In Earthsea, I'd like us to see a bit more about the nature of names, about dragons. About the ways of magic itself -- but it largely remained in the background. The story tells us that there are many ways for wizards to discover names, but we're not told even one, even though Ged exhibits the power. Dragons appear at times but even at the end we know little about them and what 4makes them tick. Vaguely disappointing.
And so it was, though I now think I'd describe it a bit different. It was all about Ursula Le Guin building grander and grander pictures and leaving the little details uncarved. It seemed to me as if she felt she always had to outdid the scope of what she had written previously:
- The first Earthsea story, "A Wizard of Earthsea" was a story about a young man and his personal nemesis. Kingdoms and powers and dragons and empires all intervened, but those were incidental to that basic story.
- The second story (and my personal favourite), "The Tombs of Atuan" -- in which Ursula Le Guin seems to want to write about priesthoods and a ring that will restore peace to the kingdoms and so forth -- See? The scope's increasing. But the ring's still just a gimmick, the core of the story is still just two people, Ged and Tenar, and the "ring of peace" (or whatever) is nicely ignorable except as a plot device mentioned a couple times: and that's why that story is my favourite one.
- In the third story, it feels as if she wants to outdo herself again with the scope of what's at stake. Now the question is a matter of life and death about the whole of humanity everywhere and the whole of magic everywhere, indeed it's a question about the nature of death itself.
- In the fourth story, "Tehanu", Le Guin finds that questioning death and life itself isn't enough, so she writes a story about the nature of humankind and dragonkind, and mankind and womankind.
It was kinda ... exponential this tactic. But like going from 1 to 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 to 32, you kinda start wondering, what about 3, 5, 6, 10, 14 and 27? Don't they count for anything? Pun not intended.
The nature of names, and the gender politics that are only aggravatingly only dealt with in the last story (and there they feel just a tad heavy-handed), and magic, and dragonkind... They all felt to me touched-upon, not delved into. Their lack was a hole in my understanding (and thus enjoyment) of the universe.
It wasn't even like what Tolkien did with the First Age background he occasionally sprinkled throughout his Third Age stories. That was done in a different way: When first reading Lord of the Rings we may not have had a clear idea of what Valinor was or who was Beren, but we did get a pretty good idea of what Rohan and Gondor and the Shire were in the Third Age.
Anyway -- the point I'm reaching is this: the things I felt I'd been missing from Earthsea, the things that I saw as holes in the fabric of that universe, the things that were lacking to make that world seem real -- I found them all in a collection of Earthsea short stories by Le Guin, "Tales from Earthsea".
The origin and nature of the School at Roke -- there. Stories involving names (using them, tricking people out of them, being dissatisfied with them) -- there. Gender and sexual politics -- there, and in a natural style, not the random discussions of Tehanu. The Old Powers -- there. And most of the stories being small and *personal* stories about people, not about one earth-shaking event after nature (though ha! there's a story about a *literally* earth-shaking event :-).
There was even one significant plot discrepancy between Tehanu and the previous story (concerning the Summoner, and whether he returned from death or not) that was patched up in one of the stories.
And all of the stories -- lovely and beautiful. Even the appendices were lovely.
*g* All the things that I'd felt to be not-delved-enough in the first four Earthsea stories, now I feel them completed -- except one, namely more things about dragons, and I have every reason to believe this'll be hugely the topic of the new book of Ursula Le Guin "The Other Wind".
This whole commentary was written when half-asleep, so if any sentence doesn't make sense you'll have to forgive me for it, until I see it and correct it tomorrow. Cheers.
