reading the first earthsea book and a little sad to see that every woman of magic so far is ignorant, somewhat malicious, foolish or evil/antagonist with the explicit connotation of seductress (enchantress).
and the fact that apparently wizards can only be men.
i mean it’s classic. but it’s exactly what terry pratchett made fun of - and fucking rightly so. it’s hard to not get angry at actually. it’s hard to distance myself from and just enjoy the story
a witch is always an amateur, a petty creature, only a wizard can be great. but only boys are admitted to the wizard school....and any woman in these halls are looked at disapprovingly, even being OF a mage (ofmage eh margaret)
and the absolute sheer focus on the male sphere, the fathers, the son, the friends as brothers, the dragon father and the eight dragon sons - their mother gone but not just gone - irrelevant.
Duny’s name, given to him by his mother, supplanted to make him a Man.
creating a man’s world is one thing - but there is no interest in seeing beyond it. i suppose it makes things uncomplicated. but it’s been 15 years since i could go along with such a thing
i wondered how Ged would be brought to face the consequences of his thirst for power - good thing that it happened early huh
annnnnd woman number two who tries to use him by ‘seducing’ him (though likely it is the same woman). jfc ursula k le guin every woman (i.e. just the one) is either weak or tainted - powerful but cruel and fearful of her husband, trembling and shrieking - and dead
honestly what the hell was Ogion thinking, keeping Ged from the wizard’s school at all though??
the narrative distance is so extreme, the narration so removed from the character that i can feel nothing for Ged losing the Ostak....
this book isn’t at all foul like dragonriders of pern. but it is classic, it is so classic, it is too classic for me now. it actually becomes harder to care for the main character the longer the story goes on. his heroic deeds read like nothings, smoke in the wind. his flaws are washed away by experience. his heart somehow kind and true now that his lust for power has been burned from him. his relationships don’t really mean anything to me - the text only speaks OF his conversations, his play, his love. we never get to see it. even the magic is sparse, the weaving of it described less intricately than in Eragon!
and there is no true connection between Ged and anyone, it seems. he is just driven forth relentlessly by this destiny. he is separated from others by it and it still does not bother him one bit.
where is that lesson that a wizard should not use their magic lightly from the beginning? (for which the witch was so FOOLISH) he trades his magic for anything, he helps people out all the time, he uses it to travel ?? and then suddenly he can barely keep himself from drowning? why can’t he ask the wave to lift him up and deposit him on the beach? the rules are much too murky and unlimited
i like that everybody is black and brown but it’s too bad that bad magic is still dark.
and every time Ged does a hard thing, and it almost kills him, and another hard thing....and the going keeps going. i know le guin is known as a giant but i find her writing so tedious.
and she must have created so many songs and so many peoples and so many myths - but they are mentioned ONLY in passing her book! as flavour!!! flavour is good, but goddamn! tell me about the myths that you’ve clearly created to be the basis of this damn world!!! how else can i understand it truly?? now everything runs together like so many medieval villages and lords and empires....
anyway i couldnt read much further on than the start of the last chapter due to getting cut off but i know the book continues on in just the same way. my god
anyway i still enjoyed it mostly and there is a richness of description, and vision. but none of that touched me in the slightest. just like the left hand of darkness, it seems like pure rote.