Nothing quite so profound to say,
but I just finished Ursula Le Guin's The Tombs of Atuan, and can I say that one day I hope to be able to tell a story this 'effortlessly.'
Addendum: okay, so here are a few words of (un)wisdom. If A Wizard of Earthsea is about personal responsibility, and the pain and sacrifice that it takes to be really true to oneself, then The Tombs of Atuan is about personal freedom. I mean not in the sense of rugged individualism or libertine excess, but rather the freedom that comes from the choice of conscience. I mean the freedom not to be inhuman. Le Guin makes a point here, albeit in a story so effortlessly enjoyable as pure story that one is forgiven for not seeing the meta-text, that true freedom is the freedom to serve humanity, not to serve oneself.
Addendum: okay, so here are a few words of (un)wisdom. If A Wizard of Earthsea is about personal responsibility, and the pain and sacrifice that it takes to be really true to oneself, then The Tombs of Atuan is about personal freedom. I mean not in the sense of rugged individualism or libertine excess, but rather the freedom that comes from the choice of conscience. I mean the freedom not to be inhuman. Le Guin makes a point here, albeit in a story so effortlessly enjoyable as pure story that one is forgiven for not seeing the meta-text, that true freedom is the freedom to serve humanity, not to serve oneself.
posted by Brian Malone | 12:51 PM
1 Comments:
Tombs of Atuan is my second favorite Earthsea book. My favorite one is Tehanu...which is like Atuan but better (if you can imagine that).
I like both tombs and tehanu because they are simpler stories- not epic. Wizard of Earthsea and the Farthest Shore are epic tales with the struggles of the world in balance, and told in a high didactic Dunsany esque style.
I think Tombs and Tehanu work well because they are such personable stories- about the relationships of two characters.
Until Tombs Ged wasn't really a character to me. Just a wizard doing cool stuff. In tombs he became real and interesting and gritty.
Still haven't read the Other Wind yet, but I plan on doing it soon.
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