Tehanu: Le Guin

The fourth book in Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea "Cycle" is Tehanu. It was shelved in the Juvenile section of the library, but, after reading it, I found that it was quite a departure from the first three books and seemed like it would appeal to a much older audience. For starters, the main characters, who were teenagers in the other three books (well, not Ged, he was maybe in his thirties in the third book), are now in their forties and fifties. They repeatedly comment on what old people they are. Also, there is not nearly the amount of action there is in the first three books and the main character, the wizard and dragonlord, Ged, is an old man with no power anymore. Throughout most of the book he mopes around feeling sorry for himself. And lastly, there are some disturbing elements in it.

And yet, this is hands-down, my absolute favorite book of this series. I loved the humanity of the characters and how they, too, struggle through life and life's changes and life's injustices, even though they are not inhabitants of our world as we know it. I just got off the phone with a friend yesterday who was saying how she really dislikes science fiction and fantasy. She told me how she got through The Lord of the Rings movies but had to watch them during the day so she wouldn't fall asleep and had to have her husband there so she could ask him lots of questions. She said she needs to be able to get involved in the characters and watch their dramas unfold and that's what draws her into the books and movies she likes. I really didn't respond much at the time, but upon thinking about it the rest of the day, what she described is exactly what I like about the fantasy I've been reading. It is about the characters and their dramas, and what makes it even more interesting is that they are still acting human, even though they are not part of our world or reality. It's almost like how I always love to hear stories of ancient people, like Romans, or even medieval people, and how they acted in ways and responded to situations much like we would today in similar situations. They suffered boredom and disappointment, had ambitions and fell in love. Of course, cultures are different and time causes change, but essentially humans are human, good and bad. That seems to be what I'm liking so much about this fantasy series. Humans are human--whether they are kings, wizards, students, or farmwives, whether they live in Earthsea or New Jersey. And I like to see what it would be like for someone to interact with dragons, or be disappointed in a son who grew up to be a rude misogynist, or lose the great powers you've had all your life.

The book explores the phenomenon of getting older and losing the virility one's enjoyed in the younger years, but it really gets into Le Guin's famous feminism. I hadn't really noticed it much in the first three books, except The Tombs of Atuan, but it's pretty heavy-handed in this book and I connected with that, too. I feel like most women who have a baby and decide to stay home suddenly morph into some degree of a feminist. Of course, some may already have been outspoken on matters of gender equality, but there's nothing like being in a situation where suddenly you alone are the main keeper of the "house and hearth" and have to figure out ways to make it equal. I know a lot of working husbands pitch in, but I also know that a lot don't. Anyway, I loved the way Le Guin's feminist ideologies were worked into the book. She explores questions like why the Archmage of all Earthsea could not be a woman, why males sometimes tend not to hear women, condescension and abuse toward women and girls, how a patriarchal society worms its way into many aspects of everyday life (the society of Earthsea is more primitive than ours).

And so, again, I thought this would be the last book in the series that I wanted to read, but now I desperately want the last two. I looked today in the Children's Section and the separate YA section in the library today and thought they didn't carry the last two titles, Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind. But then I came home and searched the library catalog anyway to see if another branch carried them and it turns out my library did have them, but that these last two are shelved in Adult Fiction, sci fi section. If they're going to split them up like that, then I think Tehanu should go with the Adult books, too.

The Earthsea Books

So. The Books of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin. Although there are six, I will venture to guess that these were originally intended to be or evolved into a trilogy. The first three, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore, were published in 1968, 1970, and 1972, respectively. Then the fourth book, Tehanu, came out in 1990. In 2001, Tales from Earthsea and The Other Wind both were published.

I see a lot of criticism about Le Guin online, I guess mostly on a few different blogs. My opinion is that most average literary fiction readers do not find her appealing, either in writing style or subject matter. I do think you have to have a little bit of the fantasy nerd within to truly enjoy these books, as I am starting to think I do. I did really enjoy The Lord of the Rings in middle school or whenever I read them and I'm sure there were a few other fantasy and science fiction novels in this vein that I read and liked back then. But for the most part I've stayed away from all "genre" fiction. I'm glad I decided to reread these books.

I know I read the The Wizard of Earthsea sometime in the late eighties at a pretty young age, maybe 11-13. I remember becoming absolutely taken with Ged/Sparrowhawk, the main character. I think it was my first literary crush on a fictional character. Have I had others? Probably Mr. Darcy like everyone else at one time or another. (In high school, I would later develop a literary crush on F. Scott Fitzgerald, but he was real, of course.) But the strange thing is, upon rereading this novel, it wasn't as I'd remembered it. I did remember some things but it seemed like a totally different novel about the same characters and setting. I know it's not really strange to have remembered it differently from that long ago, but I had such concrete memories of things that never happened in the real book! Like I remembered this chant or poem that Ged had to keep repeating throughout his adventure. Nope, didn't happen. And I remembered more to do with true names and the learning of the true names of things in the natural world. Names are a huge part of the book, but not quite as I remembered.

Still, I did really like Wizard, enough to read The Tombs of Atuan next. I'm not sure how far into the trilogy I got as a kid, but I did not remember this book at all. I didn't like it as much as the first one. Probably because Ged wasn't the main character and I disliked the girl who was the main character, Tenar. But now she's back in Book 4 and I like her much better.

I did like the third book, The Farthest Shore but started to think I was getting too steeped in Earthsea and what I now know to be "high fantasy." I'm amused to find that I really like reading about dragons. So I was going to take a break from Earthsea and read something else before the fourth book. I read the first few pages of Z for Zachariah, the YA dystopian novel I've been foaming at the mouth for, and then I read the first few pages of Tehanu. Last night I read the whole first chapter standing in the kitchen at 10:45 pm (standing because I had only intended to thumb through it after the first few pages). Well, I couldn't stop so I'm still in Earthsea.

I do think sometimes Le Guin's writing style is overly descriptive or explanatory, yet descriptive without enough detail. But then again, her descriptions of setting and scenery are very detailed. So what I mean relates to the characters, I guess. I want to get inside Ged's head more, but I feel that I'm held at a distance. She does give us more into the psyches of lesser characters, though, like Tenar, and Arren from the The Farthest Shore. But then again, these inner glimpses always seemed to annoy me because the characters second-guessed or doubted Ged's powers, abilities, knowledge, etc. Wow, I guess I still do have my crush on Ged. Come to think of it, he hasn't shown up yet in the fourth book after the first few chapters and I'm waiting like a fourteen-year-old for him to show up at his locker. (Did you ever memorize the schedule of someone you had a crush on so you'd be able to figure out when he or she would be at their locker so you could just happen to be there yourself?)

So call me a fantasy nerd, but I'm hooked and taking suggestions for other good high fantasy adventures.

Three Dystopias

These are three related books by Lois Lowry that all deal with coming of age in dystopian societies. I'm a generalist when it comes to reading and don't usually go for a specific "type" of book (i.e., genre, certain setting, type of character, etc.), but now I realize that if I were to narrow down a kind of book that I really dig, it's dystopian societies or post-apocalyptic societies--usually the same thing. I really liked Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake when I read it a few years ago and now I want to read The Handmaid's Tale. My penchant for this type of reading has been slowly coming to my attention for a few years now after I noticed my fascination with movies like The Postman and even (I'm embarrassed to say) Waterworld. (I don't even like Kevin Costner!) I'm not saying I liked Waterworld, although I will admit to liking The Postman, it's just that the concept of it fascinated me. It's the mystery of it, the finding of clues to our society that are alien to the protagonists in these stories. They find things like Coke cans and CDs and have no idea what they were for. I like the idea of being excavated. I even love the ending of Planet of the Apes when he sees The Statue of Liberty. Is it so morbid to be fascinated by depictions of the end of the world as we know it? I, of course, never want this happen, and it's a very real and scary thought, especially in this era of terrorism and nuclear weapons. Yet, I'm still fascinated.

The Giver, Gathering Blue, and Messenger tell the story of three different villages near each other, yet still isolated from each other. One is a sterile society where no one is unhappy and no choices need to be made by the citizens. There are no colors, no animals, and no love or pain. There are no memories here of the society that is now. Another village is a loving one that is closest to the better side of society today, caring, celebrations, bustling life, although this one begins to have issues in Messenger. The third society is harsh, rundown, and cruel. In the first and third societies, people with flaws--birthmarks, injuries, disabilities--are cast out or killed. Twins are not allowed in the sterile society. The second society welcomes all of the castaways that make it through the long, hard journey to safety.

You have to read all three books to learn about all three societies. There is some overlap of characters, espcially in Gathering Blue and Messenger. Yet, is this a trilogy? My husband asked me if it was and something made me say "no" at first. But why not? What makes a trilogy a trilogy? Also, any recommendations for more reading or movies along these lines? I'm even considering watching the Mad Max movies. And reading A Canticle for Leibowitz.

Three Accomplishments as Christmas Approaches

Christmas cards written and mailed, check.
Box of cookies defrosted, packaged, and sent to my brother in California, check.
Now I'm waiting for my Amazon shipment so I can get the CD from it and send a package to Boston. It's late for that, I know.
Then, no more shipping.

I finished Number the Stars, again by Lois Lowry. It's about two young girls who are best friends in Denmark during World War II, one is Jewish, one is not. When the Nazis come to take away the Jewish family, the other family helps them as much as they can. It was another one I couldn't put down and I learned things about WWII in Denmark that I hadn't known before.

Now I'm into A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Leguin, another childhood favorite. I know I read and loved this one, but I can't remember if I read any others in the trilogy or "cycle."

I'm still thinking of simultaneously starting Galileo's Daughter because it truly is from my stacks prior to the start of the From the Stacks Challenge and for some reason I'm being a stickler with myself and not including the YA books I've been reading for the challenge. It's not that I'm against switching out titles I'd listed for the challenge, but I guess they should really be from the stacks in my house and not the library.

Darn That Old Organic Nature of Reading

Well, folks, I hate to say it, but I might be bailing on the From the Stacks Winter Challenge. This is not a definite, but I don't think I'll be able to finish three more books from my shelves before January 30 in light of my current distraction, which is less becoming a distraction and turning into my new obsession--Young Adult novels. I just finished The Giver by Lois Lowry which was published too late for me to have read it at true YA age, 1993, the year I graduated high school. I could not put it down. I was riveted. I recounted the whole thing to my husband as I read. I started almost crying as I told him the ending. Need I say Toddler and I are going to the bookstore today to get Gathering Blue and Messenger, books related to The Giver? I also have Number the Stars from the library by her and I still want to get to A Wizard of Earthsea for a reread. I want to be disciplined but I have to go where the reading wind takes me.

YA Craving Intensifies

So after One L, I needed something a little lighter and something I thought I'd finish fairly quickly. Then I ended up standing next to the YA books while checking out books with Toddler at the library the other day and grabbed a few. One of which was the old favorite A Wrinkle in Time. I hadn't read this in maybe 20 years. Oh my god, 31-20=11? Really?! No worries, I still don't feel old.

I was surprised at how little I remembered from this book. I vaguely remembered the characters and their names, the Murry family, Charles Wallace, Meg. I didn't remember their friend Calvin or the dog Fortinbras or much else about the story. Let's just say I was riveted and couldn't put it down. The plot was fast-moving and intense, the writing descriptive, the characters realistic and the character development--wow. I had no idea YA books could do what they do. At first I was a little annoyed with Meg as a character (as I'm sure I was not when reading this as a kid), but by the end, L'Engle has her step up to the plate, take personal responsibility and stop waiting for everyone to do things for her, and, of course, she succeeds in her mission. I was so proud. :)

And the jolt this has given my imagination was exactly what I needed. I almost feel revitalized, I might say. The last book to ignite my inner fire (or maybe it just appeased the latent fantasy nerd within) was Below the Root by Zilpha Keatley Snyder and the other two in the trilogy to which I recently referred in a post. Now I can't wait to revisit the old Earthsea Trilogy (also referenced below).

At first the plan was only to read this one and then move on in my exploration or revisitation of YA novels, but now I'm hooked again and might have to read A Wind in the Door next or soon anyway. I know I read that one and A Swiftly Tilting Planet as a kid, but I'm not sure if I ever made it to Many Waters.

Note: And I went to Barnes & Noble to pick up my ordered copy of Of Plymouth Plantation and ended up buying The Giver by Lois Lowry and Redwall by Brian Jacques. And one issue of the magazine Archaeology.

YA Craving

While I'm diligently working away at the From the Stacks Challenge, and I have finished two books so far, I did pay a visit to the library today. But the visit was supposed to be just for Toddler. Heading to the children's room, that's it. By the way, we now go to the new library which rocks. It's all fresh and new and modern with a bunch of nice meeting rooms, a huge children's room, lots and lots of computers, and even a cafe in the front lobby. Anyway, so we go into the children's room and Toddler does some puzzles and jogs around while I find him nine new books. Then he's ready to go and climbs up on the stepstool in front of the self-checkout computer thing. So I'm about to pile our books up to check out and there next to the computer are four racks of YA paperbacks. I haven't read YA in a while (I think my last one was Lyddie by Katherine Paterson and the Below the Root Trilogy by Zilpha Keatley Snyder--I'm crazy for Below the Root, by the way. Did anyone ever play the Windham Classics computer game in the 80s?)


The first one to catch my eye was a bunch by Brian Jacques. I remember the whole Redwall series getting popular when I used to work at Barnes & Noble but I see it was published in 1986 so maybe it was popular well before that. I really wanted to read something by him but I couldn't find the first one, Redwall, anywhere so I decided to wait on that. Then I looked at the Avi books but they looked series-oriented, too, so I wanted to check out the website first. I settled on a well-loved copy of A Wrinkle in Time (need I link? I think not.) to re-read since I haven't read this since I was true YA age, the first book of the Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula LeGuin, another re-read from the early teen years, although I don't think I ever finished the trilogy, and Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. I was really looking for The Giver but they didn't have it.

So while I work on Back Bay which is on my extended From the Stacks list, I might have to go off track a little bit and catch up on some YA.