Poodlerat ([info]poodlerat) wrote in [info]50bookchallenge,
@ 2007-01-17 00:31:00
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Entry tags:book review, fantasy, kidlit

A Wizard of Earthsea
13. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (Children's Lit, Fantasy)

This is one of those kids' books I heard so much about but never actually read when I was a child, like The Hobbit or The Chronicles of Narnia.

I had a bad headache tonight, so I thought this would be the perfect thing to take my mind off it: light, undemanding, entertaining. Not so; reading the first half was like slogging though a swimming pool full of margarine. So I put it down, and went for a walk. When I got back, my headache was gone, and lo and behold, when I picked up the book again, it was suddenly interesting.

Very Tolkienesque prose, and a fairly typical high fantasy setting, although I thought the Archipelago landscape was a nice and fairly unusual setting. I did enjoy that, for once, the brown-skinned people were the good guys, and the white-skinned ones were the vicious, warlike, evil sorcerers. Especially surprising in a book first published in 1968.

Doesn't talk down to its readers as so many children's books do. Verdict: the next book in the series is already on hold for me at the library.

Books read: 13/50
Pages read: 3,293/15,000

Currently reading: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (about halfway through and loving it.)


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[info]allbery
2007-01-17 06:35 am UTC (link)
It gets more interesting in the second half even if you don't have a migraine for the first half, I think. *heh*

Personally, I think all of the rest of the series is better than the first book. The first one isn't bad, but I adored The Tombs of Atuan. It has a different tone, though; the third is more like the tone of the first.

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[info]poodlerat
2007-01-17 06:51 am UTC (link)
Well, yeah, I think it was partly the pain and partly the fact that Geb spends the first half being an obnoxious little cretin.

That makes me more eager to read the rest!

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[info]bahia
2007-01-17 08:30 am UTC (link)
I've never thought of it as a kids book, though I did read it for the first time when I was 12 or 13. I would say that it is a good, short book that is appropriate for kids. I recently re-read the whole serious and it is really good.

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[info]poodlerat
2007-01-17 02:52 pm UTC (link)
Hmm, I don't know. I mean, it's certainly written at a high enough level that it's appropriate for adults, and the fact that Ged is grown up partway through the first book helps that, but...I still think that if I'd read it the first time, without knowing anything about it, I would have classed it as children's fiction, and not because of the length. But I haven't read the sequels, so maybe they make a difference.

I'm actually kind of iffy on the whole "kids' book vs. book that just happens to be appropriate for kids" debate. I just think that books like the Earthsea ones, or Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, are just kids' books that happen to be as far above the average kids' book as books like The Good Earth or Pride and Prejudice are above the average bestseller. The latter are written to entertain, while the former use a fictional story to explore themes or issues that the author considers to be important.

I guess I've always assumed that the reason people object to the label "children's fiction" in cases like this is because they feel that people look down on children's lit, as though it couldn't possibly be as good as adult fiction. As you've probably guessed by now, I reject that premise utterly. But anyway, that's just an assumption of mine, and I don't know if it's true at all, or especially if it's true in your case. Any thoughts?

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[info]bahia
2007-01-17 10:28 pm UTC (link)
I think you make an interesting point. I guess somewhat subconsciously when I hear the term "kid's book" I assume that the person using the term is talking down to the fiction itself. However, I agree with you that children's literature is nothing less than "adult" literature. There are plenty of books that I have read that are classified as "children's lit" or "young adult" that are heaps better than a lot of the crap that makes the Bestseller list.

Perhaps it is because Ged grows up during the book, perhaps it is because I have read the other books in the series, or perhaps it is because I've never thought of any of Ursela Le Guin's books as for children that I hesistate to consider The Wizard of Earthsea as a kids book. Still, I would consider the Harry Potter series as being as serious that starts out as a kids book and turns into young adult fiction, though I personally love the series and don't feel that it is a detraction in any way. Maybe because Harry Potter consistantly takes place in a youthful setting I put it in a different category than The Wizard of Earthsea.

This topic is not actually something I have thought about that much, as I have always read books of any level. I've always felt that books with a good story, good characters, and good writing style matter a lot more than which audience the book is targeted at. Maybe a good example is the Xanth series by Piers Anthony. I remember reading his autobiography ages ago in high school. He said that when he realized that so many children were reading his books, he changed his writing style. I felt that was a huge mistake. I don't know if you've read the series, but the first 1 to 4 books were excellent and humorous fantasy. When he started to "dumb down" the series for younger readers the story became exactly that; dumb. Both the stories, the characters, and the writing style suffered from that choice.

Recently, I have been trying to re-read a lot of the classics that I read in junior and senior high school. I've found that while I enjoyed them at the time, I know find a completely different type of satisfaction from the books now that I am much older.

I think I've gone off on a tangent. Sorry! =)

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[info]poodlerat
2007-01-18 03:00 am UTC (link)
I'll have to read the rest of the series and decide then, I suppose. I mean, he'll be an adult through all the rest of the books, which might make a difference.

I think for me, though, children's vs. adult lit has a lot to do with the way stories are told. There's a great article about Philip Pullman and the His Dark Materials series, which sheds light on a lot of his opinions about children's fiction, among other things. There's a quote from one of his speeches, where he says:
"There are some themes, some subjects, too large for adult fiction; they can only be dealt with adequately in a children’s book." He explained, "In adult literary fiction, stories are there on sufferance. Other things are felt to be more important: technique, style, literary knowingness.... The present-day would-be George Eliots take up their stories as if with a pair of tongs. They’re embarrassed by them. If they could write novels without stories in them, they would. Sometimes they do."

I tend to agree with him. I think a lot of people have forgotten that, as great as a novel's message might be, its main purpose ought to be to tell a story.

Also, books that I consider to be children's fiction are generally less nuanced than (good) adult fiction; to be appropriate for children, particularly young children, more things have to be spelled out that might otherwise be merely hinted at, because children tend to miss certain kinds of subtleties. Which is not to say that children's fiction can't be subtle, or that really good children's books don't have things in them that kids might not understand, but...I guess it's a difference in tone, between the two. And sometimes the line can be very blurry, because making that kind of qualitative judgement is subjective, personal.

He said that when he realized that so many children were reading his books, he changed his writing style.

That's pretty bizarre. Children were reading and enjoying his novels the way they were, and when he found that out, he dumbed them down?

I think I've gone off on a tangent. Sorry! =)

Don't be - I love tangents! They lead to such interesting places. :)

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[info]bahia
2007-01-18 08:46 am UTC (link)
Yeah, I thought that was pretty strange of Piers Anthony. But, I did read that book like 10 years ago, so I'd have to do some research to find out if I remember it correctly.

Still, I am not sure how much it matters whether a book is classified for kids or for adults. All that matters is if it is good or if it is not.

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[info]vgnwtch
2007-01-18 10:01 am UTC (link)
Diana Wynn Jones once answered the question of what the difference is between writing adult and children's fiction by saying that you have to simplify things for adults - children will accept ambiguity and unravelled threads and things unspoken that adults, with our less plastic, more hardwired brains can't be comfortable with. It was a really interesting insight.

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[info]vgnwtch
2007-01-17 05:17 pm UTC (link)
Ursula K Le Guin is one of the great goddesses of fantasy/sci-fi. She is such a rare, strong, challenging voice. Her father was an anthropologist, and so she grew up very aware of ethnicity and religion and gender, and all her books deal with our cultural assumptions about these in fascinating ways - she has a fabulous rant about the ways in which ethnicity was entirely f*@ked with in the Earthsea mini-series, and why it was important that the characters were made white. I was given the Earthsea trilogy (back in 1980, when it still was a trilogy) for my 10th birthday, and read all three over the next 48 hours. They have remained great favourites, and I'm certain that Le Guin has had a strong hand in shaping my attitudes and beliefs.

If Earthsea was your first foray into the wonderful world of Le Guin, I believe you've a fascinating journey of discovery ahead of you.

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[info]vgnwtch
2007-01-17 05:20 pm UTC (link)
Oops - here's Le Guin's rant; I believe I pointed you to someone else's (also brilliant) rant on the same issue.

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[info]poodlerat
2007-01-17 06:30 pm UTC (link)
Thank you so much for those links. Even knowing Hollywood, I'm rather shocked by what they did. "Colour-blind"? Yeah, right. To roughly quote a passage from Mercedes Lackey's The Fairy Godmother: "And someday pigs may fly, but you don't see me buying a manure-proof umbrella."

But the articles were excellent and Ursula K. Le Guin is a goddess. Oh, I will definitely be reading her books.

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[info]vgnwtch
2007-01-18 10:04 am UTC (link)
Thank you so much for those links. Even knowing Hollywood, I'm rather shocked by what they did. "Colour-blind"? Yeah, right.

It's so sad. On the one hand, perhaps she was naive in not realising that giving away the rights to the series meant that she had no rights whatsoever - but, to be fair, the TV film version of The Lathe Of Heaven was made with her involvement and made her happy; I imagine she thought that was how it was always done. A great shame.

But the articles were excellent and Ursula K. Le Guin is a goddess. Oh, I will definitely be reading her books.

A victory for all that is good and right in the world! :D

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[info]eyrehead247
2007-01-17 05:41 pm UTC (link)
The Wizard of Earthsea was a VERY good read! I am not sure if I want to read the others in the series though. It seemed to leave off at a good stopping point.

As for Time Traveler's Wife...it had potential. I just couldn't STAND any of the characters.

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[info]poodlerat
2007-01-17 05:53 pm UTC (link)
Really? I guess, now that I think about it, I'm not really that fond of Henry or Clare. They don't bother me though, luckily, and I'm enjoying the story.

I hate reading an otherwise good book with characters I hate. It spoils everything when the characters get on your nerves.

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[info]madnd
2007-01-18 01:18 am UTC (link)
I read this after I bought it for the son of a friend because we'd seen the SciFi channel's short series of it. I liked it, but wasn't as hooked by it as I am by Canavan's fantasy books or by the Eragon series

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[info]poodlerat
2007-01-18 02:40 am UTC (link)
I haven't read either of those authors - I'll have to put them on my list!

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[info]realpestilence
2007-01-18 07:25 am UTC (link)
I read children's literature quite a lot. I find that I appreciate some of it more now as an adult than I did then, because I can see how well-written it is, and understand why it moves me or makes me laugh. If it's good lit, it's good lit.

I loved the Earthsea books; I agree that The Tombs of Atuan is probably my favorite, due to the differing tones of each. It's interesting to see how the character's pov of each changes and grows more remote as Ged ages.

I've never read the book she wrote set after it; I find the ending so bittersweet that I don't want it damaged or tempered by any "happy ending" resolutions.



Have you ever read 'Sarah, Plain and Tall', by Patricia MacLachlan? Extremely simple prose, but it can make me cry.


Pesti

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[info]poodlerat
2007-01-18 03:16 pm UTC (link)
Have you ever read 'Sarah, Plain and Tall', by Patricia MacLachlan? Extremely simple prose, but it can make me cry.

No, although I've heard of it many times. Another book to go on my list.

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