lunabee34

I would really like an icon to use for the reading that TLGN and I do together. My tag is TLGN bookclub for these posts, but I would be open to anything. Anyone want to make me an icon? *bats eyelashes*

thelastgoodname posted on The Tombs of Atuan HERE.

THE FARTHEST SHORE: SPOILERS

This book surprised the hell out of me and in a very good way. All Le Guin's prose is exquisitely wrought; she has a gift for the lovely turn of phrase, for the apt description, for word play of all kinds. Even when A Wizard of Earthsea was boring me to tears, I always admired the images Le Guin was creating. The Farthest Shore is no different, except that now, we have the addition of vital and interesting dialogue. People actually talk to each other in this book. Tis true. They talk, and the conversations are interesting and character developing. Finally in this book has Le Guin found the mixture of character introspection and interaction that works for me.

Also surprising to me is that Ged has aged in this tale. He is Archmage now and aged 40-50 years. I haven't read the subsequent books in the series, so possibly one or both centers around Ged's youthful exploits, but this one does not. Ged is an old man here and we are treated to the resulting wisdom and growth of his character. Not all, but many heroes are young (especially in books intended for children) and many narratives of their exploits end before the hero has aged. (In Prydain, we leave Taran just as he has crossed over the threshold of adulthood; he has defeated evil and won his kingdom, but we aren't privvy to his reign or the life he builds with Eilonwy. Or again, mining books we've read already: we don't watch Lyra and Will grow up after they mend the holes in the space time continuum. Pullman ends the series after their "triumph" and we are left to speculate what happens to these characters as they age.) I know that the focus and POV of The Farthest Shore shifts to Arren so that we still have a bildungsroman, but Ged is the backbone of this novel (of this series so far) and to read about him as an older man is an unexpected pleasure.

The final shocker to me is the eroticized relationship between Ged and Arren. I am familiar with the tradition of writing in which male characters express fraternal regard for each other with the language of erotic love. I am a Victorianist after all! LOL But I really don't think that's what's going on here (although as Le Guin won the 1973 National Book Award for Children's Books for this volume, I wonder if that's how the relationship was read then). "For Arren had fallen in love," (10) and "But his heart went out utterly to his companion, not now with first romantic ardor and adoration, but painfully, as if a link were drawn forth from the very inmost of it and forged into an unbreaking bond," (97) and "Those who can be most hurt, the most vulnerable: those who have given love and do not take it back, they speak each other's names," (175). That last quote doesn't seem much here, but taken in context it pretty much amounts to Ged's declaration of love for Arren. But wait--there's still more: " 'I have given my love to what is worthy of love. Is that not the kingdom of the unperishing spring?'" (187) and Arren's initial lovestruck desire to do anything, including sweeping Ged's room if only he could be near him always. I, frankly, did not expect this relationship dynamic, but very much enjoyed reading it.

Although we again have very few female characters, there is a shift in tone from the first book. Here women can and do wield magic power and old women are worth listening to rather than mere ridiculous amateurs.

I thought that the wizards' various responses to losing their magic was really interesting. From the clothseller who convinced herself that she never had any power to begin with to Hare who thinks he has traded his power for something better to Akaren who fights against its loss until she is renamed--a very fascinating psychological study of motivation and coping mechanisms.

I love Ged's explanation of action: " 'Do you see, Arren, how an act is not, as young men think, like a rock that one picks up and throws, and it hits or misses, and that's the end of it. When that rock is lifted, the earth is lighter; the hand that bears it is heavier. When it is thrown, the circuits of the stars respond, and where it strikes or falls the universe is changed. On every act the balance of the whole depends.'" (75)

The world of the dead confused me. It seems rather like Pullman's hellish vision of the afterlife--no joy, no emotion, no change. Rather bleak and gloomy and altogether without even the comfort of human relationships that Pullman's version allows. It's unclear to me whether this is so because Cob has screwed the natural order of things up or if the afterlife is always like this. I'm leaning toward Cob screwing it up because in Ged's speech to him about what he's done wrong, Ged seems to imply that reincarnation is what should be happening.

One thing that I disliked is that after Ged reveals his true name, the narrative refers to him as Ged but once Ged knows Arren's true name, Arren is still called Arren. This suggests to me that Arren does not think of himself as Lebbannen but rather as Arren, which seems kinda counter to the concept of a true name.

Overall, I enjoyed this book immensely.