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The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin
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thelastgoodname. *hangs head* She posted on Tehanu HERE about 1.83 million years ago; incidentally, I still have not read Tehanu. The public library here in Cochran apparently does not believe in sending books in a series in the order in which they were written. *sigh*
So, without having read Tehanu, here are my thoughts on The Other Wind.
I feel as if we have now come full circle with our reading. I see so many parallels to the other books we have read over the course of our book club. Ged in this book reminds me very much of Coll from The Chronicles of Prydain series, a man who very much would rather his hands in the earth than wrapped around the hilt of a weapon. Tug reminds me of Hen Wen; most of the time Henny is nothing but a pig, but every once in awhile, she does something extraordinary, and so too Tug. S/he is only a cat, but her touch keeps Alder from the edge of death. And, of course, the books focus on the afterlife and its ultimate solution to the problem of what happens after death reminds me very much of Pullman's Golden Compass series; if only Pullman had been this easy to understand. It reminds me once again what a small, small genre that fantasy is in many ways. Much of what TLGN and I have been reading has been around for ages; I think Pullman's books are the most recently published of all that we've read. It's so interesting watching the way these books feed on each other and are influenced by each other. It's also interesting to watch the same themes play out in different ways and in different worlds.
Ged's character has changed in ways that fascinate me. I'm heartsick that I haven't read Tehanu because I don't know what I missed in that book. But in this one, at least, Ged is living in a kind of self-imposed exile that intrigues me. On the one hand, I think that he very much enjoys his simple, uncomplicated life that is tied to nature and to the land. I think he is proud to be carrying on in the tradition of his original, hermit master Ogion. But at the same time, I get the feeling that Ged resents his loss of power--or maybe not the loss of power, per se, but the loss of that inexplicable portion of his identity, his selfhood, that is inextricably woven together with magic. This resentment and anger and impotence is subtly rendered, but it colors his interaction with Alder and his internal monologue.
We get some interesting commentary here on gender. In this book we learn even more about witches and discover that many of them are lesbians who pledge a "witch-troth" or "she-troth" to their partners. Dragons are able to take the shape of human women; whether they can also take the form of human men remains unclear. Seserakh fascinates me. I think it's absolutely crucial that the text never condemns her for wearing the veil. Instead, it is seen as a form of strength and when she chooses not to wear it, *she* makes that choice and it is an act of bravery. I think we get a very complex and nuanced portrait of a woman who is raised in a society in which women have very little voice and power.
The afterlife as UKLG depicts it is very much like the ancient Sumerian version we get in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Relationships do not continue after death; neither do human emotions. Instead everything is dry and dirty and full of dust--utterly bleak and unremittingly horrible. The Kargish people believe in reincarnation, that when they die they are reborn as other animals or as people and the text indicates that they do indeed experience another afterlife than the Hardic people. The afterlife that eventually becomes available to the Hardic people seems a little different than reincarnation to me. It reads very much like Pullman's afterlife, where the dead return to their component atoms and are spread about the galaxy and mix with everything that's there. I thought that in reincarnation, a person's consciousness or essence was born again into a different form that has no knowledge of its previous existence. Of course, my understanding of reincarntion is very limited, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
To quote Tehanu on death: I think that when I die, I can breathe back the breath that made me live. I can give back to the world all that I didn't do. All that I might have been and couldn't be. All the choices I didn't make. All the things I lost and spent and wasted. I can give them back to the world. To the lives that haven't been lived yet. That will be my gift back to the world that gave me the life I did live, the love I loved, the breath I breathed. (pg 231)
thelastgoodname. *hangs head* She posted on Tehanu HERE about 1.83 million years ago; incidentally, I still have not read Tehanu. The public library here in Cochran apparently does not believe in sending books in a series in the order in which they were written. *sigh*So, without having read Tehanu, here are my thoughts on The Other Wind.
I feel as if we have now come full circle with our reading. I see so many parallels to the other books we have read over the course of our book club. Ged in this book reminds me very much of Coll from The Chronicles of Prydain series, a man who very much would rather his hands in the earth than wrapped around the hilt of a weapon. Tug reminds me of Hen Wen; most of the time Henny is nothing but a pig, but every once in awhile, she does something extraordinary, and so too Tug. S/he is only a cat, but her touch keeps Alder from the edge of death. And, of course, the books focus on the afterlife and its ultimate solution to the problem of what happens after death reminds me very much of Pullman's Golden Compass series; if only Pullman had been this easy to understand. It reminds me once again what a small, small genre that fantasy is in many ways. Much of what TLGN and I have been reading has been around for ages; I think Pullman's books are the most recently published of all that we've read. It's so interesting watching the way these books feed on each other and are influenced by each other. It's also interesting to watch the same themes play out in different ways and in different worlds.
Ged's character has changed in ways that fascinate me. I'm heartsick that I haven't read Tehanu because I don't know what I missed in that book. But in this one, at least, Ged is living in a kind of self-imposed exile that intrigues me. On the one hand, I think that he very much enjoys his simple, uncomplicated life that is tied to nature and to the land. I think he is proud to be carrying on in the tradition of his original, hermit master Ogion. But at the same time, I get the feeling that Ged resents his loss of power--or maybe not the loss of power, per se, but the loss of that inexplicable portion of his identity, his selfhood, that is inextricably woven together with magic. This resentment and anger and impotence is subtly rendered, but it colors his interaction with Alder and his internal monologue.
We get some interesting commentary here on gender. In this book we learn even more about witches and discover that many of them are lesbians who pledge a "witch-troth" or "she-troth" to their partners. Dragons are able to take the shape of human women; whether they can also take the form of human men remains unclear. Seserakh fascinates me. I think it's absolutely crucial that the text never condemns her for wearing the veil. Instead, it is seen as a form of strength and when she chooses not to wear it, *she* makes that choice and it is an act of bravery. I think we get a very complex and nuanced portrait of a woman who is raised in a society in which women have very little voice and power.
The afterlife as UKLG depicts it is very much like the ancient Sumerian version we get in The Epic of Gilgamesh. Relationships do not continue after death; neither do human emotions. Instead everything is dry and dirty and full of dust--utterly bleak and unremittingly horrible. The Kargish people believe in reincarnation, that when they die they are reborn as other animals or as people and the text indicates that they do indeed experience another afterlife than the Hardic people. The afterlife that eventually becomes available to the Hardic people seems a little different than reincarnation to me. It reads very much like Pullman's afterlife, where the dead return to their component atoms and are spread about the galaxy and mix with everything that's there. I thought that in reincarnation, a person's consciousness or essence was born again into a different form that has no knowledge of its previous existence. Of course, my understanding of reincarntion is very limited, so please correct me if I'm wrong.
To quote Tehanu on death: I think that when I die, I can breathe back the breath that made me live. I can give back to the world all that I didn't do. All that I might have been and couldn't be. All the choices I didn't make. All the things I lost and spent and wasted. I can give them back to the world. To the lives that haven't been lived yet. That will be my gift back to the world that gave me the life I did live, the love I loved, the breath I breathed. (pg 231)
no subject
And yeah, I liked Tug for all the same reasons I like Hen Wen.
And even with my problems with the overarching once-in-a-lifetime plot, the way LeGuin describes the world of the dead is very moving. And her solution to her plot is much more to my taste than the solution for Pullman, which ended up hurting people, too (even if it was just Lyra and Will). I don't like people getting hurt.
I love the descriptions of Seserakh and the veil and her coming to power and courage. I also love that our characters don't all speak the same language, and that Tenar feels so comfortable speaking her natal language again.
I kind of hope that Orm Irian and Tehanu go off and have lots of dragon sex together, though. They both deserve it, Tahanu especially.
no subject
OMG, the dragon sex! yes yes yes yes yes An infinity of dragon sex for them both.