[ SECRET POST #2995 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2995 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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02.


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03.


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04.
[Twin Peaks]


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05.


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06.


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07.
[Big Hero 6]


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08.


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09.
[WWE/NXT]


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10.
[Chris Barrie (Red Dwarf)]


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11.
[Person of Interest]


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12.
[Legend of Korra]


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13.
[Final Fantasy X]


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14.
[Xenoblade Chronicles]


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15.
[Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear]


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16.
[Paul Darrow]


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17.
[Gore Vidal]


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18.
[South Park]


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19.
[Ursula K. LeGuin, Earthsea series]


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20.
[Galavant]


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21.
[A Goofy Movie]


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22.
[Mockingjay]








Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 079 secrets from Secret Submission Post #428.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

19. http://i.imgur.com/vtCuEXJ.jpg
[Ursula K. LeGuin, Earthsea series]

[sarillia]

They aren't my favorites among her books.

[(Anonymous)]

What book did you start with, and how far in did you get?

I think I know what you mean. What I've read of LeGuin's writing tends to be... low-key? Unless the characters grab me, I tend to lose interest and wander off.

[(Anonymous)]

Her style isn't for everyone. There's no shame in not being engaged by it. I like it, but I tend to like quiet and easy-going, while for other people it's terribly boring.

[(Anonymous)]

If you read it "for the POC" of course you're not gonna like it! For one thing, it's got nothing to do with any sort of race politics or culture that are associated with our world. At all. Like really nothing. The characters are just regular characters who happen to have varying dark skintones.

Now if you're reading it as a fantasy series, I agree that it's slow (especially by modern standards). It's a lot more introspective than what you'd expect when you imagine a fanatasy epic about wizards who sail all over the world, and that may just not be your cup of tea.

I love these books because they make me both feel and think. There are a lot of details which grab my imagination and a lot of themes which raise a lot of questions to my mind. All in all a very rewarding experience...though totally not worth it if you're bored out of your mind, the first function of the story is to entertain, after all!

Basically, don't force yourself if it's not your thing.

(Note that I'm not defending Tehanu here, I have something good to say about the other books but Tehanu broke my heart. It was just a painful, miserable story to read, so someone who actually likes it can defend it).

[(Anonymous)]

Amen, especially re: Tehanu. I remember feeling like it was Tenar being angsty and then the book abruptly ending, but time has dulled what my memory. Either way it was a major tonal shift, so if you think the other Earthsea books were dry avoid Tehanu like the plague.

The first three are great for the world-building, if that's your thing. Islands and unique culture and a cool magic system and dragons and dark under-gods and labyrinths and...

Well, you get the idea.

[(Anonymous)]

A Wizard of Earthsea is one of the most boring things I've ever attempted to read. There was so little character in the protagonist.

[iceyred]

Same. I tried reading the first book and it put me to sleep. Then I watched the SciFi miniseries (or was it a movie?) and hated it.

[(Anonymous)]

The miniseries was a disaster and had very little to do with the books except for sharing a name with them. The amine was a tiny bit better but really not by much.

[(Anonymous)]

To be fair, fans of the books also hate the miniseries. Everyone hates the miniseries.

[(Anonymous)]

I find Ursula K. Leguin's writing to be... I guess "self-indulgent" would be a good description. And so, SO frequently, whatever sociopolitical subtext she's getting at isn't so much "subtext" as "text", which, in fantasy novels, really bothers me.

I frequently read fantasy/scifi anthologies. A vast majority of the time, when I hit a story and go, "UGH, why is this going nowhere?" my next thought is "URSULA K. LEGUIN" and I'm right.

For me, she's like the literary equivalent of Rachmaninoff: ponderous, self-important, and self-indulgent.

[sarillia]

Why does it need to be subtext rather than text?

[(Anonymous)]

I enjoyed the Earthsea novels, but yeah, some of her short stories suffer terribly from this. I ended up throwing away The Compass Rose, because it gave me such an irritatingly strong feeling of why am I wasting my life with these pointless stories where absolutely nothing happens. The Wind's Twelve Quarters wasn't much better.

[(Anonymous)]

I tried to read Left Hand of Darkness but couldn't, for same reasons

[(Anonymous)]

This is the only book of hers I've read and I enjoyed it. But, yeah, the pace is freaking slow. And... um... I didn't realize for a long time that the main character was POC. Er... my reading comprehension = HORRIBLE!

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think it has anything to do with reading comprehension. As others have noted, race wasn't really a big source of contention in the stories. It was only called out when a character had a noticeably darker or lighter skin tone - Ged's close friend (forget his name) had very dark skin, and I /think/ Tenar had light skin, but that could just be me associated yellow/blonde hair with pale skin.

I always imagined the base skin tone of Earthsea to be Korra-esque, and to be frank I've never understood when Waterbenders were called POC - seeing as they're a fictional race composed of attributes of a number of a number of real world cultures that exists in a fictional world without our world's specific racial issues. As with Waterbenders, so with Earthsea.

Transcript

[(Anonymous)]

Image: a map of Earthsea

Text: This series is always recced on lists of books that feature POC characters and I know it’s a fantasy classic in its own right.

But I’ve never been able to finish it because the pace is so slow and nothing ever seems to happen.

[(Anonymous)]

I liked the first one. The second bored me to death, and it was worse in the afterword when she gave herself a backpat because her female protagonist wasn't a ~man with boobs~ like all other modern female fantasy protags.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe I just didn't read the afterword, but I didn't get that feeling until Tehanu, when LeGuin decided to bludgeon the reader over the head with Feminism.

See the bits of the thread where people complain about hearing the author's axe as it grinds.

For me, the Tombs of Atuan was a refreshing change of pace with a lot of good worldbuilding and an actually sinister supernatural threat. Tehanu feels like LeGuin trying to one-up ToA by going off the moody non-traditional deep end. ToA was a little salt added to the excellent main dish that was A Wizard of Earthsea; Tehanu was what happens when the cap falls off the shaker.

[diet_poison]

That's an intriguing map.

[elialshadowpine]

I couldn't get into the first one. I think I read two or three chapters, and it was just so slow, and I wasn't feeling the characters, either. I can handle slow and introspective if the characters are interesting enough to me, but I didn't really get a good feel for them. I considered trying to push through, but I have a long TBR, and I'd rather read something I know I'll enjoy vs. pushing through on the half-chance that it'll get better and draw me in. (This from having too many experiences where I was stubborn about "If I start it, I have to finish it", pushed through, and noooooo, it did not get better. I have at least a half dozen books for which I want my wasted time back now, please.)

[litalex]

I actually like Ursula Le Guin a lot and went straight through the Earthsea series. I like her other works quite a lot too. Maybe it's just me...

[(Anonymous)]

Same here! The Earthsea trilogy was my childhood, basically, and I like a lot of what she wrote (with a few exceptions). There was one memorable exam session at uni where I spent all of my free time rereading "The Birthday of the World". Anyway, she's my all time favourite author, I didn't even realise she was so contentious.

[(Anonymous)]

Personally, I love the way Ursula K. LeGuin writes and got super excited to even see this secret. I can see how her books/writing wouldn't be for everyone though, and I agree, they're pretty slow paced, but to me that's part of what makes them so enjoyable.

Also, The Left Hand of Darkness (not part of the Earthsea series obviously but still one of her books) is my favorite book. Like, ever. For me, no matter how obsessed I get with other books/book series, there's just nothing that compares to The Left Hand of Darkness. But of course, to each their own. :)

Yeah, I guess I just came into this thread to spread some love, lol.

[(Anonymous)]

It's been so long since I last read her books I'd probably have a very different impression if I read them now, but...

I remember enjoying Wizard of Earthsea, barely getting through Tombs of Atuan because it was sooo slooooow, and enjoying Tehanu for the general angst and misery of it. I was pretty young, and it was the first time I'd ever really read something so... dark, like the hero of the first book was totally crushed by his pride and failure and you got to watch him stew. Something about that one gripped me emotionally in a way the other two books didn't.

I did read them like well over ten years ago, though... I might find her rather didactic now.