quote: An angry, headstrong youth, whose magical power could rival that of the greatest wizards....
A beautiful young priestess, introduced to evil....
A warrior king who wields words and weapons with equal force....
All on a world of islands and incantations, mystics and maidens, prophesies and power. All on EARTHSEA.
Adapted from Ursula K. Le Guin's award-winning Earthsea novels, this epic fantasy follows the tale of a reckless youth destined to become the greatest sorcerer that the mystical world of Earthsea has ever known. When the difficult and rebellious Ged discovers the extent of his magical powers, he seeks to master the ancient arts — and his own impulses as well. As he journeys to manhood, he will combat dragons, fall in love, cross death's threshold and ultimately wield the power to reunite a planet.
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I LURVE Le Guin! Earthsea has a special place in my heart...
But...this new miniseries, from what I've read, is going to have serious changes and not for the better. First of all the Archipelageans are not dark skinned for the show but are pasty white. It was supposed to be the Kargs who are the white barbarians.
They are blending book one and two together but the love story between Ged and Tenar does not occur until 30 years after they meet. And of course we have the whole thing between Lebannen and Ged.
An important theme they might get down, if they do it right, is the battle of "religions"...how the Old Powers are looked upon as evil by the ruling Mages of Roke and the Archipelago, when in fact the despised Old Powers are the very forces of nature and where all magic comes from. The Old Powers are also the Sacred Feminine in a world ruled by men.
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I am seriously going to have to reread this series. I read it as a kid, and I don't remember being particularly impressed by it. Now, I really don't remember anything about it. The plot is just completely gone from my memory. That's too bad, because I have since come to enjoy quite a lot of LeGuin's stuff.
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I read the seris when I was younger, but I wasn't particularly impressed one way or the other, although it seems I may have missed a fair number of the underlying themes involved.
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I actually read the first one in school, 9th grade 'Reading and Study Skills' class IIRC. I liked it if only for the fact they were reading my kind of book and not some boring 'classic'. This means you, Steinbeck.
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If you guys read these books when you were little, you must read them again now as adults. Earthsea, at least the first two books, are fine for kids too...but their important themes are for adults mostly. And the last three books of the Earthsea Chronicles are especially not for kids.
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The language in the book is absolutely beautiful. I first read Wizard of Earthsea in middle school, and I have since re-read it at least once a year. The story, the language, and the characters get better with each passing year.
My personal opinion is it is a much better book then anything Tolkien wrote. However, I am also a huge LOTR fan. I am concerned that Ged is not black. I hope the miniseries is true enough to the books that I can enjoy it without getting upset. I have longed wished for someone to make an Earthsea Trilogy.
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It looks like the Kargad Empire will not have a Godking but they will skip past the fall of the theocracy straight to the High Kingship. Hmmmm...
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I have some of the strongest memory-images of that series than any other I read as a kid, and we are talking close to thirty years ago.
I tried reading it again, and I must say, I was a little bored, so I stopped, as I did not want to change my memory of the story.
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quote:The Old Powers are also the Sacred Feminine in a world ruled by men.
Um. . . I just read the books this summer, and I didn't see any of this there, Telperion.
The mages didn't hate the old powers, unless you're talking about the Old Powers in the Tomb of Atuan-- and then, Le Guin makes it clear that the Old Powers there are evil.
Can you show what you're talking about?
EDIT: Wait, there are more books to the series than
Wizard of Earthsea Tombs of Atuan The Farthest Shore
?
News to me. Since a certain important character
(Spoiler!)
dies at the end of Shore, how did she continue the books?
[ September 28, 2004, 08:42 AM: Message edited by: Scott R ]
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Seeing how books are adapted to film is one of my areas of interest (whether it's accomplished well or poorly). What a time not to have TV or cable....
Of course, since I've only read the first book of the series, I'd have to do some homework before seeing the miniseries. Mmmmmm, homework. Posts: 54 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Am I correct in understanding that one of Terry Pratchett's books is partially a spoof of Tombs of Atuan? I seem to recall two priests in the depths of the temple. Why were they the high priests? Because they were the only people that had survived to the heart of the temple to worship.
Am I remembering correctly? I only have vague memories of this. Is this Terry Pratchett? If so, which book?
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To answer you questions on the Old Powers...
...Le Guin changed how she wrote the stories of Earthsea. For the first three books she tells the story from the perseption of the ruling Archipeligans, the Mages of Roke. From the fourth book on (Tehanu, Tales from Earthsea, and The Other Wind) she tells the story from the underdog, female perspective. It's so good!
As she put it, she stopped writing like she was an honorary man, and started writing like a feminist. And the new outlook on the world and culture and magic of Earthsea is increadible!
[ September 28, 2004, 03:00 PM: Message edited by: Telperion the Silver ]
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Those books were amazing...up to Tehanu. I foubd the story hard to follow, and while i liked how it tied a few loose threads up from the previous books, I fond the story to be dry and unintesting.
I though the 3 earlier books were much better, and much clearer.
Also, book 3, The Tombs of Atuan, was written from a female perspective, adn was a good story....far better, IMO, than the last two.
Ged rocks...and I wish there were more stories of him as a wizard, before he ....
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Really Kwea? Tehanu is my favorite of the series...or at least the most "mature", imo. Tehanu brings this already great story down from the hights to real believability...Le Guin's intense devotion to the details of daily life in a world of pre-industrial technology with magic thrown into the mix. It's so real. And also the fact that "The Farthest Shore" devestated me... and I was desperate to have more about Ged and Lebannen. It really filled in the world of Earthsea that the other books did not.
[ September 29, 2004, 01:07 PM: Message edited by: Telperion the Silver ]
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"Miss Le Guin was not involved in the development of the material or the making of the film, but we've been very, very honest to the books," explains director Rob Lieberman. "We've tried to capture all the levels of spiritualism, emotional content and metaphorical messages. Throughout the whole piece, I saw it as having a great duality of spirituality versus paganism and wizardry, male and female duality. The final moments of the film culminate in the union of all that and represent two different belief systems in this world, and that's what Ursula intended to make a statement about. The only thing that saves this Earthsea universe is the union of those two beliefs." Sci Fi Magazine December 2004
I've tried very hard to keep from saying anything at all about this production, being well aware that movies must differ in many ways from the books they're based on, and feeling that I really had no business talking about it, since I was not included in planning it and was given no part in discussions or decisions.
That makes it particularly galling of the director to put words in my mouth.
Mr Lieberman has every right to say what his intentions were in making the film he directed, called "Earthsea." He has no right at all to state what I intended in writing the Earthsea books.
Had "Miss Le Guin" been honestly asked to be involved in the planning of the film, she might have discussed with the film-makers what the books are about.
When I tried to suggest the unwisdom of making radical changes to characters, events, and relationships which have been familiar to hundreds of thousands of readers all over the world for over thirty years, I was sent a copy of the script and informed that production was already under way.
So, for the record: there is no statement in the books, nor did I ever intend to make a statement, about "the union of two belief systems." There's nothing at all about the "duality of spirituality and paganism," whatever that means, either.
Earlier in the article, Robert Halmi is quoted as saying that Earthsea "has people who believe and people who do not believe." I can only admire Mr Halmi's imagination, but I wish he'd left mine alone.
In the books, the wizardry of the Archipelago and the ritualism of the Kargs are opposed and united, like the yang and yin. The rejoining of the broken arm-ring is a symbol of the restoration of an unresting, active balance, offering a risky chance of peace.
This has absolutely nothing to do with "people who believe and people who do not believe." That terrible division into Believers and Unbelievers (itself a matter not of reason but of belief) is one which bedevils Christianity and Islam and drives their wars.
But the wizards of Earthsea would look on such wars as madness, and the dragons of Earthsea would laugh at them and fly away...
Toto, something tells me Earthsea isn't Iraq.
I wonder if the people who made the film of The Lord of the Rings had ended it with Frodo putting on the Ring and ruling happily ever after, and then claimed that that was what Tolkien "intended..." would people think they'd been "very, very honest to the books"?
Ursula K. Le Guin 13 November 2004
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I read the books years ago, so I don't really remember specifics of the story. But so far I am enjoying the miniseries. Some of the special effects could have been better, and it does stray from some of the bits of the story that I remember, but I'm not really going to complain. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy it for what it is, and not get riled up about what it isn't.
Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Just finished watching the first part. I'm not at all impressed. In fact I'm really depressed about it. It's been awhile since I've read the books but the movie is definately in a whole other realm. I really want to go back and read the books because this thing just plain old sucked. The bad part is I know I'll probably watch the rest of it becasue I'm interested in knowing what else they do to suck things up. I think the thing that bothers me the most is the horrible acting. Danny Glover is Ogion!!! Come on!! It actually hurts to hear him speak his lines and the guy playing Ged isn't much better.
I know that doesn't give much detail but I'm tired and it's too new in my head to say much more than "SUCK!" I'm re-reading book one tomorrow before I watch part two and we'll see how much more I have to complain about.
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They're playing 3 runs of Ep 1 in a row tonight, the last of which starts at 1 am EST. Then tomorrow they're doing Ep 12 at 7 pm EST and Ep 2 at 9 pm EST. My VCR is already set.
Ela, let me see how good of a copy I get (I don't think I've ever used this machine to record before) and then we can talk, okay? =)
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Why in Bob's name did they make "Ged" his outward name and "Sparrowhawk" his true name? What possible purpose could that have? Making him a teenager when the movie starts I could see. Making the Gontish out to be a bunch of hayseeds I can almost see. I can even almost see making Ogion unknown to the other Gontmen, but what is the point of reversing his names? That's just DUMB.
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It was really, really bad. So atrocious that I changed the channel after ten minutes. It blew hard.
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And what's the point of changing the word from Kargad to Kargide? Seriously, what's up with that?
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And you know what the sad fact is? This adaptation could have been wonderful. Seriously, I adore the first three books...it's a wonderful, inspired and exceedingly original little series that had everything it needed to be good adaptation--I can be supportive of changes to an adaptation that are made so the transition is smooth...but after ten minutes of watching that program I realized the makers were totally disregarding, exploiting and spitting upon Le Guin's work.
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"Why in Bob's name did they make "Ged" his outward name and "Sparrowhawk" his true name? What possible purpose could that have? Making him a teenager when the movie starts I could see. Making the Gontish out to be a bunch of hayseeds I can almost see. I can even almost see making Ogion unknown to the other Gontmen, but what is the point of reversing his names? That's just DUMB."
Heh. At least their first production of Dune sucked less.
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I decided to avoid this one. I loved -- loved -- the first three books, to the point that I was even able to force myself to finish the two pieces of crap LeGuin tacked on later. And this miniseries had the scent of dead fish about it from the very beginning.
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I saw a preview...did they make Ged and Tenar the same age in the miniseries, or did I miss something?
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I think I'm going to have to read these books again REAL soon in order to eliminate the terrible images from my head.
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quote: It was so awful that it motivated me to pay bills.
That is exactly how I felt. I went to my brothers to watch Earthsea, but after the frumpy Elizabethan looking spirit asked Ged "What are you doing?" like an annoying spoiled aunt, I could endure no more.
As I was gathering my stuff, I noted in disgust taht the archmage lived and that the shadow looked like a bat.
Oh the inhumanity. Not one character was done right. The script was so trite. What kills me is they had good lines they could of used, but instead they rewrote so much that...icky, I feel dirty. Jasper belongs in a teen spoof movie, not Earthsea. They all did so bad. So very very bad.
I went home and did dishes. I felt like they violated Le Guinnes work. I want to send her a card. Maybe I will.
If I make a condolences card, does anyone else want to sign it?
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:I loved -- loved -- the first three books, to the point that I was even able to force myself to finish the two pieces of crap LeGuin tacked on later. And this miniseries had the scent of dead fish about it from the very beginning.
WHat are they TWO pieces she tacked on? I can only think of Tehanu. If there is something else, I need to read it!
I am with Traveler, I need to re-read the books to cleanse my mind.
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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That was two hours of my life I won't be getting back. (What a dumb expression. I won't be getting any of the other hours of my life back either.) I didn't want to keep watching it, but I was so angry that I couldn't turn it off. Fortunately I won't have the same problem tonight, as I just won't turn it on in the first place.
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