Comments on: The Land of the Dead in Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea

By: Laura Gibbs

Laura Gibbs — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:39:26 +0000

Hi George, thank you for your comments! You are so right about LeGuin’s vision of Earthsea changing dramatically as she returned to it in later years (even magic itself is viewed very differently in Tehanu, where we get to see Ged in such a different way than before) – which makes sense, of course; there is no reason why world views should be monolithic in fictive worlds, any more so than in the real world in which we live. I’m going to be writing something about Pullman next time, and I’m really looking forward to sorting through his vision of death; it is one of the most powerful elements of the trilogy, I think. Meanwhile, I don’t know if you have read LeGuin’s recent novel Lavinia, but it has some really mind-bending speculation about the meaning of life and death and the status of fictional characters (mythical characters) in relationship to the people who tell stories about them, their “authors” – great stuff. There’s a review online here at Salon.com: http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/01/LeGuin/

By: George McBane

George McBane — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:45:43 +0000

[mild spoiler alert: plot elements from Le Guin's The Other Wind and Pullman's The Amber Spyglass are revealed in this post]

It seems to me that Le Guin's treatment of the dry land as part of a "natural balance" changes substantially in The Other Wind, written decades after The Farthest Shore. In fact, I thought Pullman's The Amber Spyglass echoed it strongly. In both cases the land-of-the-dead as a dim dry place where the dead mill about aimlessly becomes exposed as an unnatural aberrance that needs (and receives) repair.

By: Laura Gibbs

Laura Gibbs — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:40:57 +0000

Thanks for the book suggestion, Leanne – that is not a book I have read, and the information I found by Googling the title and authors makes it sound really fascinating. I will definitely track down a copy and read it. Thanks so much! :-)

By: Leanne

Leanne — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:06:01 +0000

Interesting topic this month! I've just read three of the Earthsea books for the first time recently, and really enjoyed them.

I couldn't help but think of one of the most memorable literary "land of the dead" that I've read, and that is in All Hallow's Eve by Charles Williams. I found the opening chapter of that book especially to be a powerful and interesting depiction of a kind of in-between world of living and dying.

Just wondered if you've read this...

Thanks for this article. I'm enjoying these monthly posts.

By: Laura Gibbs

Laura Gibbs — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:59:00 +0000

Thanks for your comments, Jason! Tombs of Atuan is actually my personal favorite of all of her books – and of course there are the hints of those terrifying “old gods” throughout the Earthsea books. Haunting is definitely the word: I’m amazed at how LeGuin is able to convey and suggest so much in books that are really quite short – yet every time I re-read them, I discover new things. She’s quite a hero of mine! Have you read her science fiction novel, The Lathe of Heaven? A genius book: I re-read that one again recently as well, and found it as amazing as ever.

I’m not quite sure what is going to come of this little series of articles here at Journey to the Sea looking at the land of the dead – I am a big fan of LeGuin, and also of the beautiful metaphors that Pullman develops in his depiction of our deaths in The Subtle Knife (that’s what I’ll be doing for the next issue)… I’m hoping somehow to use these thoughts about LeGuin and Pullman (both of whom I like very very much) to set up just why I have found Rowling’s books to be so disappointing by comparison. Anyway, we’ll see how that all turns out. It’s an excuse for me to read LeGuin and Pullman again, which is such a pleasure, and it’s meant to coincide with Rowling’s Deathly Hallows finally coming out in paperback this month. That’s a sure sign of my undevotional attitude towards Harry Potter – I’ve waited for the paperback edition before reading the final volume… :-)

By: Jason Fisher

Jason Fisher — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:16:20 +0000

Great introduction to Earthsea. Do you plan to delve any further into Le Guin's conception of the land of the dead? As I'm sure you know, she returns there in The Other Wind (2001). In some ways, though perhaps more metaphorically, the second Earthsea book, The Tombs of Atuan, also involves a jouney to the underworld. Here, however, it is the relgion / mythology of the Kargad lands, not the Hardic islands, that Le Guin explores. There is also "The Word of Unbinding" (1964), a short story collected in The Wind's Twelve Quarters, which predates and in some ways anticipates The Farthest Shore. I've always found her image of the underworld remarkably vivid (irony intended) and very haunting.