Hi all. I’m careening toward an anorexia relapse, how are you?
Anyway, today is kind of an up day so you get this.
I’m on a big Ursula Le Guin kick lately, and her Earthsea series is a really interesting work of fantasy spanning six books that I think is especially worth looking at because of Le Guin’s commentaries that are included at the end of the new editions. She has some really insightful things to say about social progress, the passage of time, and how writing can reflect the author’s feelings, so if you check these out make sure to get the 2012 “Atheneum Books for Young Readers” edition. The first book in particular is really only interesting because of what she has to say about it in retrospect.
I want to talk about the books themselves, but mostly about Le Guin’s thoughts, since she had some important stuff to say about fantasy as a genre and publishing as an industry.
Also, fun fact! This series is where the name ‘Mebbeth’ comes from.