/lit/ - Literature

Definitely one of my favorite books from my childhood. Plan to reread them again soon to see if I still appreciate them as much.

“A Wizard of Earthsea” – Ursula K. Le Guin

This young adult novel follows the story of Ged, a boy born on the island of Gont. He discovers that he has latent magical power which leads to his training as a wizard at the School on Roke Island. Ged as a youth is portrayed as impetuous and prideful with almost no counterbalancing qualities that usually inspire interest in a protagonist. Le Guin early and often foreshadows Ged’s future as a powerful and accomplished wizard. Through a mishap brought on by his ego at the School, he is changed into something of a wallflower who is hesitant to use his power. The rest of the book details his quest to set matters aright.

Throughout the Roke Island chapters, I was struck by how J.K. Rowling had taken this story and retold it far more skillfully, with a focus on the institution of the school. The result is a world bursting with detail. Hogwarts and its environs are vastly more engrossing than Roke Island, which is a watercolor sketch of a mostly uninhabited island that inexplicably hosts a school for wizards.

>The town of Thwil is not large, its high houses huddling close over a few steep narrow streets.
That’s the description of the town surrounding the School.
>In the hot sunlit pastures yellow flowers bloomed. “Sparkweed,” said Jasper. “They grow where the wind dropped the ashes of burning Ilien, when Erreth-Akbe defended the Inward Isles from the Firelord.”
This is Le Guin’s attempt at imbuing Roke with lore and texture. The reference in the text is as stark and disconnected as my quote: the proper nouns are given no other introduction or exposition. This is a common event throughout the narrative.

>The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.
There’s nothing spectacular here in Rowling’s initial description of Hogwarts: you or I might have written just as compellingly. However, the ideas leading the reader to this point are the tantalizing bits: the owls bringing letters; the visit from a giant; the shopping trip to Diagon Alley; the train ride from Platform 9-3/4; what new mysteries does Hogwarts contain? In contrast, goatherd Ged has abandoned a laconic wizard and taken a ride on a galley through a gale.