In what ways does
Tax (2002) suggest Earthsea may still be relevant today?
Tax (2002) provides a summary for each of the novels written by Le Guinn
in the Earthsea series. Tax (2002) quotes Le Guinn’s own explanation of why her
work is relevant today. She said that the world is changing too fast to keep up
with. Concentrating on A Wizard of Earthsea (1986), we find that the main
character Ged struggles to overcome the bearlike shadow, who attacks him and
nearly kills him (Tax, 2002). However this shadow that he is faced with is
actually his own self, this context is relevant in society today because we are
our own worst enemies when we are trying to successfully progress in life. Such
struggles like overcoming emotions, pursuing a successful career and learning
about family history are relevant in peoples lives today so it makes it easier
for them to relate to fantasy fiction because the shadow is representative of
the human struggle between good and evil in this fantasy world but also in our
lives today.
Tax (2002) also explains that “fantasy takes no risks; it invents nothing,
but imitates and trivializes certain events. It proceeds by depriving the old
stories of their intellectual and ethical complexity, turning their action to
violence, their actions into actors to dolls and their truth telling to
sentimental platitude.” Tax (2002) thinks that this is a clear indication that proceeds to connect
the real world events and fantasy stories by combining them into one to
perceive the idea that in fact they can be combined to understand such issues
within the world today. Tax (2002) believes that Le Guinn has the upmost
formative style in the way she expresses the way the world is changing too
fast. However Le Guinn has the talent to incorporate the genre of fantasy fiction
as an anchor to provide a sense of ongoing fantasy connection in their lives
which makes it easier for people to relate to certain issues they may be
overcoming.
References:
Tax, M. (Jan 28,
2002). Year of Harry Potter, Enter the Dragon. In The Nation.
Le Guinn, U. (1993; 1968). A Wizard of Earthsea. In The Earthsea Quartet (pp.13-167). London: Penguin.
Ok Grace. Your discussion gets a bit lost here and you have misunderstood some of Meredith Tax's article. The quote at the beginning of your second paragraph is taken from Tax, but it is Ursula Le Guin's words (from her foreword to Tales-From-Earthsea) and she is commenting on generic commercially-driven fantasy - not on her own work. You need to take care that you completely understand what you reference (and cite it accurately). I do like some of your ideas in the first paragraph - particularly the idea that we can be our own worst enemies - very pertinent.
ReplyDeleteHi Brendan, yes I can see what you mean. I did get a bot confused with the two but I will definitely work on differentiating the readings from each other in the coming weeks. I strongly believe that we are all our own enemies in the sense where we can be driven and self motivated but at what point do we stop ourselves from over-achieving which can hinder our own personal being.
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