renaaan

As usual with Le Guin's books, the flow of the plot is not the strong point. It's more about the sum of experiences and discussions that the characters have, if that makes any sense. So although this one has a more hackneyed plot than any other book of hers I've read, there are (as usual) quite a few really nice moments and deep insights. She spins out some more thoughts about balance and equilibrium, continuing the conversation from A Wizard of Earthsea. Here, Earthsea is being overrun by greyness and utter lack of joy or courage or conviction. Sparrowhawk goes out to find the problem, but he's getting old, so naturally the philosophical bits tend to deal with balancing life and death, finding a successor to carry on the fight, knowing the value of your own life, etc. In particular, I liked some things she said about life and death and rebirth, seeming to imply that the reason we value and enjoy life is that we know our time will run out and we will die. If we were immortal, would we really say, "Ah, now I can finally have time to do all those things I should do and the things I've wanted to do"? I worry that I would instead say, "Ah, now I don't have to feel guilty about sitting on the couch reading trashy fantasy novels all day because I know that I'll have all the time in the world to do everything I want to do... later." And then perhaps I'd sink into greyness and never do anything interesting again. Knowledge of our mortality (and, for that matter, deadlines in general) is what keeps us moving, acting, living. Of course, that's not the whole story. I know that my parents left Communist-era Poland because greyness can also arise from a system with no outlets for individual passion and ambition (beyond pandering to the rulers). If you'll get rewarded the same no matter how hard you work, there's no reason to work hard. This'll kill any desire to take pride in your work, without which nothing good can really be done. Le Guin points this out as well: "For discipline is the channel in which our acts run strong and deep; where there is no direction, the deeds of men run shallow and wander and are wasted." Sure, I'm reading into it things that perhaps she didn't explicitly mean. But in that case, the fact that it got me thinking makes it a pretty good book, doesn't it? Next up: Tehanu

2023-06-10 20:44