She’s a woman. It was written in the 1960’s and '70’s. She’s American, educated at Radcliffe and Columbia. So she can’t be opposed to the education of women, can she?
So I just can’t understand why in her Earthsea world, only males get to go to wizard school. It’s not because only boys have magical powers, because she mentions several witches with minor powers and one sorceress with considerable powers. Seems like since women can have powers, society would want to see them trained to use them properly and for the good of all, as they train the boys.
I loved the books so much, but this has always bothered me a lot.
The Tombs of Atuan, dealing with a girl, is so depressing.
LeGuin recognized this failing in the trilogy and sought to redress it with Tehanu, a sequel to the trilogy, which came out some time in the 90’s, I think. IIRC, she discusses her processing of this very issue in the preface to Tehanu. I don’t remember what she said about it, tho-- maybe she was just late having her consciousness raised?
I thought The Tombs of Atuan was beautiful. Sad, yes, but ending on a note of hope.
She wrote a number of Earthsea books and stories after the original trilogy in which she deals with the sexism issues; explaining how the society became so patriarchal, why wizards have to be celibate, etc. I’m brain-farting on the names of the novels other than “Tehanu”, but there are a couple recently published ones you might want to check out.
I think some of what she was doing was making the problem of sexism so obvious that the absurdity could be seen. Nearly all of her books deal with the issue to one extent or another, “The Left Hand of Darkness” being one of the most unique examples. Of all her books, the first three Earthsea book, are the ones that appealed to me the least (which means I still liked them better than damn near anything by any other author in the genre).
Just a btw - if you like Ursula K. Le Guin, you might try some Octavia Butler. She’s a little less weighty sometimes, but I enjoy her books the same way I enjoy Le Guin’s.
I think lucie is spot-on with that explanation. The sexism element bothered me when I first read the books, back when I was, oh, 13 or so. I’ve re-read them several times over the years, and come to appreciate that LeGuin created an entire society, and a deeply flawed one. The important thing is that it’s the society that is flawed, not LeGuin’s story or writing. Much of her writing focuses on particular flaws that lurk within Western society, by placing those characteristics in settings that draw them out and exemplify how such flaws can cripple a society. The Earthsea trilogy is more gentle in its approach, I think; it buries the sexism theme in a fascinating fantasty story with wonderfully detailed characters.
What sets her apart in many cases is that LeGuin, instead of creating societies that reflect what we all want to see, she creates ones that reflect what we should see.
I recently read read “Tales from Earthsea”, a collection of short stories from various points in Earthsea’s past, present and near future. I seem to recall several of the stories dealing with the division of power, and later teaching between men and women.
It’s a common misconception that an author’s views must parrot those of her (or his) characters… Heinlein gets stuck with this most often, but I’m not surprised that it’s happened to LeGuin, too. Yes, she’s a modern American enlightened woman. That doesn’t mean that her characters have to be, though. Societies have existed, and in fact still do exist in places, where women have substantially fewer opportunities than men, and are oppressed to various degrees. To pretend otherwise is not only foolish, but dangerous. Is there any reason to suppose that things would be different in another world, or on a faraway planet?
Because she wasn’t writing her version of what the world should be, just one she made up.
I don’t think Gibson was telling us that the world ought to be the way he wrote it in Neuromancer, for example. Or Heinlein in If This Goes On. The list goes on…for just about all literature. I mean, if it’s a perfect world, what is the author going to write about? Where’s the story?
There’s a fascinating essay on http://www.salon.com which addresses this very issue. Actually it might be an interview with her. It’s really worth reading. You’ll need to do a search on salon as it won’t be on the front page any longer.
Thanks, everyone, especially Primaflora for the heads-up about Salon.com. I figured I wasn’t the first person to wonder about this.
For those of you saying she wasn’t writing about a perfect world–well, sure. But she never addressed the issue in her trilogy, either. And it’s written for young adults. I read the book (20 years ago), thought, “Man, if I lived in Earthsea I’d totally go to Roke,” and then realized that there were no girls there. There’s no explanation one way or the other, which makes one think the book was written by an Englishman who went to boarding school. But it’s not.
I thought it was very odd that an educated, modern, American woman would just write it that way for no reason.
Now I will go and read her other Earthsea books, and the Salon article, and I hope to be enlightened.
Agree with all of the above analyses. I’ve also seen Le Guin categorised as a feminist author - go figure!
Hope this ain’t a spoiler for Tehanu…
I don’t believe the “boys who go to wizard school” get off easily. Tehanu reveals that the price of becoming a wizard is impotence (it’s a few years since I read it, so I might be mis-remembering). Ged only regains his potence once he loses his wizardly powers.
“I thought The Tombs of Atuan was beautiful. Sad, yes, but ending on a note of hope.” - As do all of the first three books, which are beautifully balanced between optimism and pessimism.
LeGuin’s books are often very philosophical. The Earthsea books in particular have a lot of themes from Taoist philosophy: Earth, Sea etc. etc.
The Yin-Yang stuff runs all through it.Also, she has done a translation of the Tao Te Jing.
Dunno how good it is, (Amazon reviews are mixed)but you have to admire the effort it must have taken.