Chris, this is my favorite video you’ve done. Your perspective about the current lack of empathy towards young people making mistakes. Your discussion about the rite of passage to adulthood being a type of cultural liminal space. Your talk about difficulties you had in the read and how you found a rewarding experience at the end. All came together to make a simply brilliant deep reading. And your music outro was the chef’s kiss. 😁 Really, just so awesome. Thank you!!
Master, I go hunting. LeGuin was a wise writer, & this story is beautiful. I like that he encounters the shadow at Ogion's house before he looses it later. That's what we call foreshadowing! tavi.
Great analysis! One of the things I find very interesting about the book is that it is an unintentionally Jungian story. Ged's Shadow is almost a 1:1 match to the concept of the shadow in Jungian psychology (aside from the magical aspect of it taking a distinct form in the physical world), and in fact Ged's journey throughout the book is a story of his individuation. Early on, he is all Ego, but as you rightly pointed out his bearing changes significantly after the Shadow is unleashed upon the world. His confrontation with it and subsequent integration results in his healing and the actualization of his true Self. I say this was unintentional because, according to the sources I've read, Le Guin apparently was not familiar with C.G. Jung's ideas during the time she was writing A Wizard of Earthsea, but it ended up adding a lot of depth to the story.
There's 6 in the Earthsea Cycle. The first 3 are most memorable to me. There was 20 years between the 3rd and 4th and they really feel different. Some in the 5th book (Tales from Earthsea) feel familiar. I think I learned more from Earthsea than from LOTR but they are very different. I don't feel like I identified with Frodo so much as I did with Ged.
Chris, this is my favorite video you’ve done. Your perspective about the current lack of empathy towards young people making mistakes. Your discussion about the rite of passage to adulthood being a type of cultural liminal space. Your talk about difficulties you had in the read and how you found a rewarding experience at the end. All came together to make a simply brilliant deep reading. And your music outro was the chef’s kiss. 😁
Really, just so awesome. Thank you!!
Thanks so much! Yeah, the book really took off for me about halfway through, so much so that I had to read the other two!
Awesome books!
Master, I go hunting. LeGuin was a wise writer, & this story is beautiful. I like that he encounters the shadow at Ogion's house before he looses it later. That's what we call foreshadowing! tavi.
Great analysis!
One of the things I find very interesting about the book is that it is an unintentionally Jungian story. Ged's Shadow is almost a 1:1 match to the concept of the shadow in Jungian psychology (aside from the magical aspect of it taking a distinct form in the physical world), and in fact Ged's journey throughout the book is a story of his individuation. Early on, he is all Ego, but as you rightly pointed out his bearing changes significantly after the Shadow is unleashed upon the world. His confrontation with it and subsequent integration results in his healing and the actualization of his true Self.
I say this was unintentional because, according to the sources I've read, Le Guin apparently was not familiar with C.G. Jung's ideas during the time she was writing A Wizard of Earthsea, but it ended up adding a lot of depth to the story.
Fantastic comment! Thanks for the analysis!
I enjoyed Earthsea more than Lord Of The Rings, which I had just finished before reading Earthsea. I haven't read that 4th Earthsea book.
There's 6 in the Earthsea Cycle. The first 3 are most memorable to me. There was 20 years between the 3rd and 4th and they really feel different. Some in the 5th book (Tales from Earthsea) feel familiar. I think I learned more from Earthsea than from LOTR but they are very different. I don't feel like I identified with Frodo so much as I did with Ged.