--Ursula K. Le Guin
If the title of this post attracted you, you probably have already read all six books of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series. I haven't. Until a month ago, I had never heard of the books or of their author, despite enjoying both fantasy and science fiction. But my nephew thought I'd like them, and, after reading the first book, I agree.
Ms. Le Guin published A Wizard of Earthsea, the first book of the series, in 1968. As she points out in her 2012 commentary, included in the Kindle edition, the only fantasy material read widely by adults in that year was the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Her publisher asked her to write a book for teenagers -- a YA novel -- and this was her first attempt to reach that audience. As I've concluded myself, it's hard to draw a line between YA and adult literature: "Despite what some adults seem to think, teenagers are fully human. And some of them read as intensely and keenly as if their life depended on it." It isn't an audience you write down to. Teenagers are fully capable of reading language as complex as that found in any adult fiction -- which they also may well be reading.
If there is a distinction between serious adult and YA novels, it may that teenage minds are still searching for meaning in life, and are more open to unconventional ways of finding that meaning.
The Earthsea series -- or at least the first volume -- is similar to Lord of the Rings in that it describes in rich detail an alternative society, probably a pre-historic society, that is fully human and exists on Earth. But on an Earth where the geography is unfamiliar. LOTR described what could be construed as a distorted map of Europe, before coast lines had obtained their present shape. Wizard describes a huge cluster of islands, of all shapes and sizes, running from cold regions in the north to much warmer regions in the south, surrounded by seas that, to anyone's knowledge, go on forever.
Le Guin describes the places and peoples of Earthsea, as the novel progresses, as though the reader is as familiar with that world as he is with New York and California. Her technique plunges the reader deeply into her world in a highly satisfying manner. But a map would help visualize the world she describes. She mentions that she drew her novel's world on a large piece of posterboard before she began writing, or even knowing the plot of, the novel. Kindle does provide the reader a similar map, but it is so tiny as to be useless.
Earthsea is a world where magic is just one element of daily life, where every small settlement has its sorcerer or witch who has the ability to cast mundane spells protecting homes, improving the fishing, warding off illnesses. But these minor spells are not to be confused with the harnessing of the great forces of the universe, for which one must know the "real names" of persons and objects, and have the ability to invoke those real names in the Old Speech, an obsolete language like Latin, believed to date back to the creation of the world.
Ged is a boy who lives on an obscure island in Earthsea, a boy brighter and more curious and more energetic than his peers. (A boy like the typical young reader, I suppose.) He learns minor spells from the local witch, but as he turns 13, a learned Mage discovers him and, recognizing that Ged has great latent powers within him, takes him on as an apprentice. The Mage, Ogion the Silent, tries to teach Ged that any use of the greater forms of magic always disturbs the equilibrium of the universe and the soul of the person using it. One must use it with great care.
But Ged wants to be famous and powerful. He finds Ogion's caution and prudence to be stifling, and goes off to the Harvard of his time, to learn the highest arts.
Ged ultimately becomes very powerful, but finds himself confronted by a dark power of equal strength that threatens to destroy him. He has many adventures, sailing eventually to the ends of earth trying alternatively to either escape or conquer this dark power. He learns, as he grows into his later teens, that he can never escape ultimate destruction by running from his adversary, but must aggressively pursue it. Which he does in the company of his best friend from sorcery school.
Quite literally, he finally learns that "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
The novel ends with both a victory and -- equally important -- an increase in self-knowledge. As Le Guin notes in her discussion of her novel,
The search takes him through mortal danger, loss, and suffering. The discovery brings him victory, the kind of victory that isn't the end of a battle but the beginning of a life.
In less dramatic forms, it is the victory that every young person needs to achieve to become an adult.
Some YA books are too good for kids. I probably will continue reading the series.
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