Only in silence the word...
Jan. 24th, 2018 09:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miladygreyI remember--I remember with crystal clarity--reading A Wizard of Earthsea at age 13, the library copy split-spined and yellow-soft at the edges of the pages, and falling into it so deeply that when someone tapped me on the shoulder, I jumped a foot in the air.
I remember having to set the book down to process when the concept of "The true name is the true thing, to know the name is to know the thing" was introduced, and reading the sequences of working with the Master Namer intently, because that idea resonated so strongly with me. It still does.
I remember deciding that while Anne McCaffrey's Pern dragons were still the best dragons to me, Yevaud and Orm Embar were an extremely close second.
I remember tearing up when Sparrowhawk held out a hand and said "By your name I bid you come, Tenar."
I remember reading The Left Hand of Darkness in the back of a high school assembly in East Tennessee, having Genly Ai's same difficulties with wrapping his brain around the people of Gethen and trying to define them without gender binary being a factor, and thinking that maybe, maybe that doesn't matter, shouldn't count. Oh Estraven.
I remember reading "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" and it shaking me right down to my soul.
I remember hoping bitterly that the Athshean forest would eat the stupid cruel Yumens and leave nothing behind.
Farther west than west, beyond the land but at the edge of a dozen worlds, over Earthsea and Gethen and Anarres and Athshe and Rocannon's World, the dragons dance on the other wind for Ursula LeGuin. Bright the hawk's flight in the empty sky. Thank you.
I remember having to set the book down to process when the concept of "The true name is the true thing, to know the name is to know the thing" was introduced, and reading the sequences of working with the Master Namer intently, because that idea resonated so strongly with me. It still does.
I remember deciding that while Anne McCaffrey's Pern dragons were still the best dragons to me, Yevaud and Orm Embar were an extremely close second.
I remember tearing up when Sparrowhawk held out a hand and said "By your name I bid you come, Tenar."
I remember reading The Left Hand of Darkness in the back of a high school assembly in East Tennessee, having Genly Ai's same difficulties with wrapping his brain around the people of Gethen and trying to define them without gender binary being a factor, and thinking that maybe, maybe that doesn't matter, shouldn't count. Oh Estraven.
I remember reading "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" and it shaking me right down to my soul.
I remember hoping bitterly that the Athshean forest would eat the stupid cruel Yumens and leave nothing behind.
Farther west than west, beyond the land but at the edge of a dozen worlds, over Earthsea and Gethen and Anarres and Athshe and Rocannon's World, the dragons dance on the other wind for Ursula LeGuin. Bright the hawk's flight in the empty sky. Thank you.
