Zaphod

(no subject)

Okay, so the other day (or so) someone from Australia posted asking about the Earthsea film. At the time, I hadn't heard anything, but I just got wind of the fact that Gedo Senki (Tales of Earthsea in English) will be playing limited runs in Sydney and Melbourne. Apparently Australia will be the first English-language market to get the film (HA! IN YOUR FACE AMERICA! ;) ), but it will only be playing for about 10 days in each location. If you're in Sydney, make your plans quickly - the run starts tomorrow! (I'm going on Sunday. Hooray!)

More info here.
  • Current Mood
    excited excited
LimeGreenSquid

Two Good Quotes from 'Lathe of Heaven'

Again as with my last entry, I'm reading through the book called "Lathe of Heaven" by Ursula K. LeGuin about a man whose dreams, if strong enough, can change reality around him.

Anyway, it's a really good book and it makes you really feel deeply that huge things are happening and shifting and all that. But all that aside, i just wanted to share 2 quotes that i read in there - the first one i really relate to (and recently wrote an entry about), and the second one is relevant to today's world (it was written in 1971)


"[He] had a tendancy to assume that people knew what they were doing, perhaps because he generally assumed that he did not." - Pg. 33


"He had grown up in a country run by politicians who sent the pilots to man the bombers to kill the babies to make the world safe for children to grow up in." - Pg. 87
Engybook

Alder is Very Similar to George

I'm reading "The Lathe of Heaven" by Ursula K. LeGuin, and the character George is VERY much like Alder of "The Other Wind". Both have dreams that can affect real life in tremendous, and epic ways. Although it is described in The Other Wind that Alder's dreams were more of the message of the world changing being sent through him, whereas George's dreams actually change the reality of the world for everyone, making those people think what he had dreamed had always been the way of life.
But their personalities are so similar - they feel like they are small people, not really worthy of messing with the high powers of the universe.

George is trying not to have dreams because they might end up changing the world, and he doesn't believe he should have the right to change things as they are.
Alder is trying not to have dreams so that he isn't pulled over the low stone wall in the Dry Land and let all the dead that cry out to him loose, or pull him over the wall with them.

Both of them don't believe they are "big" enough people in their worlds to be meddling with such world-altering affairs.

Both of them are very quiet, almost shy men, very humble and heartfully honest. To use this character twice in her books, i wonder who she is refering to ... or if she is refering to herself? Has it ever been known whether she has had dreams that she wished not to have? So much that she had tried to escape them by any method available to her?

George with his illegal use of the drug-cards, Alder with little Tug, the kitten. And then if you remember Ged as well was pulled back into his body by the touch of the little Otak, but that wasn't really sleep ... just a parallel reference.

And in one of George's dreams he sees an Alder tree. A little bit of a stretch, but you never know ... maybe she wanted a 'George' in "The Other Wind" and came across the word 'Alder' when she was re-reading through "The Lathe of Heaven" and came across the word, as i did, and thought, "That'd be a perfect name!"
Book-Movie

Le Guin's response to the Ghibli movie

For those interested, Le Guin has posted Gedo Senki, a First Response on her website. It's a good read. I have to say it is such a treat to read her reaction to the film after having seen it. The movie is quite different from the books in many ways. What she told Goro Miyazaki, the director, was "It is not my book. It is your movie. It is a good movie." And I really think that sums it up. Her response does contain spoilers.
LimeGreenSquid

Legend of Ged: Wind Waker

I just bought the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker for the Gamecube the other day and i also just recently re-finished A Wizard of Earthsea.

How is this relevant? Well, see, Link in the game sails the open seas, calling forth the wind to push his sail in the right direction ...
And Ged sails the open seas, calling forth the mage-wind to push his sail in the right direction ...

I just feel like i'm Ged out there, chasing the shadow, speeding around on my sailboat ... she may not be the Lookfar ... but it's like, "Ahhh, so THIS is what it feels like ... virtually ..."

I just thought i'd share ... it's cool to see similarities in other things with the Earthsea books!

Just like Illusion of Gaia for the Super Nintendo has many story points and scenes that feel like they're taken directly from "The Farthest Shore" ...