Ursula le Guin doesn't like the TV adaptation of Earthsea

[Uiler]

Her main criticisms are:

1) An attempt by the producers to change the belief system into "believers and unbelievers":

From her blog (now slashdotted):

So, for the record: there is no statement in the books, nor did I ever intend to make a statement, about "the union of two belief systems." There's nothing at all about the "duality of spirituality and paganism," whatever that means, either.

Earlier in the article, Robert Halmi is quoted as saying that Earthsea "has people who believe and people who do not believe." I can only admire Mr Halmi's imagination, but I wish he'd left mine alone.

In the books, the wizardry of the Archipelago and the ritualism of the Kargs are opposed and united, like the yang and yin. The rejoining of the broken arm-ring is a symbol of the restoration of an unresting, active balance, offering a risky chance of peace.

This has absolutely nothing to do with "people who believe and people who do not believe." That terrible division into Believers and Unbelievers (itself a matter not of reason but of belief) is one which bedevils Christianity and Islam and drives their wars.

But the wizards of Earthsea would look on such wars as madness, and the dragons of Earthsea would laugh at them and fly away...

Toto, something tells me Earthsea isn't Iraq.

I wonder if the people who made the film of The Lord of the Rings had ended it with Frodo putting on the Ring and ruling happily ever after, and then claimed that that was what Tolkien "intended..." would people think they'd been "very, very honest to the books"?

And 2) changing the skin tones of the characters to white:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2111107/

Most of the characters in my fantasy and far-future science fiction books are not white. They're mixed; they're rainbow....My color scheme was conscious and deliberate from the start. I didn't see why everybody in science fiction had to be a honky named Bob or Joe or Bill. I didn't see why everybody in heroic fantasy had to be white (and why all the leading women had "violet eyes"). It didn't even make sense. Whites are a minority on Earth now—why wouldn't they still be either a minority, or just swallowed up in the larger colored gene pool, in the future?

The fantasy tradition I was writing in came from Northern Europe, which is why it was about white people. I'm white, but not European. My people could be any color I liked, and I like red and brown and black. I was a little wily about my color scheme. I figured some white kids (the books were published for "young adults") might not identify straight off with a brown kid, so I kind of eased the information about skin color in by degrees—hoping that the reader would get "into Ged's skin" and only then discover it wasn't a white one...

...Gradually I got a little more clout, a little more say-so about covers. And very, very, very gradually publishers may be beginning to lose their blind fear of putting a nonwhite face on the cover of a book. "Hurts sales, hurts sales" is the mantra. Yeah, so? On my books, Ged with a white face is a lie, a betrayal—a betrayal of the book, and of the potential reader.

I think it is possible that some readers never even notice what color the people in the story are. Don't notice, don't care. Whites of course have the privilege of not caring, of being "colorblind." Nobody else does.

I have heard, not often, but very memorably, from readers of color who told me that the Earthsea books were the only books in the genre that they felt included in—and how much this meant to them, particularly as adolescents, when they'd found nothing to read in fantasy and science fiction except the adventures of white people in white worlds. Those letters have been a tremendous reward and true joy to me.

 

[anarres]

Wow. Utter bastards.

What TV adaptation is this anyway?

 

[mrtn]

Uiler, what does slashdotted mean?

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Uiler, what does slashdotted mean?

It means your site's been linked to from a busy online site (ie, slashdot.org) and the large amount of traffic has either overwhelmed the server, or sucked out all of your allowed bandwidth.

 

[Japher]

That lady is a nutjob. If she didn't want a movie to be made of it she shouldn't of sold the rights. If she wanted it done right she should of done it herself; it's called creative rights, or does she think a producer and director are just lackies?

1.

An attempt by the producers to change the belief system into "believers and unbelievers":

That kind of sucks. What she seems to think is a pivital point of her story was trounced on... oh well, that happens in hollywood. Maybe if it was made more clear or more pivitol they wouldn't of been able to bastardize it.

2.

changing the skin tones of the characters to white

Frickin bigot is what she is.

I didn't see why everybody in science fiction had to be a honky named Bob or Joe or Bill

Really? What sci-fi books are you reading that has honkies in it? Granted I don't read about a lot of niggers named shaquile, kwalami, or joeboo in sci-fi.

The fantasy tradition I was writing in came from Northern Europe, which is why it was about white people.

Which is it? White or non-white? Maybe this is why no one understand you.

And very, very, very gradually publishers may be beginning to lose their blind fear of putting a nonwhite face on the cover of a book. "Hurts sales, hurts sales" is the mantra. Yeah, so? On my books, Ged with a white face is a lie, a betrayal—a betrayal of the book, and of the potential reader.

All the publishers care about are sales you ninny, and they are their sales. It may be your book, but if you don't get paid, they don't get paid. They only care about maximizing returns, not your stupid little story. Sorry. You probably wouldn't even be complaining about it if you weren't already rich. Artistic integrity only matters to those who can afford it.

think it is possible that some readers never even notice what color the people in the story are. Don't notice, don't care. Whites of course have the privilege of not caring, of being "colorblind." Nobody else does.

How do you know, whitey? Why don't you make more generalizations about something you know nothing about?

I have heard, not often, but very memorably, from readers of color who told me that the Earthsea books were the only books in the genre that they felt included in—and how much this meant to them, particularly as adolescents, when they'd found nothing to read in fantasy and science fiction except the adventures of white people in white worlds. Those letters have been a tremendous reward and true joy to me.

Ah... warm fuzzies all over. It saddens me that you seem to have to justify your prejudisms.

Moderator Action: You would be well-advised to STOP using rascist descriptors of your own. Warned.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[SeleucusNicator]

That lady is a nutjob. If she didn't want a movie to be made of it she shouldn't of sold the rights. If she wanted it done right she should of done it herself; it's called creative rights, or does she think a producer and director are just lackies?

Thank you for finally injecting some sense into this thread.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

I'll inject some more.....


The woman who wrote these stories has an Anti-Christian bias, much like many on this board, who shall remain nameless(And you know who you are)...
First off, if you look at History, it was only when mankind ignored the Bible, rather than using it as a guide like they should have been doing, that those things happened. The Roman Catholic Church didn't give a damn about what the Bible said, they only wanted to protect their own power. The Vatican was the center of an Empire. I do not know much about Islam, so can not speak about it.

Christian persecution in the western world is on the rise, and it doesn't help that a successful author(Which I hope to one day be), gets to add another hate-filled soundbite to the mix.

I was going to read those books after seeing the movie, which I thought was ok, but now, forget it

 

[Riesstiu IV]

She also sounds incredibly racist towards whites (i.e. "Honky") and this coming from an unbiased observer.

 

[Boleslav]

Female writers of fantasy do sometimes seem to have some axes to grind...

 

[Japher]

I'll say Female writers in general do.

I never read Ursula's books nor did I watch the movie, though I have it on tape, and plan on watching it. I just find it pathetic that a writer would write something and than complain about someones interpretation of it. It's like a painter painting a picture of a sailboat and someone thinking it looks like a kite so the painter jumps all over them... If someone thinks it looks like a kite, maybe you're a sheity painter?!

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

And where in the stinking movie does it even say "Believers and Unbelievers?" It just said a "Unity of the faith of the priestesses and the Magic of the Wizards"...if I remember correctly.

Ay yi yi

 

[Mr. Do]

I read what she had to say and thought she was just a bit of a whiner, and I'm sure she's not complaining about the money she was paid.

However, thanks to the respones in this thread, the blinkers are lifted, and now I see this woman as the racist, anti-Christian, liberal bleeding heart ******** she is. Did I miss anything?

 

[Japher]

pinko commie... just for pizzaz

 

[col]

Try reading some of her books.

The Left Hand of Darkness is a good one to start with.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

lol........................

 

[Erik Mesoy]

I read that, and it's a bit twisted. I read the Earthsea books too. They're good. The TV adaptation could not be good. It's just plain impossible. This just confirms it.
Moving right along...

 

[Japher]

Try reading some of her books.

Why?

If I interpret them the wrong way, or enjoy them for the wrong reason, I'm obviously an evil christian honkey. The beitch gets none of money.

 

[Sword_Of_Geddon]

Another Atheist trying to destroy Christianity, thats all she is

 

[col]

I never read Ursula's books nor did I watch the movie

That makes you well qualified to criticise her then.

 

[Japher]

That makes you well qualified to criticise her then

makes me less biased, I'm just calling it as I see it

besides, I'm not critizing her books. What will I learn about her through her books that I can't get from hearing a white beitch make racist generalizations about me and accusing an industry of destroying HER story?

Reading her books makes no difference.