The Deceit And Broken Promises Behind The Worst Adaptation Ever

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The Earthsea books, their amazing author Ursula K Le Guin and the story of how she got stabbed in the back by a production company so they could make the world's worst adaptation.
Howl's Moving Castle ~ The Lost Lost in Adaptation:
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A Whitewashed Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin:
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[@Dominic-Noble]

I have no idea how I managed to pronounce "semblance" wrong in the opening but oh well. Here are some links to the books I reviewed today. Apparently I'm an "influencer" so I get kickbacks if you use the amazon links (yaaay I guess). A Wizard of Earthsea: amzn.to/2Xf6qzQ www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wizard-of-earthsea-ursula-k-le-guin/1100818986 The Tombs of Atuan: amzn.to/33dx0Nl www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tombs-of-atuan-ursula-k-le-guin/1101914665?ean=9780689845369 The Earthsea cycle: amzn.to/30f5ixZ amzn.to/314gcFV

[@Oops-All-Ghosts]

Yeah, it's clearly pronounced "sam-bee-ance," not "sem-bee-ence." Jeez.

[@keegszzz8356]

Fun fact, there has been talk of another adaptation with Le Guin’s son involved.

[@RainintheBrain]

What about the Anime Tale of Earthsea directed by Gorō Miyazaki?

[@Molikai]

I should bring the adaption of 'Altered carbon' to your attention.

[@jalapenoofjustice4682]

The idea that sandman is still coming out monthly is misleading. Technically there are currently books in the sandman universe coming out but the actual Sandman series written by Gaiman ended years ago.

[@EmilyRitcheson]

"My cats are being naughty, but they're being too cute to throw out." That is the entire experience of having cats in a single sentence.

[@matxalenc8410]

Even when they're trying to kill you?

[@paulcoy9060]

Explaining cats to an alien: "This is nature's most perfectly evolved predator, a killing machine responsible for wiping out whole species of birds." Alien: "That's terrible! What do you do about it?" Human: "We pick them up and snuggle them, and say 'Wusha wusha wusha' into their fur." Alien: "Ah. That explains a lot about you." Human: "We also eat peppers which produce a poisonous substance, which evolved as a way to stop animals from eating them." Alien, as it slowly facepalms: "Anything else?" Human: "We also eat chocolate, which is poisonous, but only if you 22 pounds of it in one sitting." Alien: " ........."

[@koatam]

@@paulcoy9060 Everything is poisonous if you have enough of it.

[@paulcoy9060]

@@koatam I feel like I need to conduct an experiment with enough naked women to be sure of your statement's validity.

[@MorgenPeschke]

Apparently, "Sir Terry" is not that cat's True Name ㄟ(ツ)ㄏ

[@jettisoncargo]

In Left hand of Darkness, they can't change sex 'at will': it occurs randomly on a monthly cycle, and is accompanied by powerful sexual urges. This makes the critique of gender roles in the novel even more substantial, as no-one knows month to month which gender they are going to be. Le Guin said she came up with the idea because she liked the line "The King was pregnant"

[@sylven7236]

Exactly!

[@ranwolf1240]

so does the gender-swapping still happens if someone is pregnant? what happens to the fetus? is that even explained?

[@sylven7236]

@@ranwolf1240 it is, and in detail. If a gethenian becomes pregnant during kemmer(the period in which they assume sex characteristics) then they remain feminine until after birth, at which time they return to sommer(their neutral state).

[@sylven7236]

The kemmer/sommer cycle is essentially their equivalent of the menstrual cycle. I would never underestimate Le Guin, lol, she put so much detail into the world of Left Hand.

[@dianewood2430]

Sylven Neutral ❓ Do U mean not male nor female ? So they won’t be able to nurse ?

[@SPQRKlio]

I got into a horrible, horrible discussion wIth a member of the adaptation’s marketing team who was smugly trying to explain WHY this adaptation HAD to be this way. I still have the mental scars. Ms. LeGuin sent me a personal, long, and thoughtful reply to a fan letter when I was a tween. So gracious, so wonderful.

[@the-NightStar]

Sadly, I 100% believe you because i've gone through a similar experience myself, maybe worse. There was a particularly awful, streaming-only indie horror film I watched, once with wretched, obnoxious acting and a plot and twist that made no sense. On an old (now deactivated) twitter account of mine, I mocked the film in a multi-part tweet. Somehow, the actual director of the film saw the negative things I was saying about the movie and literally began to harass me over it. I thought it was hilarious and entertaining at first, until this person DEMANDED I debate with him further about why I don't understand the brilliance of his work, and when I actually began to reiterate and explain the points I mocked earlier, he just responded with images he must have taken of cherry-picked "6-and-above-out-of-10" IMDB user-reviews of his movie (there weren't many, lower star reviews were far more common) and highlighted anything remotely positive anyone said about his film even if they were obviously back-handed compliments. Followed up with pointing out any accolades for any of his more minor production work on other films as if this had anything to do with anything. It was such a relentlessly petty and narcissistic hill he was willing to die on with the tact of a 3rd grader, that would have kept on being funny, if he didn't continue to start prodding and asking me if I quit or gave up, every-time I didn't reply within the span of a few minutes. It got old so I blocked him. But yes, these people are not above acting like ridiculous children if you don't think they are the prodigal genius that everyone else as well as themselves, seem to tell them every day that they are.

[@SPQRKlio]

ᵗʰᵉNight★Star Debating with someone like that is like locking yourself in a room with an energy vampire. Or is the phrase “mud fight with a pig”? Both of those. The instinct is to talk through it and present a good-faith argument, but they don’t really want to hear you. The marketing person on Earthsea wasn’t even the type who wants to “debate.” He legitimately did not care what anyone else said, because he had his facts and nothing else mattered. We were at a sort of boutique-y science fiction literary event, the sort of place where he could have expected people to be respectful toward authors and works, and his rationale was that it would be impossible for audiences to identify with or understand Earthsea if the changes hadn’t been made, and therefore it would be impossible to market as originally conceived and written. No discussion necessary, this was a fact of life, and was why anything studios produce would need to be treated in the same way-take the name for marketing purposes, then make it fit a specific design. Ow. There go my mental scars, flaring up.

[@silverkyre]

@@SPQRKlio Wow that's for sure frustrating. But also intresting to see that, while we all imagine this attitude exsist every time we see a terrible adaptation, it actually exisits. These people that don't understand what makes a story good memorable and draws people in. Meanwhile stories like he mentions tend to be failures. Like say Percy Jackson they were sitting on a franchise with the potential of Harry Potter. And just dropped it down the drain. They could have made sooooooo much money but their staunch on their beliefs that they must change the material for it to be good. When the books success suggests otherwise. And the worst thing that terrible adaptations are then heralded as a failure of the original work which is just terrible and unfair. And like that person who wouldn't budge on their beliefs that they made it a terrible failure other good adaptations tend not to happen. It's sad and interesting at the same time.

[@Author.Noelle.Alexandria]

@@the-NightStar I got into a big argument with EL James's husband until I got blocked by both of them. I actually live in Vancouver, Washington, and I actually am at the OHSU ER more often than I'd like to be, and I actually know the area...BECAUSE I FUCKING LIVE HERE. Niahl, or however it's spelled, jumped in for her and began claiming she knows it better because her books have sold do many copies, which is absurdly stupid to claim. Even when the points I as making were provable by looking at a map, he kept insisting that I was wrong. He also kept claiming that iPhones never got popular in Vancouver and weren't as common as Blackberries. The hill he was willing to die on was claiming most people used Blackberries at a time when most people were using iPhones. I was quite pleased with this city making it known that, despite Twilight being allowed here, there was no way that that production was going to be allowed anywhere near here. Portland also refused, though the big place they wanted to be in was this Vancouver. Irks the fuck out of me, though, that they were all like, "Filmed in location in Vancouver," misleading people into thinking that it was Vancouver, Washington.

[@mackereltabbie]

@@SPQRKlio But why would you want the name for marketing purposes, if audiences don't "identify with" the story as originally written??? The people the name appeals to, like the books, while the people who wouldn't like a story like that, don't care about the name

[@NaramSinofAkkad790]

What's amazing about Le Guin is that she's constantly critiquing her use of diverse casts in her book. Her afterword for a wizard of earthsea points out both that it was revolutionary to have a fantasy book star a person of color and that it was still by the book as the heroic tale still centered almost entirely around men. She writes about her inability to write grown women because she herself never experienced grown women in other media. She's incredibly self reflective and it's wonderful to she the journey she went on as an author as the earthsea series continued.

[@nancyjay790]

I wrote her a fan letter back in the early 2010s, and was completely floored when she wrote back! She actually replied to my comments, and although I felt I didn't do her enough justice, I was always a fan. Her death announcement made me cry.

[@nancyjay790]

To be clear, I first read the first three Earthsea books in the late 70s. And then raced through everything else I could find. Several of her books have been published in the UK as part of the Sci-fi Masterworks series.

[@bokarndiaye323]

@@nancyjay790 I'm so glad you got to have that. I never got to write her, and I was similarly struck by her disappearance. I read her book as a teen, at a time when I was absolutely terrified of death, and Earthsea is pretty much one of the only reflections about the subject that I feel really adressed my fear, and gave it the beginning of an answer.

[@khadijahdanielian3918]

Now see, THAT is the caliber of author i aspire to be like one day

[@patriciastolz1682]

I've loved her books since I was ten and now I still kick myself in the face for not writing to her to say how much they mean to me. Always thought that would have been a droplet of appreciation lost in the ocean she deserves...

[@Nexusfighter]

I did that too!!! I was so not expecting to hear back from her! I was so sad when she passed 😔

[@DanniBiersack]

the second you mentioned how she fought to have POC characters etc. my immediate thought was "they white washed the adaption, didn't they?". sometimes i hate being right

[@GriffinPilgrim]

Some evils seem inevitable.

[@EMSpdx]

YUP.

[@fermintenava5911]

Oh, it's even worse 😈

[@ruekurei88]

They whitewashed the only two adaptations of Earthsea. Yeah anima so technically Asian, but that does more seem like that 'they look kinda Asian because anime, but they are white really'. Besides, they're not Asian anyway. The anime didn't even have a black or brown character in it iirc

[@enriquegarcia2790]

@@ruekurei88 brown guy here(technically) so I have to ask you as lovingly and as politely as possible to please calm down. In defense of the Ghibli movie there experience with POC is EXTREMELY limited. They didn't intend to do harm, it's the American one that really pisses me off mad as hell. They didn't have to stab her in the back like that and cruelly whitewash it the way that they did. Especially at the time of the adaptation in America it would have been perfectly fine to at least keep SOME faith with the book but no. They CHOSE to be racist. They CHOSE to whitewash. They CHOSE to commit POC erasures.

[@pikaace]

Admiration of JK Rowling ended; now Ursula K. Le Guin is the author I strive to live up to

[@andrewjenkins9965]

A true legend.

[@jimstoesz3878]

"It edges out I, Robot..." Okay, not faithful to the book AT ALL but still a good movie. "... and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Again, not that bad on its own merits. "Even Artemis Fowl comes out ahead of this mess." Holy *SHIT* okay now we're in trouble!

[@grumpyotter]

I am a huge fan of Asimov and thought I, Robot the movie wasn't all that bad --aside from how they ruined Susan Calvin. God forbid an unattractive older woman be given a starring role. But I did like that they really did try to understand the Three Laws--and then carried them to the ultimate conclusion, which I thought was neat.

[@MissCaraMint]

I mean That’s different since I felt they a) kept the spirit of the book if not the precise details about how the story went, but also b) there is an older faithful adaptation of a A Hitchhikers Guide which does give them more freedom to do a more out there interpretation.

[@Stormkrow280]

@@grumpyotter Sigourney Weaver is getting up there in terms of age and that woman has aged like fine wine. My point is that just because someone is “old” doesn’t necessarily mean they are unattractive.

[@grumpyotter]

@@Stormkrow280 I'm not sure how Sigourney came into this conversation, but Susan Calvin, in the books, is old--telling the stories from her past. And is described as being unattractive. I was disappointed that the movie had to make her a young hot chick.

[@Dominic-Noble]

Please don't actually slap yourself in the face O_O

[@betenoire1145]

Too late 🤣

[@BonTonBunny]

Yup too late

[@thefool4407]

Well, a bit late

[@GoatAndDog]

Yeah I did slap myself 😂

[@depreseo]

now you tell me :P

[@AdelaideBeemanWhite]

I met her several times. Her daughter is my mother’s best friend. She was always very kind and down to earth.

[@unfabgirl]

I am officially jealous. I legit cried when she passed and I've never even gotten to meet her. Hope her daughter is doing well.

[@alanmoss3603]

You mean 'kind and down to earthsea!'

[@t.thomas8919]

I see your name and pfp... made me chuckle. I wish this was a book Jane Austen. I don't know why. I'm just in a fit of giggles. But neat outcome there.

[@chunellemariavictoriaespan8752]

Sugoi!

[@AdelaideBeemanWhite]

@@alanmoss3603 - Touché.

[@dorothygale9648]

"It’s good that he made one movie. With that, he should stop." -Hayao Miyazaki, after seeing his son's adaptation of the Earthsea books.

[@BonaparteBardithion]

It was...yeah. Poppy Hill was okay though.

[@the-NightStar]

ugh, I don't take too much stock in his words. Yes, this film probably IS terrible, but Miyazaki is such a stogy, pretentious, belligerent, and self-righteous asshole far too much of the time for me to ever really care what he has to say. This is actually why I dislike a lot of his general work and many Ghibli films actually (contrary to most popular opinions, I actually still HATE Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Ponyo in particular... the latter for it's pretentiously misguided, arrogantly biased anti-technology message at the expense of a story with any real sense of investment with forced preacy-ness that would make Ferngully look subtle, Spirited Away for being just a style-over-substance collection of complete nonsense with muddled and harmful morals with trashy nightmare fuel for the sake of being edgy for edgy's sake, and Ponyo for just being an incoherent, unsettling, miserable little film with no direction and no meaningful story to leave you with). But even aside from my distaste for those films on their own and my complaints with others in that library, I actually find the bulk of his general opinions of most things to be the very personification of "old man yells at cloud" cross pollinated with a lot of willfully ignorant bullish rhetoric. So while i'm probably intended to find that quote funny, knowing that he's really just an over-touted anime version of Hideki Kamiya with less charm and even more ego, I just roll my eyes instead. Of course he's the type to just have the "out of touch old ranty grampa" equivalent of a Z-Snap retort rather than an actual useful thing to say on the matter. Fits what I know of his M.O.

[@WarKeineAbsicht]

@@the-NightStar What I got out of this the most is that you don't know how to use "the latter" properly. I have similar opinions about Princess Mononoke, and I totally understand your Miyazaki criticism, but that just stood out the most

[@CendaquentaBooks]

OUCH. I hope his son can recover from that putdown someday.

[@dorothygale9648]

@@the-NightStar I respect your opinion, but Hayao Miyazaki is one of my favorite directors and a big part of my childhood.

[@gwendolynpotter5252]

I love that Le Guin took a lot of inspiration from what her parents taught her and her experience visiting other cultures with them as a child. Her parent were anthropologists and though that is not the sole reason her books are so amazing I think it allowed her to have a more diverse perspective and understanding of the world from a very young age. Her writing has always been a massive favorite of family's and was also super helpful with explaining gender identity to my grandparents. The way her narration changes based on the character she is writing is amazing, She gets out of her own head and fully engulfs a character. I stan her so much as a writer and human being.

[@cheyenneoliver5184]

Dom: * Starts talking about Earthsea * Me: I didn't think he would review another Ghibli movie since the last one got taken down, because they're so copyright-strike happy Dom: This will not be the version I'm reviewing Me: There's another one???

[@CyberSpider35]

Yeah. With freaking Ashmore and Kreuk.

[@little_ghosty1854]

He did a review on a ghibli movie??

[@Z3DT]

@@little_ghosty1854 it got taken down because Ghibli gave him a copyright strike. You can still view it if you're a patron

[@luketfer]

Yeah I was kind of curious if he'd do tales from Earthsea anime since the creator really didn't like the anime adaptation.

[@little_ghosty1854]

Cool

[@mercylimpokhuwe]

As an avid bookworm, I really did slap myself, not too hard though.

[@zaighnut]

I whole heartedly recommend you pick up the books, it is baffling how little young people know her work when it is just that good. I am still to find someone who disliked the Earthsea books.

[@SOJackson85]

As did I. I'm ashamed 🥺

[@friend_trilobot]

I dodged that bullet, thanks to a friend rerecommending A Wizard of Earthsea when I was in college. However, I went a long time without reading her sci fi books, but they are also good. The later you get the better they are, but they are all interesting at least and ahead of their time. I think her earliest sci fi one, Rocannon's World, is basically an anthropologist studying an alien world that feels like an 80s fantasy - psychic elfin and Darvish aliens, tall, lordly sword-weilding heroes and flying cat-like predators (bc its a planet with lower gravity) but the POV character gives it an anthroplogical feel, and though he's a (seemingly white) male hero, he is pretty far from being toxicly masculine. She also invented the concept of the "Ansible" in that book, as the Dom pointed out, and explores its creation more fully in The Dispossed.

[@Midorikonokami]

Go read them. You will automatically do it 67% harder for every book.

[@metatronblack]

So i see you like it rough huh? 😏😏😏

[@DarlingScotty]

I actually had the distinct pleasure of meeting her back when I was in college. I took a summer class that was entirely about her Earthsea books. At the end of the term she came in for a Q&A session, after which I asked her what she thought of the audiobook version of Wizard of Earthsea. For context, it's narrated by Harlan Ellison, but begins and ends with her narration. I can recall how she took on this mischievous air before saying "I think I could've done better." Then she leaned in and added with a glint in her eye "He was a bit of a ham."

[@Matthew_Raymond]

Am I the only one who heard “Hallmark” and immediately thought “Oh, that explains it”?

[@charlesbaker7703]

The general lack of fidelity to Le Guin's vision, especially the whitewashing?

[@NolorW]

I loved Hallmarks Sherlock Holmes series, and I still think their 2-part Merlin with Sam Neill was the best Arthurian story out of all I've seen, (and I think I saw all), but I don't think I watched anything else so can't say :D

[@Matthew_Raymond]

@@charlesbaker7703 I meant specifically the whitewashing. Hallmark ain't BET.

[@spyone4828]

Sort of? In my experience, stuff from Hallmark ranges from "kinda good" to "too saccharine and trite to be tolerable". But that came after we'd heard "on the Sci Fi Channel", which also has a reputation of ranging from "okay" to "crap". So there are two different filters at work, both of which occasionally permit reasonable quality but are strongly biased towards garbage. I don't think either is entirely at fault.

[@andrewollmann304]

Matthew Raymond I think this statement needs to be put in context. You see, over a period of several years, the Sci-Fi Channel (before the spelling change) used to produce mini-series in cooperation with Hallmark. They were usually fantasy stories and updates of public domain works. They were generallay pretty good. But some, namely “The Lost Kingdom,” “Hercules,” and the onesbased on Sir Terry Pratchett’s work are bad. I highly recommend “The 10th Kingdom” to everyone, though. It was based on a book.

[@urrsys9765]

I'm a simple gentleman- I hear "Syfy Channel" and "Adaptation" in the same sentence and my spine takes a long, lavish vacation.

[@gslinger19]

Are there any decent ones? Legitimately wondering.

[@jessicawilson1751]

The Dune mini series was pretty good. Children of Dune was alright.

[@Syurtpiutha]

@@gslinger19 The Expanse. THE EXPANSE. It is excellent. The writers of the books were involved with the writing process to make sure the story remained as intact as possible given they acknowledged they aren't television writers. Also really fierce in making sure the cast wasn't whitewashed. Special Effects were a bit dodgy sometimes, and after syfy canceled it Amazon picked it up. First 1.5 seasons follow book 1 pretty closely, haven't seen that much further but I have read the 8 novels (which are excellent) that have come out so far and am really happy with most of the choices they made and pretty ok with the changes that were made.

[@gslinger19]

@@Syurtpiutha oh duh, good call. Silly of me to forget that. I've watched season one. :)

[@Syurtpiutha]

@@gslinger19 Well, to be fair I was knocked off my butt when I realised the show was a Syfy original, as I associated Syfy purely with Asylum-style nonsense like Sharktopus. It was a very un-syfy show. :)

[@josephinewiengard5393]

I remember watching the miniseries on TV as a kid a couple of years before I found the Earthsea series was a book. I recall reading it for the first time and thinking “Wait! Ged has a brain! And he uses it?!” Book Ged is a thousand times more competent and thoughtful character than his TV counterpart, who is essentially every magical story hero protagonist, but also, somehow even worse than the template suggests.

[@fermintenava5911]

You're not the only one that got the wrong impression. When I was a teenager, I found the book's ending "anti-climatic" 😑 Only years later I learned to appreciate it and realized, how atmospheric the world-building was.

[@coleperez3612]

Right?! I was so mislead by the miniseries garbage that I sat down and had to reread the books to wash it out of my brain. I found the books because I was obsessed with the miniseries as a kid. Thankfully I learned how beautiful the books are

[@friend_trilobot]

I literally hesitated to read the books bc that miniseries was so awful and annoying. It made earthsea look like a series written by a 13 year old channeling Eragon and Harry potter, when the books feel like basically the opposite.

[@merrittanimation7721]

I learned of Earthsea from the Studio Ghibli adaptation, which I enjoyed enough to check out the books when I saw them. At the time I didn't like the first book all that much but loved the Tombs of Atuan. I was rather horrified when I learned of the SyFy adaptation.

[@ArnisKaye]

I saw the miniseries first, too. I was excited bc I wanted to read the books, but hadn't yet. I thought it was trash and assumed the books (& Le Guin) were too. Years later, I read the first book and was floored. It's like night and day. The books and the TV series couldn't be more opposite. I can't believe I missed out for so many years bc of that stupid miniseries!

[@christicrochets9011]

Percy Jackson adaptation: *lol I'm bad rite?* Earthsea adaptation: *hold my beer*

[@berengustav7714]

It reminds me of The Last Airbender,because WHITE-WASHING.

[@Shadow1Yaz]

“Even Artemis Fowl comes ahead of this adaptation!” Me: holy sh!t!!

[@Painocus]

Been hoping for this ever since I first found your channel. The story behind the Ghibli film is also quite sad. Earthsea had been Miyazaki's dream project for pretty much his entire career, when he first asked Le Guin for the rights she turned him down as he either didn't have much work to show her or she didn't have access to any of his work, and she was afraid it'd be a watered-down Disneyification of her books. Eventually she had a chance to see Totoro and came to the conclusion that Miyazaki would be perfect for a film adaption after all, and when she eventually got the rights back from this film she gave them over to Ghibli. But at this point Miyazaki was busy on other projects and instead of wait the higher-ups at Ghibli pushed it on his son. To put it midly, Le Guin was not the only one of the two who was disappointed about how that film turned out.

[@fermintenava5911]

The worst is that Goyo Miyazaki actually loved the books and wanted do them justice, but had no idea of film and storytelling at this point. It's not a good adaptation (or movie), but it still has a little of the tone and magic, and it's propably gonna have a better influence on the reader's opinion than the Hallmark-desaster.

[@stebsis]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/kJito6x-ZquYl7s Here's a great snippet from a documentary about Miyazaki where he reacts to the Earthsea movie.

[@keiichimorisato98]

@@fermintenava5911 his second film is MUCH better, and I really hopes he would return to 2D animation, but he feels that he isnt worthy of such, so he does 3D CGI instead...

[@snowwhistle1]

@@keiichimorisato98 I feel that's kind of a disservice to Goro to say that 3D CG animation was something he fell back on as a punishment for "failing" in traditional animation. Firstly, I wouldn't even call him a failure in traditional animation. And secondly, he seems happy carving out a niche for himself with 3D animation. Switching to a new medium isn't a sign of failure or weakness.

[@keiichimorisato98]

@@snowwhistle1 I did not say failure. I did not feel worthy. He comes from a landscaping back ground, NOT an art background, so he felt unworthy when there were other who worked their entire lives in animation.

[@TF2Fan101]

TLDR: The author was basically given the same treatment as Rick Riordan when they were adapting the Percy Jackson books into movies.

[@coleperez3612]

At least Percy's name stays Percy lol! They actually changed Ged's name in the show... It's a hot pile of garbage.

[@Awakeandalive1]

Worse. MUCH worse.

[@Midorikonokami]

Or the school for peculiar children. That series was dark and full of atmosphere. The only thing the adaptation had going for it was Eva Green.

[@TF2Fan101]

Midorikonokami I actually didn’t think that was a bad movie.

[@junjunjamore7735]

@@TF2Fan101 it was fine on its own but as an adaptation it's an "in-name only"

[@ShalomDove]

“So this is what it feels like to Stan? I’ve always wondered.” She does sound like a bit of a badass.

[@armjjb5189]

Me: "Oh, come on. It can't be THAT bad." Dom: "...on the SciFi Channel..." Me: *HHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!*

[@thuytienlives8487]

Oh gosh. One person I know from early 2019 is a massive racist and kept saying the old Star Wars was superior to the new Star Wars because the new Star Wars is more racially diverse. The fact he loves the SyFy channel for being racist doesn't surprise me at all. This just confirms even more that the SyFy channel is racist. Thank you for warning me about the SyFy channel.

[@anderkid1090]

ThuyTien Lives If you hate the sequel trilogy, hate it for the right reasons (like Rey being a complete Mary Sue)

[@thuytienlives8487]

@@anderkid1090 I don't hate the sequel trilogy of Star Wars. I actually enjoyed it and thought its cast's racial diversity is a good thing. I honestly don't care if Rey is a Mary Sue. I think she's a great character.

[@dianewood2430]

ThuyTien Lives Never considered the Sy Fy channel raciest 🥴

[@dianewood2430]

Rich McGee Really liked Farscape & Lexi

[@Tadicuslegion78]

Dom: Time and time again Hollywood has lied, manipulated, and down other horrible nasty things while making movies Me: *slowly stirs tea* You don't say

[@Tadicuslegion78]

@@Scorpshee *sips tea* But wait, there's more!

[@Grim_Sister]

Me: I am shocked! SHOCKED! ... Well, not THAT shocked

[@Tadicuslegion78]

@@Grim_Sister Have a biscuit then.

[@oriondye3212]

Authors fault. The minute they said they wouldn’t put it into the contract she should have walked away.

[@christopherclayton5500]

@@oriondye3212 I got the impression they didn't TELL her it wasn't in the contract.

[@dermathze700]

Is it weird that I actually slapped myself without even thinking about it?

[@lasura]

Yes. I do the same and I'm pretty mental...

[@silviacristinadomingueztor3494]

Don't worry i also slapped myself you're not alone

[@GLIEPNIR]

No, as he was giving the instructions I was following and did it... It wasn't until I did it that I realized I was following suit... Fucking hell...

[@haileygiabiconi8830]

Well, he is the dom after all 🤷

[@Msoulwing]

You *might* want to be more aware of your actions, yes.

[@nickwilliams8302]

I remember seeing this in a video store shortly after it came out. My first reaction was to see the title and get excited. I'd read the books as a kid and loved them. Then I got close enough to see the faces of the cast on the cover. I decided that if they couldn't get _that_ right, the adaptation was only going to annoy me. It's not just that most characters in the books (the Hardic peoples) were described as having colouring similar to Native Americans (red-brown skin with black hair). It's that it's an actual plot point that the pale-skinned humans in the series were from a different culture (the Kargish peoples) who were seen as violent barbarians who loathed magic. Whitewashing Earthsea is not merely a matter of "representation". It fundamentally alters important aspects of the setting and plot such that making Ged white - even if there were no other alterations, and I'm _pretty sure there were_ - would ruin this as an adaptation.

[@agnesmetanomski6730]

The producers sound like the ones Terry Pratchett said had offered to make an adaptation of his Discworld novel Mort. Pratchett at least got to write the script. When he went to discuss it with the producers, they said they loved the it, but a few minor modifications were necessary for the movie to be a great success, the most important one being.... removing the character of Death....... Luckily Pratchett hand't yet signed a contract, so that was the end of this potential catastrophe. But I wonder if that was part of what made him write Moving Pictures later on.

[@kokirivivi]

Which is sort of sad now that Rhianna Pratchett is saying on twitter how the BBC sort of went crazy with the adaptation of the Watch books after Sir Terry died, and she or Narrativia can't really do anything about it cause the contract was signed between him and the BBC. And my god does that adaptation look bad.

[@agnesmetanomski6730]

@@kokirivivi I had hoped the BBC would be better at adapting, but as a general rule I mistrust any adaptation of books to movies. As far as I can tell from my experience, the bad ones by far outnumber the good ones. For me, the rule seems to be "use the fame of the book to sell the movie, but don't bother too much with the book's actual story".

[@AnaMaria-wt3ix]

@@kokirivivi is it as bad as Going Postal where the golem is clearly made out of foam?! Dude looks like a ninja turtle

[@LadyAhro]

@@AnaMaria-wt3ix Worse because it’s character concept assassination, not merely bad design. You’d never guess who was who from the trailer if it wasn’t for key and obvious interactions.

[@MissCaraMint]

Oh God could you imgaine. I love how they actualy cast Death in the Color of Magic. Sure it wasn’t the best movie ever, but I felt the charm shown thru and one of the reasons is Christopher Lee as Death. Even if it was a small roll.

[@SeraidenAF]

My dad says she was also a great person IRL, from the times he met Ursula when volunteering at conventions. Also just her books're just simply amazing.

[@EMSpdx]

She was truly sweet and awesome- I have a couple of signed books by Le Guin from conventions and she always had a kind thing to say to fans!

[@lemmythetrash-goblin8291]

Oof, this one hurts. Earthsea Cycle is one of most beautifully poetic, original and serene fantasy series there is. They felt somewhat more personal, smaller and in a way, in-depth than most fantasy I had read at that point of my life. Trying to turn it into bog-standard EPIC TOLKIEN-ESQUE-FANTASY-ADVENTURE® just feels missing the entire point.

[@SixthFonist]

I'm not sure how much of fantasy is really Tolkien-esque. I think a lot of modern fantasy is more in the vein of Jordan or Goodkind.

[@keiichimorisato98]

I HIGHLY recommend Spice and Wolf. It ks a down to earth fantast series about a traveling merchant escorting a pagan wolf goddess to her home region, on their journey they get into various conflicts involving trade, set within a larger fantasy realm. The sequel series, Wolf and New Parchment is heavily inspired by the reformation of the church, the development of the printing press, and the creation of the first printed Bible. The original series got an anime adaptation covering book 1 2 3 and 5, it's really good, though it will not get a continuation, sadly... Even if the books and anime were incredibly popular.... For something a bit grander in sxope, I highly recommend the Spellmonger series and the Cycle of Arawn/Galand series, they do some interesting things, especially with their magic systems.

[@Cyromantik]

@@keiichimorisato98 I second this, Spice and Wolf has amazing world-building, whimsy, romance and a mixture of light and dark sides of human nature. My preference is the manga treatment, but it has been animated faithfully as well.

[@catantcha99]

@@keiichimorisato98 didn't the author go to jail for tax evasion

[@keiichimorisato98]

@@catantcha99 that was Log Horizon, and that wasnt his fault, his accountant ran off with his money, and since it was his money, he was held responsible. This kind of thing happens a lot, even in the US and Europe. He paid his taxes and has continued writing Log Horizon, season 3 entered production at the start of the year, we should be seeing it sometime in 2021.

[@mtnygard]

There was a lot going on in the 70’s that people today think they invented.

[@Geospasmic]

OMG, the ballad at the end!! Don't skip the credits, guys!

[@AntediluvianRomance]

Earthsea deserves better. Maybe no frigging adaptations at all, just more reading. Why is a great feminist author like Le Guin forgotten in current times? I'd think she'd be an icon.

[@Painocus]

@@1090Ideas: Why would it be expensive? Of all fantasy series I can think of Earthsea would probably be one of the cheaper ones to adapt. Iirc the shadow is only shown a couple of times and the last time at-least it could potentially just be Ged's actor with a photo filter. There are no big war scenes. There are few to no massive, majestic or overly supernatural-looking scenery; and while I'd prefer if they made some unique looking sets, most scenes could probably be done just with clever use of preexisting locations. Magic in Earthsea is generally non-flashy and instantanious. For example a book-acurate transformation scene would really only need a shot of object A and then an instant cut to object A having been swapped out with object B. The biggest expenses would be the dragon scenes and the ending of book 3, but if anything book 1 and 2 at-least could probably be done cheaper than the first season of GoT or The Witcher.

[@friend_trilobot]

I had heard that her sci fi novel, The Telling (Also an excellent book) was going to be made into a film, and that the director had been working with Le Guin directly on it around the time she passed. I had thought that if it happens, that could be the thing that puts Le Guin's name more into pop culture and mages it a more common name.

[@robertgronewold3326]

@@1090Ideas If they can make Foundation, they can make Earthsea.

[@mergele1000]

@@robertgronewold3326 They can make something with the name for sure, how it turns out remains to be seen.

[@keiichimorisato98]

I have nothing but bad experiences from feminist authors, and writers in general... They tend to write stories in the same way as evangelical christians, the message being more important than being a good story.

[@koivunen2489]

My cultist mum grounded me for checking out one of the Earthsea books from the library. Maybe I should try again now that I'm an adult, lol.

[@RanmaAscania]

YES

[@pintpullinggeek]

Generally if someone bans you from reading a book it's going to be a good book.

[@koivunen2489]

@@pintpullinggeek true

[@maritasue5067]

Definitely!

[@fabrisse7469]

My mom banned me from watching Doctor Who when I was 7 because it gave me nightmares. I told her that I'd started watching it again, and she said, "You're over 50. I'm not worried."

[@paucalderon8326]

I am a biologist student. When I was reading Earthsea I couldn’t stopped thinking how we use scientific names and how you shouldn’t be messing with the ecosystem because it can cause chaos. I just loved to think about it lol. Le Guin deserves so much more recognition. I adore her work.

[@Tomboy014]

I didn't slap myself hard enough... Thank you so much for reviewing this series. I had never heard of Ursula K. Le Guin before, but after your description of her works, I had to make an emergency trip to the library. I'm loving her books, especially the Earthsea series. I can't thank you enough for making me aware of this author!

[@IntrepidFraidyCat]

Seeing someone of a different race than mine on a book cover actually increases my interest. Publishers are still overly conservative. When will you review one of those dragon-shifter romance novels? 🐲❤

[@gliscorpropagandaaccount1764]

He did review How to Date Your Dragon a while ago

[@grumpyotter]

This series had a huge impact on me when i was young. The cover of the book didn't show Ged's race--and I was SHOCKED when i found out he WASN'T WHITE. And then i just liked the character and pretty soon it seemed "normal" that he wasn't white. (This was in the 70s and I'd had a pretty sheltered childhood in white suburbia. )

[@MissCaraMint]

I mean I honestly don’t care what they look like as long as the image on the cover matches the descripition of the character in the book.

[@hyperstormx3194]

"Worse adaptation than I, Robot" No... No. That's not true! That's impossible!

[@MrAshCarr]

Search your feelings, you know it is true!

[@mementomori5580]

Well, it technically is, because "I, Robot" is not an adaptation. They simply used the title and that was it, there was nothing adapted. So technically speaking every adaptation is worse than the I, Robot adaptation as that wasn't an adaptation ^ ^

[@hyperstormx3194]

@@mementomori5580 They still took the name, had a character with the same name as one in the book, and incorporated the three laws into it, so I'd say it still counts. The credits even say it's "suggested" by the book, whatever that means.

[@MrAshCarr]

@@mementomori5580 I, Robot still had more in common with its source material then this did

[@mementomori5580]

@@MrAshCarr So, as someone who has read the book, can you tell me if the "Biography" on Wikipedia of Ged is from the Miniseries or from the book? (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ged_(Earthsea)) Because when I look at it and compare it to what I still have in memory from the miniseries, then the miniseries has hundreds of times more in common with the book(s) it's adapting than I, Robot.

[@HisameArtwork]

Now I understand why Miyazaki courted her so hard, smart boy. To bad he then gave the project to his son, the EarthSea anime was very confusing and failed to be as popular as it should have been. It had a lot of potential.

[@aceofspades9503]

Adding another shout out to read "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas". Its one of those short stories that makes you think so much about your preconceptions that it can change your life. And its short- it only takes 10 or so minutes to read.

[@grumpyotter]

I read it once, in school. I have never forgotten it.

[@nacmegfeegle2310]

The Korean group BTS did a song with Omelas as part of the meaning, watch "Spring Day" sometime. Their leader and main songwriter is a great reader.

[@dynamicworlds1]

"To make sure you have suffered like I have suffered." You know what? Turnabout _is_ fair play.

[@kellybeck4579]

If you think Le Guin is underappreciated, you should look at Octavia Butler. I dont think there is an author who is as influential and unknown at the same time.

[@lianacurry-desalas2565]

Came to comment THIS ^

[@christophershatzer2032]

I just started reading some of her work, and hard agree.

[@jcortese3300]

I'd upvote you a thousand times if I could. Butler is a deity.

[@talic-os5899]

It is so cool that there is an audio book for people who cannot appreciate the visuals of comics

[@Shinekage]

That feel when you remember loving this series. I have no idea how I have forgotten it so completely! TIME TO REREAD THE ENTIRE THING.

[@marsmagari]

the thing that annoyed me the most about this adaptation is that they changed ged's true name to sparrowhawk

[@raphaelhemery152]

Gosh was that infurriating! But there was so much wrong that I can't possibly pick just one worst thing.

[@mementomori5580]

Question: What was his true name in the book? In the german dub of the miniseries it was "Buntvogel", which translates to "Colorful bird".

[@marsmagari]

Memento Mori in the books his true name was ged and sparrowhawk was what everyone else referred to him as, whereas in the adaptation they’ve been swapped around for some reason

[@BlackIceDragonSalome]

@@mementomori5580 Ged IS his true name. Sparrowhawk his use name.

[@mementomori5580]

Thanks for the clarification :)

[@GoatAndDog]

Hands up if you actually slapped yourself in the face. ✋

[@bookbook9495]

🤚

[@doctorelfinstone1414]

🤚

[@amberwolf7093]

✋

[@justjukka]

You all get a hug from me. I'm excited that you get to experience this book for the first time. 💞

[@GoatAndDog]

Thanks Jessica 🙂

[@Hakumeiun]

Le Guin is the reason I got into: SciFi Linguistics representation (before I had any idea why representation was important. I was a little kid. I'm sorry.) Deep world and culture building My writing would be a completely different beast without her influence and never getting to meet her will always be one of life's supreme regrets. I'm glad you finally got the opportunity to fall in love with her work and I thank you for sharing what you found so other new people will be drawn to her, too

[@michivallieres8334]

The Ghibli adaptation is such a sad tale too. Le Guin was understandably very protective of her works regarding adaption but became such a huge fan of Miyazaki HAYAO’s work that she gave them permission with strict guidelines, particularly regarding POC characters. The Studio gave the project to Hayao’s son who completely ignored the guidelines again particularly POCs. It is still so heartbreaking for me because as a huge Le Guin & Ghibli fan-girl from a very young age I could not wait to see it. So very sad.

[@avispetrie3102]

Honestly when I saw the title my first thought was "I though he already covered PJO"

[@ellie9635]

I've got to say, hearing your high praise of Ursula K. Le Guin has made me ecstatic to check out some of her books. She sounds AWESOME! Edit: 2 years on I've read the first 3 earthsea books and have several more of hers on my tbr - an absolute convert

[@luthientinuviel3883]

She was. I love reading her essays at the end of her stories she sometimes included, a very intellegant and amazing woman.

[@merrittanimation7721]

She is one of the few authors that actually managed to make me look at Anarchism in a more charitable way, as she actually makes the anarcho-syndicalist characters in the Dispossessed actual characters and not idealizations. She was very good at what she did.

[@doppelrutsch9540]

In general the whole new wave of SF (the movement she was part of) can be recommended as something that seems weirdly forgotten these days. So many awesome feminist writers like Octivia Butler, James Tiptree (actually Alice Sheldon) or Joanna Russ. It feels so weird when people sometimes think that stuff like non-binary protagonists is a new and hot thing when when these gals where knee deep into it half a century ago.

[@khadijahdanielian3918]

PLEASE DO! Also check out her short stories, because not only does her narrative and care of consistent worlbuilding still shine through, but some also really display a empty of philosophy and spirituality too. The first one i ever read by her was “The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas”

[@zaighnut]

She was, we miss her everyday 😭

[@meghanhenderson6682]

Let's all take a moment to appreciate how much Dominic's cats love him.

[@righteouself9928]

Man I thought Eragon did that whole naming thing first. God those books are terribly flawed but I still enjoy them

[@user-xy4di3pd2m]

I love Eragon so much When I was in uni we did a module about intertexts (the texts we studied Northanger Abbey with gothic fiction and the Northern Lights- Philipp Pullmen said something in a interview or something that I found interesting) and there are two books I really want to study in relation to other books mainly Eragon and Inkheart

[@eldrago19]

Well, he does sort of point out that Ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology did it well before either Paolini or Le Guin. Actually, he seems to congratulate Le Guin for copying from under-appreciated works while criticising Paolini for doing the exact same thing.

[@IAmEki]

It's been a while since I read Eragon, but I feel like Paolini, while heavily inspired by Le Guin (as he himself says), takes his naming magic in a very different direction. Saying he "copied" Le Guin I think isn't very fair.

[@user-xy4di3pd2m]

@@IAmEki yeah I agree also before uni this kind of thing just confused me after uni this kind of thing annoys me a little (I honest to god saw someone accuse a author of copying/plagiarism because in their historical novel they had people communicating through fires/ smoke signals) also there are a number of articles of people who got accused of plagiarism and its kind of interesting in that car crash kind of way

[@jaojao1768]

AFAIK Le Guin was also first to have a magic school

[@chipmunkwarcry]

I have only read her children’s books and her short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” So I’m off on a technicality!

[@stargirl7646]

Same!

[@Tessa_Gr]

I only know of "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" because it was referenced in the Music Video "Spring Day". I wanted to read it for a long time already so I should definitely get around to it now.

[@KushinLos]

I've read Omelas and The Dispossessed and at least one of the Earthsea books. Her works great

[@jacindaellison3363]

I read the latter in my English 101 class. Granted, it was only five pages long, but it's cool!

[@johnfairhurstReviews]

Read the first three Earthsea books in my teens or very early twenties and the Ekumen/Hainish books - not really a series but a common history, after Earthsea, then some other more general short stories in 'The Wind's Twelve Quarters' and I'm still looking for ones I haven't read

[@taonas91]

My opinion on Le Guin has always been that if Tolkien can be considered the father of the fantasy genre, then Le Guin is its mother. Taking the ground work laid out by Tolkien and building upon it, reinventing it, creating something of similar yet wholly unique grandeur.

[@tiaaaron3278]

It's sad that she's not half as iconic as Tolkien.

[@JediLadyMisty]

I slapped myself and then remembered that I read one of her Earthsea books back in either the mid-lats ‘00s or the early 2010s.

[@sarivata]

I love Ursuka K. Le Guin's work. The Left Hand of Darkness was life changing for me and the Wizard of Earthsea was the first fantasy novel I ever read. This adaptation angered me beyond measure.

[@razorflossrazor2937]

Ok I need to read this series for the poc characters alone. It's such a pain in the ass to find stories about people looking like me.

[@thrumugnyr]

A lot of her books have poc protagonists. Left Hand of Darkness is basically entirely poc. lol

[@Painocus]

@@thrumugnyr: So is Earthsea mostly tbh. Iirc the first book had only 1 white character (who was only in like one or two scenes), the third book had zero and the fourth book had one (tho she is the main character).

[@WasLilChrisnowbigish]

But there are plenty of stories were the protagonist race is never mentioned. Its a book at the end of the day character look like how you imagine them in your own mind.

[@DrowSkinned]

Okay I've heard the title of this book my whole life but never read it. I'm going to pause your video, only a couple of minutes in. Then I'll go find this book on audible or something then come back and watch the rest of your video 👍🏾

[@efoxkitsune9493]

He actually doesn't talk about any spoilers here, don't worry, just basic information about the books and their author and about the films' production. The spoilers will come in the next video :)

[@sharkofjoy]

YAY!

[@justjukka]

The narration they have on audible is lovely. Rob Inglis is one of my favorites.

[@annbsirius1703]

Actually I slapped myself several times because I actually read a few of Leguin's books I got from the library as a kid and really liked them. I meant to read more of her work and never did! Our library only had the few I read, and I probably got sidetracked by something else and just never got around to it. Shame on me!

[@mattiethemongoose3rd]

Watching Studio Ghiblis adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle was honestly one of the most traumatic film watching experiences of my life. Kind of interested to see what you made of it, because no one I knew was enough of a fan of hers to go and watch it. My daughter enjoyed it, but she was quite young and hadn't read it about 30-40 times.

[@Dachusblot]

The first thing I read by Le Guin was her short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas," and I immediately decided I needed to read everything she ever wrote. Now I make my students read that short story every year.

[@Arkegox]

I had to read that for a class but the professor did such a poor job talking about it that it put me off. I should really give that another shot.

[@sonofccn]

@@Arkegox That's the one where a city's entire prosperity and luxury is dependent on torturing a small child, right? Always found that kind of depressing.

[@shannonwhitaker5]

Ok but is no one going to mention that song thingy at the end?? Hilarious!

[@Bookdragon11]

I did, it was great! 👌😆

[@grumpyotter]

My brother was a huge sci-fi fan so I got introduced to many classic books at a young age. He gave me the first book in this trilogy to read when I was about 9 and the demon coming out of the netherworld to attack Ged gave me nightmares and I didn't continue with the series for years. And then I read, "The Tombs of Atuan" and this became one of my favorite books of all time. I have read it so many times I can't even count. The descriptions of how Tenar begins to explore and understand her dark domain I find endlessly fascinating. And her relationship with Ged is one of the most lovely in all of fiction. When the miniseries came out I sat down to watch it with a big bowl of popcorn, SO EXCITED. I watched for about 20 minutes and turned it off. Ms. LeGuin was so correct; they had NO CLUE what it was about. Heavy sigh. It reminded me of my disappointment when "Prince Caspian" the movie came out. That's my favorite book of the Narnia series and they butchered it so badly. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was a pretty good adaptation--at least they tried to capture the spirit of the book. Prince Caspian was a slander of the novel into a standard Hollywood action-schlock piece. Ugh.

[@allisonf3508]

I remember hearing how good the earthsea books were, then seeing that miniseries and thinking, “nope, those books must be really overrated.”

[@lemmythetrash-goblin8291]

If I had to describe Earthsea with one word... It would be gray. Gray,eternally stretching great sea. Gray waves pulling and pushing the little boat that Ged travels in his journeys. The feeling of the books is gray to me: always bit melancholic, but also serene and beautiful. Mundane, even. Gray as far as eye can see.

[@Cheesusful]

I hear earthsea, I sea a powerful man in a little boat on an enormous grey expanse of water, maybe some spray being thrown up by the water hitting some rocks

[@lemmythetrash-goblin8291]

@@Cheesusful He's deep in thought, buried in mix of memories and regrets, but still determined to cross walloving sea. While sea may not be in peace, he is.

[@Cheesusful]

@@lemmythetrash-goblin8291 YES! He looks small against the enormous ocean but you can feel the strength inside of him

[@br1ghtl1ght]

the left hand of darkness was my introduction to le guin's writing: i picked it up at the library, sat down in the living room to read the first few chapters, and didn't eat, move, or come up for air until i finished it,,,, just after midnight and i haven't stopped thinking about it since!

[@juanmarailgun7783]

Me before this video: "eeeh I don't think it can be THAT bad" *The adaptation of Earthsea on the Scifi channel* okay, it can be bad, and is...

[@Minam0]

My introduction to her was reading the Catwings books as a child. Definitely recommend it to cat lovers. They’re incredibly sweet and beautifully illustrated.

[@annamidkiff2460]

I have a catwings tattoo haha

[@KhaiJbach]

Always loved the Earthsea books... Read them at school in the early 80s....

[@Shadowman4710]

God, this thing was terrible. It's like who "adapted" it had never actually read the books....ANY of them.

[@TheOnceandFutureGeek]

I'm so glad you made this. Le Guin is my ABSOLUTE favorite scifi author ever, and she's criminally underappreciated. I have a postcard from her that I received after I sent her a letter about how much her work means to me, and it's one of my favorite treasures. Hopefully some day her work will get adapted in a way that's actually good and true to the spirit of her stories.

[@hieronymus1432]

god, i love ursula k le guin with my whole heart. i found a few of her books at a thrift store a few years ago and was smitten. i didn't know until just now that a wizard of earthsea had been adapted into a film, much less a horrible one. i do hope it prompted more folks to read her stuff rather than to write her off.

[@jessicahohmann6514]

I'm so excited for the next episode. My husband has watched the miniseries no less than 3 times with me present and I audibly groan each time. Can't wait to shove the Lost in Adaptation episode into his face. On a more positive note, we need more Sir Terry on camera.

[@Meskarune]

PSA: Read "The Lathe of Heaven" . I have never gotten it out of my mind and I've been mind fucked ever since.

[@sylvarneithsat8196]

Dominic, please know that your cheerful rants are a good part of how I am surviving this very sub-par year. Thank you for sharing with us, and please take care of yourself!

[@Syurtpiutha]

"Easier to get through"... That is my major issue with LotR. At the end of the day, I don't enjoy the act of reading them. Heresy, I know. I respect everything it does, I just don't enjoy reading them. Just not my style of writing, I guess. I will place Earthsea on my list of things to read. Every time the name pops up, my brain goes to the Earthseed books by Octavia E. Butler (another criminally underrated scifi author). I really enjoyed Left Hand of Darkness.

[@aceofspades9503]

I'm with you. The LotR books are classic and are beautifully written. But they are also a bit of a slog to get through- detailed to the inth degree with much more emphasis on immersing into a world than in moving the story along. I prefer the audio books.

[@tiaaaron3278]

LotR is a dense story and Tolkien placed a lot of 'rambling' in them.

[@jaojao1768]

Interesting, I have only read LotR in swedish translations and the first translation was known to be more "flowery" and "purple" than the original

[@thegloriouswizard5270]

So glad that I'm not the only one who feels like that.

[@Di7manya]

I feel the same way about LotR. It took a lot of effort to finish the first one and I quit The Two Towers half way through the first part. Haven't gone back to them since. The almost psychotic level of details and descriptions, really put me off. I also feel the movies didn't help since they are more focused and have more action, making them more entertaining to me.

[@victoriajankowski1197]

No shame in saying "LOTR" is hard to get through, it is, I think the dictionary was an easier read for me! The story is epic yes, but how many chapters describing the tree tops over the elves homeland to you really need?

[@kamikazelemming1552]

I know that I could have done without Tom Bobadil and those final chapters about Saruman taking over Hobbiton and renaming himself Sharky.

[@darthekul1]

I haven't read anything but hobbit , it's totally okay to shame me lol, my roomate has all the books , but my point is if heard them and Lindsey Ellis and other youtubers say that it was good tom bombastic was cut out of he movies

[@starbird3939]

I agree. That is one of the reasons I liked the movies so much. I think it better conveyed the environmenf Tolkien deacribed without having to slog through several pages of descriptions.

[@khadijahdanielian3918]

And that’s not even counting reading The Silmarillian, which while brilliant is a CHORE to get through on the first (and even second) read

[@BM-jy2gh]

I found it difficult as well! It took me about three attempts to get through the final book. Finally finished it during lockdown, but I'm not reading it again any time soon!

[@juliannaohnjec9208]

I’m so glad you did a video about Ursula K. Le Guin - genuinely one of my favorite authors, though I didnt find her till later in life. Started with her Earthsea books, then moved on to The Dispossessed and her other scifi and was totally hooked. Hope more people decide to pick up her books after watching this video!

[@MysteriousC]

"Howl's Moving Castle Patreon exclusive" -- okay, you got me.

[@Rvr221]

Omg I LOVE Earthsea! I’m so happy you’re covering it!

[@grenien4109]

same

[@perturbo4253]

Oh no, I really wanted to see your howl's moving castle video ;-;. I read that book as a kid and spent ages talking about how it differed from the movie

[@artleitch]

Really enjoying the videos you've been doing lately: the multi-video series, more books that you are personally passionate about. Really great stuff!

[@Lostmindy]

I've not watched yet but I want to express from the first few seconds my undying love for the wonderful soul that made you add english subtitles to this video from the get go XD As a hearing impaired person AND someone who don't understand spoken english fluently, this makes me even more happy than seeing a new video from you on my feed. Okay, back to watching!

[@Xblackjckqueen]

i haven’t read a book in years... i think it’s time to become my 15 year old self again

[@MrBonehead332]

4:48 Just when you started talking about the true Name Magic I thought to myself „Huh.. that sounds a lot like the ex-machina of the Inheritance Cycle..“ shame on me for believing it was an Original thought🤦🏻‍♂️

[@blackbot7113]

My first thought was "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss, though in that series even the most talented wizards (or their equivalent) know true names. And even those only one or AT MOST two.

[@kerrychristensen7204]

I just thought of it as being taken from fairy folklore

[@TotallyNotRedneckYall]

"Genre fiction, as Terry Pratchett has pointed out, is a stew. You take stuff out of the pot, you put stuff back. The stew bubbles on." -Neil Gaiman

[@blackbot7113]

@@kerrychristensen7204 I think there it's more "true name of a person gives you power over that person" (or fairy, or demon...) The idea of applying that true name to THINGS isn't used there, as far as I know. Though maybe there's stuff like "I'm a wind spirit, so if you know my name you control the wind" - but not *directly* "You know the name of the wind itself, so you can control it".

[@kerrychristensen7204]

@@blackbot7113 Huh! Okay 👍

[@unfabgirl]

Thank you for covering this. You have no idea how happy I am that you discussed this. I found Le Guin right around the time I started university after watching the Jane Austen Book Club for the millionth time and watching Tales from Earthsea via a friend. The two movies made me want to check her out and I have never regretted it. I tried to watch the Sci-Fi channel version. I made it about ten minutes. It was such a ruination of her work.

[@Kitty-the-Bunny]

I seriously need to read more Ursula K. Le Guin. I just realized watching this that while she existed in my head in the category of authors I really like, I'd actually only ever read the Catwings series when I was a kid (which I did love) and never ended up getting to any of her longer work. I've gotta remedy this as soon as possible

[@ThisIsCreation-FollowOnTwitter]

It's always an amazing day when Dom uploads!

[@sugarfloss4468]

Super excited for a new episode! 💕

[@morganhayes108]

So glad you found your way to Le Guin! She is likely my favorite author and inspires me every time I pick up one of her works. A true luminary of our times. The poem at the beginning of Earthsea is the only phrase I have ever considered getting tattooed on my skin. I had a similar self-slapping moment when I finally read Earthsea last year, can't believe I didn't get to it until adulthood. To think what joys I would have had listening to her as a kid. Oh well, may we revel in her genius now!

[@karennelson4499]

I'm so happy oh, that you had the chance to read her work! Thank you for such an awesome video, I have my daughter love watching your Channel.

[@MissElemmire]

Confession : I actually have a soft spot for that movie. It introduced me to Ursula Le Guin's books, and even so the adaptation is awful, I can't really hate it. This may change, however, as what this video just revealed settles in my brain...

[@corruptangel6793]

"Worst adaptation ever" bold words my good sir.

[@carriagereturn2602]

oh wow!!! I've had a copy of the four Earthsea books lying around and JUST started them, and I've been kicking myself for not reading them sooner. I came to KZbin wondering if you'd done a video and ... well, here you are, today!

[@oskarihonkasaari3215]

Le Guin's short story "Those who walk away from Omelas", is the most personally influential story I have ever read, including novels.

[@nacmegfeegle2310]

The Korean group BTS did a song with Omelas as part of the meaning, watch the MV for their "Spring Day" sometime. Their leader and main songwriter is a great reader.

[@rook8808]

I'm so glad to see more people talking about the Earthsea books, when recommending it to people I honestly say "Its like LoTR...but better and written by a woman" and I stick by that tbh! I started reading the books from my mums old beat up paperback copy of the first 3 and I loved them all from the first pages- Ged, Arren, Tenar, all of the characters are a joy to read about, and the books honestly have some of the best worldbuilding I've ever seen! Earthsea feels so rich and lived in, I love the islands and towns mentioned but never seen by the characters, just being able to image all the countless places out there is great. Every copy of the book also comes with a map of the archipelago in the front and its so accurately done that you can chart the travel of the books across it perfectly. Its also more than just having POC as the main characters, almost every single character save for those in the second book/Tenar are POC, every town, school and boat are POC, and the main white people we're introduced to in the first book are savage, war mongering primitive people, which I think really flips most fantasy novels on their heads, especially as its often a genre plagued by racism... The fourth book is more of a feminist imagining of her world, Le Guin wrote an essay talking about how despite being a feminist, she still made the majority of her main protagonists men and how this was something to consider for her, and the first book now feels quite dated with its casual sexism. So Le Guin basically wanted to make the fourth book Tehanu a more updated and feminist look on her world, showing a grown up Tenar from the second book. This book to me is easily one of the more powerful ones of the series, and one of the only ones to make me cry. All the fantastical threats are stripped back to incredibly painful real world struggles, such as child abuse, sexual abuse and violent sexism. Its a harder read than the other books in some ways because its harder to feel detached from the stakes here. When Ged's fighting dragons or wizards in the afterlife it still makes for a good read but doesn't feel like something the reader has to be afraid of, but Tehanu makes you uncomfortably close to the real world dangers, like a woman and child running from the child's abuser, or a gang targeting a woman living on her own. Its a very different tone from the other books and quite a few people initially complained about the tonal shift away from more "comfortable" fantasy. This comment has gotten really long now but yeah, everyone should read the Earthsea books at least once!!

[@sadiemcc9363]

That song at the end...just...*chef's kiss*

[@Rannans]

I was waiting for you to do this one, Thankyou

[@MsTokyoBlue]

I am so happy you've discovered Ursula! As much as I love Earthsea and The Dispossessed my favorite of hers is still The Lathe Of Heaven, which received a surprisingly good TV movie adaptation, which apparently received a remake which I haven't seen yet.