Le Guin, “Introduction,” The Books of Earthsea “The notion that fantasy is only for the immature rises from an obstinate misunderstanding of both maturity and the imagination.” Ursual K. Le Guin goes on to talk about why the books could no longer be categorized as “for children” or “young adult” as the series progressed, and I yelled, “YES!” in my living room when I read the following quote: By including women fully in my story, I gained a larger understanding of what heroism is and found a true and longed-for way back into my Earthsea…” Ursual K. “…not to change viewpoint would, for me, have been the betrayal. “Why was I, a woman, writing almost entirely about what old men did?” She goes on to explain why that was happening and how she turned that around.Īnd then, of course, critics called the change of viewpoint “gender politics” and claimed it was a “betrayal of the romantic tradition of heroism.” (Bleh.) Over the span of those 18 years, feminism had “grown and flourished.” And during those 18 years, Le Guin had a sense that there was something missing from her writing that was “paralyz storytelling ability.” She realized at some point that it was the absence of women at the center of her stories. It took Le Guin 18 years to come back to the fourth book and finish it. She had no idea where the story was going or why the main character was doing what she was doing. She wrote the first three over the span of six years, and “confidently” started writing the fourth…and couldn’t do it.

In the Introduction, she explains why it took her so long to write all six books of the Earthsea series. I read AWoE as part of The Books of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition, which includes an Introduction by Le Guin that put a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes.

Le guin a wizard of earthsea