this series, I’ll be working my way through Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea works and analyzing her prose chapter by chapter. Spoilers follow.
Chapter 9: Finding Words
Length: 18 pages, 93 paragraphs
Setting: Re Albi and Gont Port
Characters introduced: Technically Arren though we won’t be sure it’s him until the next chapter
Lord Benderesk and Serret were scheming and cruel. Kossil was power hungry and brutish. Cob was greed personified. For my money, though, Earthsea has no finer villains than Aspen and Handy.
Aspen and Handy might as well be the same person. For all their differences, they boil down to men using whatever power is available to them to harm people and whose greatest displeasure is to be denied the privilege of doing that harm.
I find Aspen’s curse on Tenar to be one of the most chilling, effective bits of magic in fiction simply because Le Guin never allows us to get comfortable in it. We’re never allowed to see the line between Tenar’s fear and worry and the effects of the magic.
Until next time.
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