In 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 2: Ivory
Length: 15 pages
Setting: Way and Roke
Can I tell you how much I despise Ivory? Maybe he gets better, but I find him utterly contemptible. I’m supposed to, of course. He’s a conman and a would-be rapist, and it is loathsome to see the story through his eyes.
Admittedly, I am a little fatigued with Le Guin’s impeccably written bastards. Aspen, Gelluk, Early, Golden, Hemlock, Sunbright, Berry, now Dragonfly’s father, Birch, and Ivory. They’re not all the same, not all equally contemptible, but I miss Ogion.
This is not a flaw. I would not necessarily be so fatigued if I weren’t stampeding through Earthsea this year. Certainly, Le Guin doesn’t owe us an Ogion for every Aspen.
Nevertheless, I get tired of them.
I do think Le Guin is doing something clever here. She’s criticized the modern Roke for its insistence on celibacy. Wizards very obviously do not get their power from being chaste.
But Ivory is a perfect example of why the wise might argue that celibacy is so important. Ivory is not even a fully trained wizard, but he would have casually used his knowledge to rape Dragonfly.
Well, I hope he gets everything he deserves.
Until next time.
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