The Writings of Ursula Le Guin

(makeanewworld)

11:43PM - Left Hand of Darkness Wallpapers

 Hey, I'm new to this comm. :)

I admit I haven't read a lot of Le Guin's works (yet, that is - I'm planning on rectifying that soon...) However, The Left Hand of Darkness is one of my all-time favourite novels, while the journey across the ice towards the end of the book is my favourite section of any book, ever. I'm glad I've found a community where a lot of you agree!

I thought some of you might be interested that I made two graphic-y, wallpapery  type things, using a couple of quotes from LHoD (and by "made", I mean "added text to photos", so it didn't take much talent on my part...)

Anyway here are the links to the "wallpapers":

http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc282/waverleysteps/lefthand_joy.jpg
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc282/waverleysteps/lefthand_journeys_end.jpg

I lay no claim to the pictures -  all I did was add text to them. The lovely photos themselves are from this site: http://www.duluthstreams.org/understanding/iceVolcanoes.html

(As it's an educational site, and the photos are used as examples, I figured it was ok to use them without permission.) Apologies for the quality level. I made them using MS Paint :D

(gethenian)

5:25AM - Hello there, pretty community. Wake up!

Hi! I'm Ven. Let's be friends. Good? Good.

As multitudes of miniscule clues might give away, I'm a huge fan of The Left Hand of Darkness. I decided not too long ago that it'd be fun to make a playlist of songs for the book. Well... this is actually proving incredibly difficult, because the themes and means of expressing them are not so much with the popular. Booo!

But! I have made some posts, detailing a few of the songs in question and why I chose them:

Here
and
Here
with a brief delving into one song here.

I can be very detailed about things. Despite that, some of my choices are not all that well explained. Bear with me. I overwhelm myself sometimes.

I need more songs. I'd love to get some stuff for the Handdarata. I'd REALLY love to ultimately have a song for every major character in the book (and a lot of the minor ones). Songs for theme, for specific scenes, for HYPOTHETICAL scenes, for backstories and all those gorgeous little detaily chapters and oh yes, yes I would LOVE to have a song or two for Sov and Argaven in the two short stories.

Why?

Because I obsess. I roleplay Therem (from a little before the end of the book) and Sorve from a year or so after the end of the book, both in this panfandom game you can toss anyone into. Lots of fun and all but... they're hard to play and I love music.

And does anyone else who read the book think Ashe is a bit of a "last week's soap opera chick" and wonder how in the world anyone like Therem ended up with him? Having TWO KIDS with him? And by the way, if Ashe is off being a Celibate, where are the kids? Clearly not too far from Ashe, as he knows so well how they are...

See, I get hung up on details.

REC ME SOME MUSICS, MY PRETTIES.

Oh yes, and before I go, have a draft sketch of Therem and Genly at the very end.

(szellem)

10:33AM - UKL on Wikipedia

Here's the film adaption section. Currently a short sentence at the bottom of it states, "One of Le Guin's best-known novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, is being developed by Zoetrope production as a feature film to be released in 2008."

... o.x

Someone tell me that's either a joke or that she's directly involved in the scriptwriting and casting.

I'm not able to figure out what this Zoetrope is, and of course LeGuin's website seems to have no mention of it since she doesn't usually have much to say about these things until after the release. Unless I'm missing something obvious, which I've been known to do..


Earthsea's already been dragged through the muck. If they mess up Gethen, heads will roll.

Current mood: worried

(ade_of_roke)

2:23AM - Where My Love is Going

Hi all, i continue to be inspired by Earthsea, and one of my favourite stories in the Tales is 'Darkrose and Diamond'....i've been meaning to put it to some music for awhile now, and think i'm quite happy with it.....I've used the words she suggests ,tho not the notes, and it would have been nice to have had a female voice in the second repeat.....hope u like tho:

http://www.myspace.com/embertime

Current mood: sleepy

Current music: The Whitest Boy Alive - burning

(ade_of_roke)

12:06AM - Lookfar upon the Quest

Hi guys.....can't wait for the movie, no matter what interpretation.....
Interested in maybe reading the new sequence she's writing, and hearing your opinions....

Meanwhile, just finished a small illustration inspired by guess what!

(luxvesperis)

9:40PM - Le Guin's reaction to the Ghibli Movie

For those interested, Le Guin has posted Gedo Senki, a First Response on her website. It's a good read. I have to say it is such a treat to read her reaction to the film after having seen it. The movie is quite different from the books in many ways. What she told Goro Miyazaki, the director, was "It is not my book. It is your movie. It is a good movie." And I really think that sums it up. Her response does contain spoilers.

(zarfmouse)

11:33PM - Voices and Japanese DVDs

Le Guin has a new book out. It is a sequel the incredible book Gifts and it is called Voices. I'm going out to buy this book tomorrow and I'll review it as soon as I've read it. I am so ecstatic to have another book in this world to read!

A friend of mine suggests http://www.cdjapan.co.jp as a good legal (non-bootleg) site to get Japanese import DVDs. Gedo Senki isn't out on DVD yet although the soundtrack is. When it does come out on DVD you will be able to get it from there but you'll need a hacked multi-region DVD player or some illegal in the US but widely available software to view it.

Current mood: ecstatic

(tuuli_chan)

8:21PM

*wave* Hello! I just joined this community, happy to find Le Guin fans on livejournal. ^^ I read some of her books ten or so years ago, loved them, but then somehow forgot about them, and now found them again. And realized that I still love them... ^.^

...a little piece of info for those who're interested about the Gedo Senki movie: I just read about LeGuin's thoughts about it here, and she says there that the film will not be released in US (and most likely not in Europe either, then) before 2009. :/

Anyways. Nice to meet you all.

(ade_of_roke)

1:17AM - re: the farthest shore

i made a small flash animation (personal project) not long ago, inspired by the 3rd Earthsea book and thought it might make a good introductory post to this related forum .....

It's not Ghibli or anything, and i've yet to add another dragon and some backing music.....but it was fun to make....Here's the link:


http://www.btinternet.com/~buckleburyweb/ade/port_farthest.htm

(angela_la_la)

1:14PM

Recent article on Ursula LeGuin's house.

(luxvesperis)

9:49PM - Ghibli Film: Tales from Earthsea, Second Trailer

The second trailer is up.

It looks different and yet good. There is Lookfar and there is more "sea" in this one. You can kinda piece together what the story will be. And I love the song. And the dragon! And film is finished, according to the production blog. Now, just to wait. That's all I'll say for now.

(angela_la_la)

10:44PM

I thought some of you might be interested in Pam Noles's excellent essay about race in science fiction, inspired by the Earthsea miniseries and Ursula LeGuin's response to it.

(luxvesperis)

6:54AM - Gedo Senki Synopsis on Le Guin's site

Just a heads up that she has posted a translation of the synposis Studio Ghibli sent her.

(luxvesperis)

6:59PM - The first trailer for "Tales from Earthsea" and article: "Waiting for the Other Wind"

The official Studio Ghibli Website has uploaded the first trailer for the movie "Gedo Senki" (Tales from Earthsea).

I'll give you the link, but before you click, please read what I have to say about it: It's nothing like the Earthsea I imagine in my mind. Nothing. I find so many things wrong with it. The way the characters were drawn, the way the story looks like it will go, all of it. It is not Le Guin's Earthsea. It's just not. And it's not mine either.

But, it looks beautiful. I think it's something else entirely. Not bad, I can't say that yet, just different. It's a different interpretation of Earthsea.

Unlike Narnia and Middle-Earth, there are no representative pictures of Earthsea. No illustrations came with the books except for simple wooden carvings, maps by Le Guin, and cover art that was deemed incorrect by the author. There is no concensus on what Earthsea looks like, so no movie could possibly satisfy fans. We have all drawn our own Earthsea.

So here is the link to the trailer and ( my rough translation of the Japanese ) Also keep in mind, trailers are rarely ever like the movie.

Also, here is an article written by the woman who translated Earthsea into Japanese. I find her very insightful and I put my faith into her words. "Waiting for the Other Wind." Le Guin hasn't put up anything on her site about it other than the link to nausicaa.net's page.

(hera18)

10:22PM

Has anyone in here read "The Dispossessed?" (I'm sure some of you have)

I'm working on a quiz for a class that I'm student teaching for and I want to test out some of the questions that I have (and see if they can be answered) and I was hoping you all would be willing to help.

I can bake cookies, run errands, or give you a free kitten.

:)

Just comment
ot you can IM me - it's in my profile.

(andymatchbox)

11:02AM - What next?

I'm finally close to finishing a mountain of a book, that while good (Don DeLillo's Underworld for those who know it!), means I want to try and wind down with some Ursula Le Guin afterwards...

My question is this....

What's a good Le Guin book to read after recently finishing the Earthsea series (including The Other Wind), Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed?

(purple_angel01)

7:49AM - Gedo Senki

Just quickly- a small trailer-type thing (havn't watched it myself yet, so busy!) for Gedo Senki is now available!

Go to http://www.ghibliworld.com/news.html to see it.

Also, updates to the voice cast have been made, see http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=6147. More speculation about the plot should now be possible ^_^.

Enjoy!

(purple_angel01)

5:27PM - Earthsea anime update

For anyone following Ghibli's anime adaptation of Earthsea (Gedo Senki):

Ghibli has announced some of the Japanese voice cast- Bunta Sugawara (Kamaji in Spirited Away) as Ged, and Junichi Okada as Prince Arren.

Source: www.animenewsnetwork.com; http://www.ghibliworld.com/

On another note, I hope we see some work from it soon...it should be really pretty ^_^

(windrunner1981)

11:42AM - How does The Farthest Shore end?

I was re-reading The Farthest Shore the other day when I noticed a tiny detail about the ending that really impacted me.

( Spoilers )

Cross-posted to atuan.

Current mood: curious

Current music: NPR

(the_reader)

9:13PM - UKLG interviewed on Guardian Unlimited

Though fantasy is often miscast as escapist, for Le Guin, it is the natural language of the "spiritual journey and the struggles of good and evil in the soul".

Current mood: mellow